Seafood Empanaditas
Delicate seafood-filled pastries featuring a blend of clams, mussels, shrimp, and scallops in a seasoned filling, wrapped in a homemade dough and fried until golden. These Latin American-inspired appetizers are perfect served with tomato salsa.
Ingredients
- •1 teaspoon salt
- •¾ cup hot water
- •2½ cups all-purpose flour
- •1 teaspoon baking powder
- •1 teaspoon sugar
- •¼ cup lard at room temperature
- •2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- •3 cups vegetable oil
- •1½ pounds small hard-shelled clams
- •1 cup dry white wine
- •1½ pounds cultivated mussels
- •1 medium onion
- •1 cup scallions
- •2 cloves garlic
- •3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- •1½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
- •1 whole serrano or jalapeño chile
- •½ tablespoon paprika
- •1 teaspoon dried oregano
- •½ pound shrimp
- •½ pound sea scallops
- •1 tablespoon parsley
- •1 piece cookie cutter
- •1 piece deep-fat thermometer
- •1 serving tomato salsa
Cooking Instructions
- 1.
Stir salt into hot water until dissolved.
2 min
- 2.
Sift flour, baking powder, and sugar into a large bowl, then make a well in center and add lard and butter. Stir salted water into well with a wooden spoon, melting lard and butter, then stir flour into liquid, adding a little water if necessary, to form a soft and pliable dough. Knead dough on an unfloured surface until smooth and glossy, 3 to 5 minutes (dough will be soft and slightly sticky).
10 min
- 3.
Cover dough with a kitchen towel (not terry cloth).
1 min
- 4.
Cook clams in wine in a medium saucepan, covered, over medium-high heat until just opened wide, about 5 minutes (discard any that remain unopened). Transfer clams to a bowl with a slotted spoon, then cook mussels in same liquid, covered, stirring once or twice, until opened, 3 to 5 minutes (discard unopened ones). Add mussels to clams and strain cooking liquid through a paper-towel-lined sieve into a bowl.
15 min