Have You Ever Had Pastelillos?

Ingredients

1 pk Goya dough for turnover pastries (discos para empanadas) look for it in the frozen Spanish section of your supermarket—they usually come frozen, ten in a pack.

1 lb lean ground beef

3 tbs sofrito or (1 tbs chopped onions, green peppers, red peppers and garlic, and 2 tbs chopped cilantro or you may use one teaspoon of Adobo Goya)

1 cup cooking oil

2 envelopes of Sason Goya with annatto, for coloring

Salt and pepper to taste

Rolling pin

All purpose flour

(For spicy hot flavor add Cayenne powder or hot sauce to the ground beef mixture.)

Directions on how to make them:

• In a skillet, brown the ground beef. No need to drain ground beef if you used lean meat. Otherwise drain.
• Add the sofrito (or alternative), the salt and pepper and the Sason Goya. Stir. Simmer at low heat until meat is completely cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Meanwhile, pour oil in a small-medium skillet. While the oil gets hot, dust some flour on your counter. Put one pastry disc over the dusted counter and stretch out the dough, turn it over on the other side and do the same.
• Spoon some beef mixture in the center of the disc. Close the disc to a half-moon. Seal the edges by pressing around it with a fork. By this time your oil should be hot.
• Being careful, you may drop the filled pastry disc into the hot oil. Fry pastries until golden brown (one-two minutes.) Turn it over other side and cook until golden brown.
• Remove from oil and rest it on paper towel. Repeat the same process and fry the rest of the discs. You may find it easier to fill and fry two pastry discs at the time.

Warning! The filling is very hot, although the pastry is probably not as hot.

Enjoy your pastelillos.

If you have had Pastelillos before let me know what you thought of them.