Sunday, January 20, 2013

Freezer Food- Pulled Pork and Black Bean Goodness

These sandwiches are a perfect freezer lunch, snack or dinner. I just microwave them for about a minute  and if I'm able I toast it to crisp up the outside. Home made goodness with freezer aisle convenience.
Prep: Start some pulled pork cooking in the crock pot with some water and diced onion, for flavoring I put some fennel, rosemary  chili flakes, and large ground pepper in a tea ball.) Make up some dough (pizza, zwieback  whatever your fancy) and let it rise, then cook some black beans with all the seasoning you would put in taco meat. Onion, pepper, cumin, garlic, chili powder, etc. mine were not getting soft so per the bean council I added just a bit of baking soda. That did the trick. Then mash them a bit so they're kind of spreadable.
 Take a small piece of dough (smaller than a baseball, bigger than a golf ball) and roll it out as thin as you dare. Spoon the beans onto one side. I didn't want mine centered because I wanted to fold the dough in half and roll the sides closed.
 Add a slice of cheese. My cheese is kind of dinky because technically speaking we're both lactose intolerant but we love cheese. If you can eat it, I suggest a couple more slices.
 Next add some of the shredded pork and salsa. (Luke's only regret on this recipe was that I didn't put enough salsa, or could have added some green sauce. I thought this was just the right amount. I'm a weenie when it comes to spicy.)
 Fold the dough over the filling.
 Press the top edges into the bottom half of the dough.
 Then roll the bottom half of the dough up over the top edge.
 I wanted the outer edges to crisp up so I put a good layer of olive oil in the bottom of the pan. When placing these on the pan I would first put them top down, coat them in the oil and then flip them.
 I think I baked them around 375. No time sorry. Keep an eye on them.
 Half way through baking them, carefully turn them over.

 Some of the seams held, and some didn't, leaking moisture onto the pan and causing the bottom to stick when taking them off the pan.




 Some of them stayed closed and some kind of rolled open as they baked. I don't know what would make the difference. Any ideas?

Last problem...what do I name them?  Taco Pockets?

2 comments:

Tanya said...

These look sooo tasty! They look like tarts...what about Taco Tarts?

Jamie said...

Yummy! Those look great! To seal them better, brush a bit of water or egg wash on the dough before pressing/pinching them shut. Egg wash over them too (instead of oil) will make them crisp. To make sure they don't stick to the pan, use parchment paper! And...they already have a name...empanadas! Which basically translate "filled dough".