"A Lotta Empadada": Here's your shot at The Food Network, Chef.

Here's the recipe that should have made me famous. Hahaha. This is what I did for Cooks vs Cons on The Food Network. The results weren't as planned. But watching the show at a truck stop outside Bend, Oregon with a bunch of truckers I'd never met makes for a the type of memories that I keep and retell forever.

Coffee Braised Beef Empanada

Empanada Dough
3 c AP flour
2 tsp white sugar
3 tsp baking powder
¾ c chicken stock
100g Pork Lard
3 large eggs
1 gallon Vegetable Oil for frying
Salt

Filling
1 pound beef bottom round
3 tbsp olive oil
1 pound potato
1 each yellow onion
3 clove garlic
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp A.P. Flour
Salt
Black Pepper
3 cups Ancho, Cinnamon-infused Hazelnut Coffee (see below)

Ancho, Cinnamon-infused Hazelnut Coffee

1 c ground Hazelnut Coffee
1 Dried Ancho Chili
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 c honey
1 qt water
½ c unsweetend coconut milk

Procedure:

1. Mix together the flour, sugar and salt.
2. Use pastry cutter to cut in lard until it resembles cornmeal
3. Whisk eggs and chicken broth.
4. Using the “well method”, incorporate the egg/broth mixture into the flour
5. Push dough together until it forms a ball
6. Wrap in plastic and rest

1. Bring water to a simmer
2. Add ancho chili, coffee, cinnamon stick and half the honey and remove from the heat
3. Medium dice the beef, potato and yellow onion
4. Mince garlic
5. Heat a sauce pot with olive oil on high
6. Season beef with salt and pepper and sear in the sauce pot
7. When the beef is slightly brown, add onions, garlic and potatoes
8. After sautéing until brown, add flour to the pot and incorporate completely
9. Add the tomato paste and allow to brown to the bottom of the pan
10. Deglaze with Ancho, Cinnamon-infused Hazelnut coffee and reduce.
11. Transfer to a sheet pan and cool

1. Flour the work surface and roll out dough
2. Cut the dough into 3” rounds
3. Egg wash one side of each round
4. Fill each round with beef filling
5. Fold un-egg washed side of the round over the filling and onto the egg washed side
6. Pressed firmly and make sure the empanada is completely sealed
7. Heat vegetable oil in a pot to 375 degrees F.
8. Place each empanada in the oil for 1 minute until golden brown
9. Remove with a mesh skimmer onto a sheet pan lined with paper towels