Baked Pastelillos/ Empanadas/ Meat Turnovers- Ep. 12

As a kid my mom and aunts would take my siblings, cousins, and I to our local park, where us kids would enjoy playing in the playground and our mothers would meet with their friends enjoying the summer days. Every time we'd go to the park, we'd always stop by the food trucks. They had a large variety of "frituras" (fried snacks) also known as "antojitos" (cravings). My mom would get us Alcapurrias (fried fritter made of plantains, yuca, potatoes and pieces of pork meat), relleno de papa (fried mashed potato formed into a ball with ground beef in the center), Pincho's (pork skewer) and of course Pastelillos (meat turnover). We'd either sit on the grass enjoying the summer breeze and enjoy them or eat them in the car if we couldn't wait to get home and eat them. Growing up my mom and and older sister would fill the discs with "picadillo" (ground beef seasoned Puerto Rican style), they also would just place a slice of american cheese on the disc, and fry it. It really made for a great snack. In my culture (Puerto Rican) we tend to fry a lot of our food which is so delicious, however, a bit unhealthy. Which brings me to why I decided to find a healthier alternative for one of my favorite frituras. I filled my discs with some picadillo (I used a ground sirloin) and formed the turnovers. I then brushed a bit of extra virgin olive oil  on the tops of the turnovers to achieve the crispy texture a typical pastelillos has and put them in my oven. Half way throught the baking time I then tuned them over and brushed a bit more olive oil on the bottoms and continued to let them bake. I have to say, they came out delicious! The crunch factor that I was looking for was there without the extra calories. Pastelillos make a great snack, and also go great along side with some arroz con gandules (Puerto Rican yellow rice with pigeon peas) and with arroz blanc (white rice) and habichuela or gandules guisada (stewed beans or pigeon peas) accompanied by a simple salad (pic below). I hope you enjoy this childhood favorite of mine! Enjoy!

Pastelillos

Ingredients:

Carne Molida- Puerto Rican style ground sirloin Discs
Extra virgin olive oil- for brushing

Instructions-

1. Fill the center of the disc with the ground beef about 2 -2 1/2 tsp.
2. Fold disc in half.
3. Using a fork press down on the edges to insure the turnover doesn't open.
4. Lightly brush olive oil on the top of the turnovers.
5. Bake for 10 minutes at 400F degrees.
6. Take out the turnovers and flip them over -bottom side up and lightly brush with olive oil.
7. Bake for another 10 mins.

Enjoy!