Empanadas and Chicken Pot Pie

I am reminded again how food even when it is different is the same.  I find it fascinating that most cultures that I have run into have some sort of noodle comfort food and a form of chicken noodle soup or soured foods.  Take for example the lo-mein, or drunken noodles (Thai) or Pancit (Filipino) or mac and cheese (american).  Kimchi a Korean dish isn't that different from Sauerkraut.  I don't have to go through the list of chicken soups but you get the idea.  The same goes for pastries filled with stuff.  The filling vary depending on what is available but dough with stuff in it crosses cultures.  Shall I start the list pasties, chicken potpie, wontons or pot stickers, calazones, even pepperoni rolls. Well you get the idea.  This happens to be empenadas and my cookbook tells me there are hundreds of variations from Mexico to Chile.  Their roots can be traced to Spain and the Middle East.  This happens to be an Argentinian version.  It contains 1 pound cooked lean meat, 2 cups shredded potatoes, 3 tablespoons of beef broth and a little salt and pepper.

Place in 6 inch crusts.  This recipe is nearly identical to the pie crust recipe I use.  This contains a little baking powder which I use in my pie crusts.  Seal and punch wholes in the top.

 Coat with egg mixture.   Miss Angela helped me.

 Bake at 450 for 10 minutes and then lower to 350 and bake 30 minutes.

Being a typical lazy american - here are a few short cuts I came up with to speed up the process.  You can make this recipe faster if you use prepared pie crust, preshredded hashbrowns and there is probably precooked shredded beef out there somewhere without sauce.

The amazing thing is there are recipes that contain everything from beans to bananas.  This is just empanadas.  The amazing diversity in food is so much fun.  It is fun to think that in the last 7 days I have bot empanadas and Chicken pot pie.