bean empanadas for Nena... and anyone else who likes 'em

Mirella'sEmpanadas de Frijol

1 lb. plain pre-cooked drained pinto beans
1cup sugar
1/4 cup oil or shortening
1 -2 teaspoons cinnamon
a little salt

Cook this mixture, stirring constantly until thick and carmelized-- about 20 minutes. The fun part is that you can vary the amounts liberally to suit your taste, less sweet, lower fat. But it needs plenty of sugar to come out right.

Mirella proceeds by making flour tortilla masa, pressing it thin, filling and sealing the edges, and frying in an inch of oil or shortening till nicely browned.

Now I've only done this once, with Mirella. I want to try the filling baked in pastry dough empanadas, or in little tarts.

I'd like to do it today, but it is 83 in my kitchen. Guess I'll just wait until August with the grandchildren in Montana

[Edited on 5-20-2007 by Paula]

Paula - I thank you so much for this. I think that one day this week I just might take the plunge and cook up some of these babies. Don't have to worry about the heat where I am - 70 degrees constitutes a nice warm day in Berkeley.

I have used pie crust pastry for baked fruit empanadas.. but I called 'em fruit crostada. Think I'm gonna go with the fry method for the bean empanadas. They tell me that as long as the oil is very very hot it does not saturate the product but merely cooks it through, creating that nice crisp coating. Yep, just this once I'm gonna choose to believe this little white lie.

I'll let ya know how this works for me.

Nena

I believe it-- when we made them the oil was less hot than it should be, but they are yummy when fried just right!