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 180^c 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.