Pastechi / Stuffed Savory Pastry

Information

Pastechi is a popular Curaçao pastry filled with seasoned meat, chicken, cheese, tuna, or vegetables and fried until golden. Its crisp shell and savory center make it a favorite breakfast, snack, or party food.

Ingredients

Fillings:

• You can create you filling out of any of the following proteins :
  - 1 lb gouda cheese or
  - 1 lb of grounded beef or
  - 1 lb of grounded chicken or
  - 1 lb of tuna or
  - 1 lb of oysters
• 1 tomatoe (medium)
• 1 onion (medium)
• 1 green pepper
• 2 tablespoon of capers
• 3 tablespoon of raisons
• a couple of diced green olives

Dough :

• 6 cups of all purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoon of butter
• 3 tablespoon of yeast
• 1.5 teaspoon of salt
• 1.5 cup of water
• Vegetable or cranola oil for frying

Preparation

Filling:

1. Dice up the tomatoe, onion,and  green pepper and put them with all the other ingredients into a put with butter.
2. Cook all the ingredients on medium high heat untill all the mixture is cook completely.
3. And let it cool down

Dough :

1. Mix the flour and salt in a food processor.
2. Add the butter and pulse
3. Add the egg and the water (in small increments) and continue pulsing until a clumpy dough forms.
4. To make the dough by hand, follow the same instruction but use your hands to mix the ingredients together.
5. Split the dough into 2 large ball, flatten slightly into the shape of disks.
6. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet and cut out round disc shapes for empanadas (use round molds or a small plate). You can also make small individual balls with the dough and roll out eat individual ball to a round shape (doesn't need to be perfectly round) - if you have a tortilla press you can use it to flatten the dough balls.
7. Use immediately, or store in the refrigerator/freezer to use later.

Assembling and Frying the Empanadas:

1. Put some filling in the middle of the round dough. Make sure not to overfill it
2. Close the filling inside of the dough
3. After filling all the empanadas, fry them in oil using medium to high heat.
4. When the dough gets a light brown to golden color, take them out of the oil
5. Let them cool down and they are ready to eat.