I hope you're all doing great 😁❤️

Has it happened to you that you make too much dough for an empanada? It's happened to me this time, but you know what? I used it all anyway 🙈

I made this empanada with homemade bread dough and cooked fresh tuna before stewing it to make it taste like the preserved tuna that is customarily used to prepare the filling; I also roasted a red bell pepper to give the empanada some of the traditional flavor.

It was my husband's birthday, and this was what he wanted to eat. The original idea was a Galician empanada, but I had a lot of bread dough, so... I'll show you my recipe for that dough some other day 🙃

A big plus of preparing this empanada this way is that I use fresh tuna. Usually, the stew for this empanada is prepared with preserved tuna, either the one we buy in jars or in cans--which is expensive. I use the pressure cooker to cook the tuna so that it turns out like canned tuna, but since I use it the same day, I don't have to use all that oil to preserve it. Then, this method is actually budget-friendly.

INGREDIENTS

For the dough:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon granulated yeast
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt

For the filling:

• 700 gr fresh boneless, skinless tuna loin
• 1 medium size red bell pepper
• 2 cups julienned onion
• 1 cup julienned gren/yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 cup thick fried tomato sauce:
  . 1 cup fresh tomato, fried
  . 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  . 1 tablespoon freshly crushed garlic
  . 1/2 cup white wine
• 4 tablespoon freshly crushed garlic
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Be sure to have enough olive oil to cook the tuna in the pressure cooker, to fry the tomatoes, and to sautee the vegetables of the stew.

Let's make this empanada!

You'll see that it takes some work, but in my case, and as we can't eat much wheat bread, we eat a couple of portions and then it goes in the fridge. It'll be perfect for a quick meal in a couple of days, or to offer to our guests. The good thing about baked goods is that they last a long time if we store them well. This empanada can last up to a week in the fridge in a airtight container, even though the filling stew has tomato, and it can also be frozen for weeks.

THE DOUGH

1- I made a preferment by mixing well all the water, part of the dough (1 cup approx), the sugar, and the yeast.

2- After half an hour, I saw the big bubbles on the surface. It was time to make the dough.

3- I added the rest of the ingredients and mixed well with my hands. I did it inside the bowl.

4- When the dough began to pull away from my fingers, I transferred it to the counter and kneaded for a couple of minutes. Then I let it rise in the bowl until it doubled in size. I then divided the dough into two parts, approx. 60-40%. The bigger part was for the base, while the smaller portion was for the cover.

5- I rolled out the dough for the base and adjusted the shape and size to fit my baking tray. I did the same with the dough portion for the cover and kept it folded until needed. You can see it there on the counter next to the base of the empanada. And there you can also see the leftover cuttings from the square shape; those I would use to make the ribbons to decorate. I used a pizza cutter.

At this point, I was afraid that the empanada would grow to overflow and come out of my electric oven because it is so small. It didn't happen, fortunately 😎

THE FILLING

The first thing I did was to roast the red pepper on the stove. With my kitchen tongs, I turned it every so often so that it received the fire as evenly as possible. When it was charred, I removed it from the fire and let it cool.

Then I could peel it easily.

I removed the pedicel, seeds, and veins, and julienned it. I'd add it in the stew a little later.

To cook the tuna, I did the same as when make preserves. Only this time, I didn't vacuum seal it in glass jars. I made a bed of julienned onions in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Then I added the pieces of thawed tuna loin, which I had kept in my freezer for a couple of months already; I added a tablespoon of crushed garlic, two bay leaves, a splash of apple cider vinegar, a good splash of olive oil and a tablespoon of salt. To this I also added a cup of water, to keep the onion from burning on the bottom of the pot. I let it cook on medium heat for an hour after the pot started to release steam.

When the tuna was ready, I coarsely shredded it, removed the bay leaves and added it to the sautéed vegetables.

I made the tomato sauce by frying the diced tomato in olive oil, then adding the tomato paste and white wine.

I added the tomato sauce to the mixture of vegetables and tuna that was cooking on low fire in the wok.

I added the roasted pepper.

And, finally, I added a handful of raisins.

I checked the salt and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

Time to assemble the empanada

By the time I had the base and cover of the empanada, the filling was already getting cool.

I managed to put all of that delicious filling inside the base. I pressed it a little with the back of the spoon.

I covered it with the square sheet of dough and pierced it with a fork to allow the heat to be released during baking.

Then I used the pizza cutter to make some ribbons and cover the empanada with a nice square pattern. I secured the edges by pressing them with a fork.

Finally, I brushed it with eggwash.

This chubby girl went to the electric oven for 30 minutes at 300° F.

All in all, I must say bread dough works well for a Galician empanada 😁 We ate 20% of it the same day and were fully satisfied, as the portions were of a good size, the bread had a crusty cover and was soft on the inside, and the tuna stew was moist and super delicious.

How much did I save in the preparation of this empanada?

Well, I saved about 5 dollars by preparing my own roasted pepper, and I also saved about 12 dollars by preparing the tuna myself instead of buying the preserves.

And I must say it turns better overninght 😋

Bon appetite!

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.

Thank you so much for your visit :)

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