Plantain Chocolate Empanadas

Last Updated on April 10, 2018 by Chef Mireille

Blogging Marathon #33
Theme: Chocolate

One of the so few good things that resulted from European colonization of the Caribbean, Africa and Asia is the foods that were carried across oceans from country to country of the same colonizer. Before the internet, there is no way these foods would have otherwise been transplanted between continents.
This is why the Caribbean, Central and South America as well as the Phillipines have many similar dishes. Chicken Pipian, a chicken dish made with pumpkin seeds from Mexico, is also popular in the Phillipines, as is flan. Stewed oxtails, which are very popular in the Caribbean is the main ingredient in Kare-Kare, a Filipino stew made with oxtails and peanut butter.  You might wonder what is all this talk of the Phillipines…well this month the theme is the food of the Phillipines for my monthly Taste of the Tropics blogging event. Here I decided to make empanadas with flavors that would seem as at home in the Phillipines as they would in Puerto Rico or Columbia. I took a short cut and used store bought empanada sheets, but of course feel free to make the empanada dough yourself.

Guava paste is quite common throughout Latin America and is also used in the Phillipines. It is made very similar to the way quince paste is made. For use in these recipes, it first has to be thinned out a little.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. guava paste
• 6 tablespoons boiling water

Combine guava paste and water in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the paste has thinned out to the consistency of honey. Hence I will refer to it as guava honey for the rest of this post.

Serves 8
Ingredients:

• 1 ripe plantain
• 50 grams chocolate 70% cacao (1/2 of a 3.5 oz. bar)
• 3 1/2 tablespoons guava honey
• 8 empanada sheets (I used Goya brand with annatto seed – again another flavor popular in both the Phillipines and Latin America)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and spray with non stick spray.
Using a double boiler, melt chocolate.
Boil plantains until they are cooked through. Peel and mash.
Add guava honey and melted chocolate. Stir to combine.
Defrost the sheets just long enough so that they become pliable. Place about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the filling in the center. Brush the perimeter with a little water and fold over into a crescent shape to seal.
Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat for the remaining empanadas.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Brush with melted butter on both sides and dust with powdered sugar.

The flavor of the guava and chocolate is prevalent, so it’s a great way of sneaking in a healthy ingredient into a delicious dessert, if you have kids that might otherwise avoid eating plantain. Plantain is high in fiber, potassium and Vitamin A.

I have another savory empanada that will be posted in a few days to utilize the leftover guava honey so come back tomorrow for another visit!

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#33

…linking to Taste of the Tropics – the Phillipines

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Chef Mireille