Core-eezo? Chore-eezo? Empa-what?

Skip filling your mouth with fancy ingredients or tell-tale titles. Just open wide and insert a few of these pastry and sausage bites.

I made these for a special holiday dinner, and it was all I could do to slow down and save some room for the main event. I am SO making these again; they were delightful, unusual and easy to make in advance. And I adore it when food can be made before the party starts.

Pronunciations aside, I actually enjoy learning about new foods. Here is the Wikipedia info about chorizo:

Sometimes mispronounced as “choritso”, it can be a fresh sausage, in which case it must be cooked, but in Europe it is more frequently a fermented cured smoked sausage, in which case it is usually sliced and eaten without cooking. Spanish chorizo and Portuguese chouriço get their distinctive smokiness and deep red colour from dried smoked red peppers (pimentón/pimentão or colorau). Chorizo can be eaten as is (sliced or in a sandwich), simmered in apple cider or other strong alcoholic beverage such as Aguardente, barbecued or fried. Like breakfast sausage, it is used as an ingredient of other dishes. It also can be used as a partial replacement for ground beef or pork.

It is a bit spicy; I used the cured version, so no cooking required. I just cubed, cut and pasted:

Chorizo Empanadillas
chorizo sausage, about 1 cup in 1/4 inch dice
9 0z (1 sheet) puff pastry
flour
1 egg, beaten
paprika, to garnish

Preheat oven to 400. On floured counter, roll out puff pastry dough. Cut dough into 3 inch circles. Dampen edge of each round with water, fill with 1 heaping tsp chorizo, fold into half moon and press to seal [with fingers]. Use fork to crimp edges. Cut tiny slit in side with knife. Brush tops with beaten egg for glaze; bake for 12-14 minutes, topping with sprinkle of paprika to serve. Serve warm.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 8:30 am and is filed under Holidays, Make Ahead, Starters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.