Paraguay

We watched a video of Paraguay - listening to the language and observing the images. We checked out a library book about Paraguay and practiced using the index to find facts to begin to fill out our country summary sheet.

We read through a variety of websites, looking for information about food and culture. We decided to try a Paraguayan version of the South American food empanadas and a dumpling soup called Bori Bori. The Bori Bori will hopefully make it to our table later this week. Here is our cheater version of Paraguayan empanadas.

Paraguayan Empanadas

note: Traditional Paraguayan beef empanadas usually include chopped hard boiled egg but for allergy reasons we limit our egg consumption. There were also many wonderful looking empanada dough recipes but dairy-free dough is really tricky so we made our empanadas with store bought pie crust (again for allergy reasons).

Ingredients:
1/2 pound ground beef
3 tablespoons minced red onion
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
greens of one green onion
1 pkg store bought piece crust (enough for 2 crusts)
flour to dust work surface

Method:
preheat oven to 350
brown beef with red onion
drain excess fat
add cumin, paprika, parsley, green onion and salt & pepper to taste
let meat mix cool
flour work surface and use a cookie/biscuit cutter to cut circles approximately 3-4 inches in diameter, rolling excess dough together to get as many circles as possible
scoop about 1.5 tablespoons meat on to circle
fol in half, wet one edge and crimp with fork
lightly oil cookie sheet, place empanadas on cookie sheet and brush lightly with oil
bake until slightly golden brown, approximately 25 minutes


Kids - loved them
The Dad - thought they were ok but "bland"
Mom - I wasn't a huge fan of the pie dough - it was a little sweet which was disconcerting