Charred Corn and Cheese Empanadas
I try to pretty equally weight my Meatwave menus now with meat and non-meat options, often trying to come up with vegetarian counterparts along the same lines as the animal-based offerings. So when I made smoked beef empanadas, I went searching for the right match up that would bring in similiar grilled or smoked elements and landed on these charred corn and cheese empanadas.
A large influence that led me to these empanadas was Argentinian cuisine, and because of that I did some research on how they put together an empanada dough...at least by what I could learn from the internet. My past empanada recipes on this site have all used a pastry-type of dough, but while Argentinian recipes brought together a pretty much identical set of ingredients, the method definitely differs. First, instead of cutting the butter into the flour, the butter is actually melted in water heated on the stovetop.
Once fully melted, that mixture is added to the flour and salt and worked until a dough forms. For the pastry-style dough, I usually stop the process right when the dough comes together and then chill, but for these empanadas I turned the dough out onto a floured cutting board and kneaded until it began smooth. This develops more gluten that allows the dough to be rolled out even thinner, and in the end that made this dough easier to work with for assembly, as well able to produce more empanadas.
Once the dough was done, I divided it in half, wrapped each ball in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge. The resting period can be anywhere from an hour to two days, so that afforded ample time for filling production. I really wanted to get the flavor of the grill into these empanadas, so I utilized three different ingredients to do so. The first of those was corn, which I grilled over direct heat and really let those kernels char since I was after that fire kissed stamp. I thought I had picked up way too many ears when I grilled up six of them, but in the end, I needed all of the kernels I cut off.
Next up was red bell pepper, which would further amp up the sweetness in the end. I considered going with my standard char and peel method, but that would actually remove a lot of the grilled elements I wanted, so instead cut the peppers into chunks large enough not to fall through the grates and grilled those until they were softened and had spotty charring all over.
Finally came the onion, which I cut into half-inch slices and skewered—this preparation makes working with onion on the grill a cinch. Like with the corn and peppers, I let the onions develop a good amount of char, and by the time that happened, they were also nice and soft throughout. After all three of these ingredients were done and cooled down, I finely chopped the peppers and onions and cut the kernels from the cobs to get each ready to be part of an empanada filling.
The use of cheese was also a bit of nod to Argentina because not only did I have the best cheese empanadas ever at a restaurant in Buenos Aires, but they really love their cheese down there. I had trouble deciding if I should just grate the cheese and use it as-is, or put together a cheese sauce akin to what I would make for macaroni and cheese. I went with the later idea and added mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan to a béchamel before adding in the corn, peppers, and onions along with scallions and a bit of cayenne pepper too.
My sauce was so thick at this point that I added some extra milk to thin it out, but I hadn't accounted for moisture that would come from the vegetables too, and after letting the sauce cool in the fridge for a bit, it was actually thinner than when I put it in, so much so that it wouldn't work as a filling. I fixed this by putting it back on the stove and added a cornstarch slurry to thicken it back up, but adjusted my liquid quantities in the final recipe so this shouldn't happen to you.
After completely cooling, the filling seemed like it was at a pretty perfect consistency, so I moved forth with the empanada assembly. After rolling out the dough to about an eighth of an inch thick, I cut circles using my largest biscuit cutter, which is a little over three-inches in diameter. This was smaller than my desired width, so I rolled all the rounds a little larger before placing a heaping tablespoon of filling on each. I then sealed them shut with a firm press, and where I would normally crimp them with a fork or by hand, I instead formed them into a tortellini-style shape. I did this purely so you would be able to tell which empanadas were the vegetarian ones when served next to the more traditionally shaped meat ones, but this shape was actually easier and faster to do, so I may just adopt it more often.
I made these weeks before I was going to serve them, so I froze all the assembled empanadas on a sheet pan before placing them in bag, but they could have been baked right away too. Before baking, I brushed each with a beaten egg, which is what creates the glossy, browned exterior in the end product.
As with other cheese empanadas I've made before, I suffered a lot of blow outs here, but it wasn't every single one, and most that did have filling escape were not completely empty. However, before doing a second baking, I read that creating a slit at top for steam to escape can help, so I gave that a try and it worked like a charm for me.
These babies were incredibly hot after coming out of the oven, so a rest period is critical to avoid a burnt tongue, but once cooled, I was able to thoroughly enjoy the rich and hearty filling which delivered the sweetness and the grilled touch I was hoping for. The three cheese blend provided a good flavor boost too, but wasn't so overpowering that it drowned out the grilled components that were meant to take center stage. Normally I would serve these with a chimichurri, but I also used this as an excuse to try out the "red" version of this Argentinian sauce, which is basically just a standard chimichurri with some roasted red bell pepper and paprika thrown in as well. All-in-all, these empanadas really held there own up against those smoked beef ones that I thought would be hard to beat.
