Castellon's Kitchen: Baked Entrails (Chorizo Empanada with Blackberry Chipotle Sauce)

Chorizo and Cheese Empanadas for Halloween

There are a million recipes out there for these popular Halloween intestines. Some are sweet and some savory. I think my favorite sweet version on Pinterest is the one made with red velvet cinnamon rolls. The icky pink color really kicks up the gross factor and they are truly horrifying visually...which is a good thing.:) So despite my urge to make disgusting red velvet cinnamon roll guts, I went for a more savory approach.
My cooking tends to be on the savory side because I don't really eat a lot of sweets normally, but I do love when savory foods are sweet and spicy. My Baked Entrails are the best of all worlds...savory, buttery, smoky, spicy, and sweet with a hint of heat. The best part is that they're easy to throw together thanks to ready made puff pastry and a handful of ingredients. The blackberry chipotle sauce may seem like a strange combination, but I promise you that you will not be disappointed. In fact, you may question why you haven't added a spicy jam to your empanadas before. It's absolutely delicious!
So...if you are one who thinks it's too early for Halloween food, or if this gruesome recipe just makes your stomach turn (pun intended), don't be afraid. This Mr. Hyde can be easily transformed into the respectable Dr. Jekyll equivalent of Chorizo Empanadas with Blackberry Chipotle Sauce. Instead of rolling up the filling into intestinal tracts, just cut squares of puff pastry, fill with chorizo and cheese, fold diagonally into triangles, bake and serve with sauce. Same great flavors with a lot less guts.
Have fun and enjoy!
...🎃193 Days until Halloween🎃

Baked Entrails (Chorizo Empanada with Blackberry Chipotle Sauce)

Serves 4-6

2 tubes of chorizo, casings removed (Beef, Pork or Soy)
1 medium red onion, diced
1 cup pepper jack cheese, grated
1 1/2-2 packages frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
1 egg plus 1T water (egg wash)

Bloody Blackberry Chipotle Sauce
1 cup blackberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 T adobo sauce
salt (to taste)

Add blackberries to a small saucepan and crush with a potato masher. Add sugar, water, chipotle pepper and adobo sauce, and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce begins to reduce and thicken, about 10-15 minutes. Set aside to cool. Blend in a food processor and strain to remove big chunks. Reserve the remaining smooth blackberry sauce. Salt to taste, if needed.

Prepare filling:Cook chorizo and onions in a large skillet over medium high heat. No additional oil is needed as the rendered fat from the chorizo will add fat and flavor as the onions cook. Reduce heat and simmer until onions are soft, stirring occasionally about 15 minutes. Turn off heat and allow the chorizo mixture to cool.

Preheat: oven to 350 degrees.
Egg wash:Beat egg and 1 T water for egg wash and set aside.

Assemble pastry: Working on a long piece of parchment paper, remove one sheet of tri-folded puff pastry and cut along the two folds, to create three narrow pieces of pastry. Align the short ends of the pastry end to end, pressing the seams together to create one long piece of puff pastry. Spoon chorizo filling and pepper jack cheese to the center of the pastry dough leaving a half inch on each side of the filling. Run a small amount of egg wash on one side of the filling and fold pastry over to seal it, working your way down the length of the pastry dough. Repeat with remaining tri-fold sheets of puff pastry until you make 3 or 4 rolls of intestines (I used 3 whole puff pastry sheets to make 3 long rolls)

On a parchment lined baking sheet, begin assembling your intestines SEAM SIDE DOWN by coiling and creating twists and turns of filled pastry rolls. Add another roll and join each end by pinching together the seams and continue to coil them to create a gory maze of twisted entrails.

If you did what I did and assembled the entrails SEAM SIDE UP, not to worry. Line another cookie sheet with parchment paper and place it directly over the SEAM SIDE UP pastry. With the puff pastry sandwiched between two cookie sheets, pick up both cookie sheets and flip them over. Remove the top cookie sheet and parchment, the intestines are ready to bake with SEAM SIDES DOWN. Brush with the egg wash and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25*-30 minutes.

*Optional: To add a little baked in color, remove entrails from oven at 25 minutes and using a paint brush, paint the areas between the twists and turns with the blackberry chipotle sauce. Then place the entrails back in oven and continue to bake an additional 5-8 minutes.

Remove from oven and let the pastry cool 10 minutes. Run a spatula underneath the cooked pastry to make sure it will slide freely from the parchment paper. If serving on old, worn out cookie sheet, like I did, gently pull the parchment on one side to remove it. Generously spoon and drizzle the Bloody Blackberry Sauce between the folds and twists of the entrails for a gory look. Serve with additional sauce on the side. If serving on another platter, use the parchment paper to lift then slide the entrails onto the serving platter. 'Bone' Appetit!