Galician breaded tuna and tomato empanada

Ventresca Empanada de Bonito del Norte . If you want to turn your kitchen into a piece of Galicia and that a crispy portion of Galician pie comes out of the oven to your table … all you have to do is follow this recipe step by step.

For this dish we must use a high quality ingredient and one of the delicacies of Spanish gastronomy: White tuna . This is caught, one by one, in waters of the Bay of Biscay during the summer season and by traditional fishing gear. Its intense sea flavor, its light meat and its properties have made it, without a doubt, the king of tuna. Once the best specimens have been selected and the cooking process is over, the fish is prepared and packaged using artisan techniques.

In this case I have used tuna belly, which is the area located at the bottom of the fish, near the head, and is undoubtedly the juiciest and tastiest part, the softest and most delicate textured part of the Bonito del Norte. It is made up of meat fillets with a gelatinous texture and intense flavor, ideal for appetizers and salads. A treasure of the sea for demanding palates, imagine the tandem of this compango with a good empanada dough, success is assured.

Preparation of the tuna belly and tomato compango:

1. We open the tuna belly and drain the oil very well, which is the one that we are going to use for the sofrito of the empanada, if it is missing we add more quantity of our good extra virgin Ilove oil. We reserve the belly.
2. Put the oil in a saucepan and when it is hot, add 3 onions in a thin julienne, that is, in thin strips. We spend about 8 minutes over medium heat until they are transparent and poached. While it is poaching we cut the pepper into strips and the minced garlic. Peel the tomatoes and cut them into small cubes (if you do not want to peel them you can use whole cans). When the onion sauce is soft, add the peppers and tomato to the saucepan for another 8 minutes over low heat.
3. We put a saucepan to boil. We leave an egg to paint the empanada and we add the other 3 to the saucepan. We must be careful when introducing them, first so as not to burn ourselves and second so that they do not break as part of the egg would come out while it cooks and it is uglier. The time needed to obtain a hard-boiled egg will be 10 minutes from when the water has started to boil. I recommend adding a little salt to the boiling water so that the egg does not crack.
4. Once the 10 minutes are up, we remove the eggs and put them in cold water. Peel the eggs and reserve. When they are cold cut in half and remove the yolk, I only use the cooked white. Whoever wants the whole egg adds it all. Cut into cubes of about 1 cm and introduce them with the vegetables.
5. Add the tuna belly from Bonito del Norte and stir carefully so that it does not fall apart. We test the filling and rectify with salt, although it is most likely not necessary. We stir a few minutes and set aside.
6. Let it cool and put the excess oil in a glass. It is important to remove the excess oil so that the filling is juicy and at the same time to use it in the preparation of the dough, as I explain later.

Preparation of the Galician empanada dough:

We already have the company cooling, the excess oil in the glass and now we can prepare the dough.

1. In a large bowl we introduce part of the flour (that is normal, to make empanada it does not need to be strength flour). We leave about 4 tablespoons to fatten the dough.
2. In the center of the bowl, with a spoon we make a hole, and we introduce the yeast dissolved in the water.
3. Beat with a wooden spoon from the center outwards and gradually mix with the flour.
4. Add the oil from the sauce of the filling and the salt. We continue removing what begins to be the dough. For now it will be a sticky but firm mix.
5. We prepare the area where we are going to knead, for example the kitchen counter is perfect. We fill the area of ​​the counter with flour, remove the dough from the bowl and begin to work the dough with your hands.
6. Little by little we can manipulate the dough more quickly, it will remain elastic and homogeneous. This process takes about 10 minutes.
7. We are turning the dough into a ball. We take the previous bowl and flour it. We introduce the dumpling into it.
8. We cover the bowl with a cotton cloth for an hour and there we have the dough to start preparing the belly pie or the one that we like the most.

Preparation of tuna belly duck from Bonito del Norte:

1. We divide the empanada dough into two similar parts. We knead them again in two balls of dough to be able to work well with them.
2. We flour the kitchen counter and roll out the dough with the rolling pin. We make the base that will be the size of the baking tray. We will stretch it as thin as possible with the help of the roller. We put on the tray a piece of baking paper and on top the base cutting the excess if needed.
3. We add the filling of the belly well drained of oil (drained but somewhat oily and juicy so that it comes out very rich) and we stretch it all over the base. It is very important that the filling is cold so that the dough holds up well.
4. We cover with the other half well stretched and seal it by the edges, braiding the lower part over the upper one with the help of a fork or with the help of the fingers, from right to left and then pressing.
5. We make a small hole in the center for the empanada to breathe and with a fork we puncture through different areas, so it will not swell. We decorate with strips or cords of the excess pasta.
6. We paint the empanada with a mixture of beaten egg and a little milk (it is a small trick so that it is golden but does not burn) with the help of a kitchen brush.
7. We preheat the oven for 180 minutes at 180ºC and then put the empanada at the same temperature, first in the bottom of the oven (about 20 minutes) and then another 25 minutes in the center. When it is golden brown, we remove it.

And finally the empanada! Be careful when removing it from the tray because it will still be hot and it is easy to break. Cut it with a good pair of scissors when it is warm and bon appetit.

Be sure to enjoy all the recipes for fish and seafood that we have on the blog, I assure you that you will find a lot of ideas to make yours much happier.