Pasteles

Pasteles, pronounced Pas-TEL-les, is a traditional Latin American dish. In Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, it is similar to a tamale. In Central American cuisine, it more closely resembles a PASTY (a type of British pie) or an Italian CALZONE. There are different types of flours to make dough, depending on the type of pasteles, including pasteles de masa (corn flour), pasteles de yuca (cassava) and pasteles de arroz (rice) and platano (plantain). The dough or masa can consist of a combination of grated green banana, green plantain, taro and pumpkin, cassava or rice.

Pasteles contain a variety of filling. The filling depends, once again, on the type of pasteles. Pasteles can be filled with ground meat, diced meat, pudding, vegetables ( finely diced or grated). In Central American Pasteles the filling is placed in the center of disk made of dough. The dough is then folded over and the edges sealed and fried. It is often served with Curtido, a type of relish resembling sauerkraut.

Puerto Rican and Dominican pasteles are much more labor intensive. The masa is seasoned with liquid from the meat mixture and annato oil, placed in a piece of banana leaf with a sheet of parchment paper under it. It is then stuffed with stewed meat usually pork or chicken, folded, tied then boiled for an extended period of time.

Assembling a typical pastel involves a large sheet of parchment paper, a strip of banana leaf that has been heated over an open flame to make it supple, a little annato oil on the leaf, masa (dough), seasoned meat, one or two olives, a few raisins, a few chickpeas, and a piece of roasted red pepper. The paper is then folded and tied with kitchen string to form packets.

Once made, pasteles can either be cooked in boiling water or frozen for later use. Because they are so labor intensive, Puerto Rican and Dominican families typically make anywhere from 50-200+ in one sitting, especially around the Christmas holidays. They are usually served with rice and pigeon peas (arroz con gandules), roasted pork, and other holiday foods.