A traditional Baja California dish — Empanadas de Mariscos Baja are golden, hand-held turnovers stuffed with shrimp and fish in a light tomato sauce with olives, a nod to the Spanish roots of Baja cooking. They are the perfect beach-town snack: crisp pastry, juicy filling, and a squeeze of lime. Bakers up and down the peninsula turn them out fresh every morning.
Empanadas de Mariscos Baja
A traditional Baja California dish — Empanadas de Mariscos Baja are golden, hand-held turnovers stuffed with shrimp and fish in a light tomato sauce with olives, a nod to the Spanish roots of Baja cooking.

Step by stepInstructions
- Make the dough: pulse the flour and salt with the butter until crumbly, add the egg and enough ice water to bring it together, wrap, and chill for thirty minutes.
- Cook the onion in the olive oil until soft, add the garlic and tomatoes, and simmer until thick, about five minutes.
- Add the shrimp and fish and cook just until the seafood firms, about two minutes; season, stir in the olives, and cool completely.
- Roll the dough thin and cut rounds about five inches across.
- Spoon the filling onto each round, brush the edges with beaten egg, fold, and crimp with a fork.
- Brush the empanadas with egg and bake at four hundred degrees until deep golden, about twenty minutes.
- Cool slightly and serve warm with lime wedges or salsa.
💡 Chef tips & storage
Chill the filling completely — hot filling makes the pastry greasy and hard to seal. For a shortcut, use store-bought pie dough or empanada discs.

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