Welcome to a new year! May your 2024 be filled with joy, adventure, and (of course) lots of delicious food—just like the inspiration for today’s menu, a delightful book I read last year called MY FINE FELLOW.

MY FINE FELLOW is a gender-swapped version of MY FAIR LADY with a few other notable changes. In this version, instead of a phonetics professor passing off a flower seller as a fine lady at a ball, a young pair of gentlewoman chefs hope to pass off a talented street food vendor as a gentleman chef. Naturally, the book is full of delicious food, and since the main characters come from a mix of cultural heritages, many of the dishes come from around the world. Reading about so many creative dishes ignited my imagination, and I relished the idea of starting the new year with a challenging menu. So here we go!

Today I’m making one of the book’s most iconic recipes: Faraway Pasties. These are Elijah’s signature dish, which catch the attention of Helena and Penelope, setting off a chain of events that lead to Elijah competing in the Royal Culinary Exhibition. Throughout Penelope’s first conversation with Elijah, we get little bits of info about the pasties—enough for us to know that Elijah’s Faraway Pasties are fried Salvadoran empanadas with paprika mixed into the masa dough and filled with beef, potato, and oregano. They sounded SO good, so I knew they had to be the first dish in this menu.

I’m very new to making empanadas, so for today’s post I combined recipes from Jonathan Melendez and Hank Shaw, making a few tweaks for the sake of accuracy to the story. Oh man did they turn out good! They were a huge hit with my kids. My son loved the crisp fried masa dough exterior, and my daughter especially enjoyed the savory, beefy filling. They ate a half batch in one sitting!

I can just imagine how satisfying one of these empanadas would be on a cold, rainy night at the Convent Garden Market, just like when Penelope eats them at the beginning of the story!

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Faraway Pasties: Elijah’s Empanadas

“Buy a Faraway Pasty, miss?” the boy asked. He lifted the cloth off his tray, and the smell of fried dough, beef, and oregano wafted toward her.
Penelope blinked. “Empanadas?”
His light brown eyes, framed by thick lashes wet from the rain, widened. “What a clever one you are! Not one person in twenty knows ’em by their right name. Just fer that, I’ll give you two fer the price of one.”

— My Fine Fellow

 

INGREDIENTS:

• FOR THE FILLING
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 cup diced onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small russet potato, diced
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1 pinch red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup chicken broth
• FOR THE DOUGH
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup masa harina
  • 1 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup beef drippings, lard, or unsalted butter (heated until melted but not hot)
  • approx. 1 cup water
  • 2-3 cups vegetable oil

 

Makes 13 empanadas

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. FOR THE FILLING. Add the ground beef to a large, hot skillet over medium heat. Brown the beef and drain most of the fat. Add the onion and garlic, cooking and stirring regularly for 5 minutes until onions are translucent. Stir in all remaining ingredients except chicken broth. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Stir in chicken broth and cook for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and allow to cool (you can make the dough while you wait).
2. FOR THE DOUGH. Preheat oven to 200°F. Place a wire rack over a baking sheet and place in the oven. In a large bowl, sift the flour, masa harina, paprika, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the beef drippings briefly with a fork, then work it through with your fingers until fully combined. Gradually work in half the water. Work in another 1/4 cup water. Work in remaining water 1 tablespoon at a time if needed (I used 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons). The final dough texture should hold together and be easily workable but not sticky. Shape the dough into a ball. Divide the dough into 13 equally sized balls about the size of golf balls.
3. Pour the oil into a large skillet with tall sides and place over medium heat.
4. Working in batches of 3-4, roll the balls into 5″ circles approx. 1/4″ thick. Place approximately 2 tablespoons filling in the middle of each circle. Fold in half and press the edges closed. I like to turn the edges downward to create a more dramatic shape, but you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. Crimp the edges by pressing with a fork.
5. When the oil is hot, fry empanadas 3-4 at a time for 2 minutes on each side until golden. Remove each finished batch to the wire rack in the oven.
6. Serve warm on the cobblestone streets of 1830s London to a pair of epicurean gentlewomen.

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Check out my other hand pie recipes!

Big Apple Hand Pies from James and the Giant Peach

Hannah’s Muffs from Little Women

Mrs. Markham’s Steak and Ale Pies from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall