In Spain, Portugal, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Philippines, an
empanada (Portuguese empada- a different dish) is essentially a stuffed pastry. The name comes from the Spanish verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread. Usually the empanada is made by folding a thin circular-shaped dough patty over the stuffing, creating its typical semicircular shape. Empanadas are also known by a wide variety of regional names.
It is likely that the empanadas in the Americas were originally from Galicia, Spain, where an empanada is prepared similar to a pie that is cut in pieces, making it a portable and hearty meal for working people. The Galician empanada is usually prepared with cod fish or chicken. Due to the large number of Galician immigrants in Latin America, the empanada gallega has also become very popular in that region. Middle Eastern cuisine to this day has similar foods, like simbusak (a fried, chickpea filled "empanada") from Iraq.
Filipino empanadas usually contain ground beef or chicken meat, potato, chopped onion, and raisins (somewhat similar to the Cuban "picadillo") in a sweetish wheat flour dough. Some Filipinos are not partial to the sweetish flavour notes and prefer empanadas that are closer to the Hispanic versions. There are doughy baked versions, as well as flaky fried versions. Often, to lower costs, potatoes are added as a filler, and olives-- relatively expensive in the Philippines-- are omitted.
However, empanadas in the northern Ilocos region are very different. These empanadas are made of a savoury filling of green papaya and, upon request, chopped Ilocano sausage (longganisa) and/or an egg yolk. Rather than the soft, sweet dough favoured in the Tagalog region, the dough used to enclose the filling is thin and crisp, mostly because Ilocano empanada uses rice flour, coloured orange with achuete (annatto), and is deep-fried rather than baked.
