Post Christmas Empanadas

After three days of holiday cooking, eating and drinking it seemed vaguely unsettling to enjoy my morning coffee in a quiet, clean kitchen.

No lists to go over, no ingredients to pull from the fridge, no table to set. That lasted about an hour. Not wanting to go for my morning run in the dark, I mulled over the bits of ingredients I had leftover: the small piece of the pork roast from Christmas day would be thinly sliced for sandwiches, gravy or salsa verde to add as needed, and those bits of nice cheeses from the party tray needed to be used up.

They'd be brilliant in a cheese sauce on pasta, or maybe something more involved with a Mexican flavour. Yeah, that's it.

I'd read recently about queso fundido empanadas and the image of roasted peppers, sauteed mushrooms and melting cheese in a little half moon shape of dough has been tempting me ever since.

I whipped up a batch of dough using not vegetable shortening or sweet pork lard, but beef dripping bought from Orr & Son's Butchers.

The four anaheim chilies I had hanging around were roasted on the stove, and I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to my upstairs neighbours for the smoke and charred aromas that might have alarmed you while you snuggled up in bed this morning. Once the chilies were peeled and chopped they were added to some sauteed onions, garlic and sliced mushrooms. The bits of cheese were grated together and add to the mix - much easier than adding the cheese as a separate ingredient to your rounds of dough. At the last minute, I add some chopped red chile de arbol for colour and extra heat.

I cut out circular shapes of dough, added the mixture, dabbed the edges of the dough with water, folded over and pressed together.

Refrigerate - or freeze for later use. Oven at 425 degrees, brush the empanadas with egg and milk to make them shine, and bake until golden.

Once again, quiet has descended.

For more on empanadas, check here.