Palm Heart, Potato & Gruyère Empadinhas
Serves: 4
Chef Top Tip
"Brazilian style empadinhas are traditionally made in a pie shape, unlike other Latin American countries; they are filled with all manner of wonderful ingredients like fish, chicken and often palm hearts as in this recipe. To obtain a great shape and for simplicity I recommend using a large muffin tin for the job, and whilst these pies are traditionally made with a hot water based pastry, a shortcrust will do the job nicely too."
Ingredients
- 550g prepared shortcrust pastry
- 300g dry mashed potatoes
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 large shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 200g canned palm hearts, drained and thinly sliced
- 75g gruyère cheese
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp freshly chopped coriander
- Salt, pepper, pinch of ground cumin
- Little beaten egg wash to glaze the pies
Method
For the filling:
- Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the shallots, cook for 10 minutes until they soften and are slightly golden & caramelised.
- Add the chilli, cumin and sliced palm hearts and cook for further 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add the cooked potato, beat in the egg, cheese and season well to taste; add the chopped coriander and allow to cool.
To make the pies:
- Roll out the pastry, cut out 12 circles that are large enough to line the inside of a greased 12 compartment muffin tin. along with 12 pie lids.
- Line the muffin wells with the dough, leaving some dough slightly hanging over the edges.
- Fill each well with the made up potato and palm heart mix, then fold over the excess overhanging pastry into the centre. Brush top with a little water.
- Top each with another circle of pastry to form individual little pies; brush with the egg wash and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking.
- Preheat oven to 180c and place the pies in the oven to bake for 30 minutes until golden.
- Remove and allow to cool before unmoulding them from the muffin tin.
All products marked in bold are available to purchase through Vegetarian Express.