How To Be A Housewife: Cooking Empanadas

So despite what I say, I do enjoy cooking to some degree.  As I get bored, I become more domesticated and the desire to cook hits.  I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to make empanadas.  I was originally introduced to this dish by my high school Spanish teacher, Senor Vasquez.  Every year that I had him as a teacher we made empanadas and sopapillas as a part of learning about the Latin American culture.





Ingredients
1 lb. ground turkey or beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tsp. oregano
4 oz. tomato sauce
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 packets Sazon Goya with Coriander and Annatto
Black pepper
1 pack of Goya discos, thawed

The Hard Work

1. I start off by cooking 1 pound of ground turkey on the stove in a pot  with about 1 cup (8 ounces) of water on a medium-high setting.  Make sure you have a lid on the pot so the steam can help the meat cook faster.  I then use a wooden spatula to break apart the meat.  Try to break the meat up really well.  Once it's cooked pour the water out into the sink.
2. Next I warmed up a large skillet on medium-high heat, placed 1 tablespoon of olive oil in it, and put by meat into it.  (FYI:  You don't have to do step one.  You can start cooking the meat in the skillet but I feel like my steaming method works a lot faster.)  Add two packets of Sazon Goya with Coriander and Annatto, 4 ounces of tomato sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of oregano, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, and black pepper.  Make sure you stir all of your ingredients into the meat well.  
3. Get your Goya large discos and using a rolling pin slightly roll them out. (Note:  After my discos had thawed out I placed them in the fridge.  I did not take them out again until I was ready to cook them.)  Next fill one half of the disco with the meat filling.  Try not to put too much filling into it or else it will be difficult to seal it. 
4.  Using your fingers, place a light about of water around the edges of the disco dough.  Fold it in half and using a fork press down on the dough to seal it shut.
5. In a pan of hot oil put your empanadas in.  After about two minutes you will notice the dough's crust bubbling.  Once it's nice and brown flip it over to let the other side cook until it's a nice brown color with a bubbly crust.
6. Place your cooked empanadas on a plate filled with napkins to soak up some of the oil.  You can eat this with hot sauce if you please.

These are the large discos but you can get the "small" or regular sized ones.

The meat filling cooked with all the ingredients added in.

Filling the empanada.  You might be able to see the water I placed around the outer edges of the dough.

Nice and sealed up.  Ready to be tossed into the pan.

I honestly hate frying food because of a fear of oil popping on me and burning my skin.  Therefore I warmed by oil up on a medium-low heat.  I flipped them over after about two minutes (the dough had bubbled by then) and let them cook on the other side.

Finished product!

My family enjoyed eating these.  You can pretty much use whatever type of filling you want for these and feel free to add extra ingredients to it.  I would have added stuffed olives to mine but my friend doesn't like them so I sacrificed.  I was able to make eight of these.