- PASTELES
makes 36
2 pounds lean pork meat without bone
6 tablespoons naranja agria juice (sour orange juice)
4 sweet chili peppers, seeded
4 leaves cilantro
2 large cloves garlic,peeled
2 tablespoons oregano
1 tablespoon salt
1 pound cured ham, cubed
2 tomatoes, cubed
1 green pepper, seeded, cubed
1 onion, peeled, cubed
1 1/2 cups seeded raisins
1 pound can of garbanzo beans
1 cup water
24 green olives, pitted
2 tablespoons capers
4 1/2 tablespoons liquid from jar of capers
1 pound (2 cups) lard
1/4 pound achiote seeds
Mash chili peppers, cilantro, garlic, oregano and salt in mortar.
Wash and dry pork rapidly and cut into very small cubes. Mix cubes
with the sour orange juice. Add mashed ingredients, chili peppers,
cilantro, garlic, oregano and salt to meat. Add cubed ingredients,
cured ham, tomatoes, green pepper and onion and the seeded raisins
and mix all together. Add water to the chick peas and heat rapidly
to boiling. Drain the liquid over the meat mixture. Remove skins
from chick peas and add chick peas to meat. Add olives and capers,
together with the liquid from jar of capers, to mixture. Wash and drain the achiote seeds. Heat lard with the achiote seeds and when
lard is melted strain out seeds. Add 6 tablespoons of this melted
lard to the meat and put aside the rest to be used in the masas of
the pasteles. Mix well, cover and set aside until the masa is ready.
Masa
4 pounds white yautia, pared
large leaved plant. The flesh is usually creamy white or yellow and is similar in flavor and texture to mealy Irish or Idaho potato.
4 pounds yellow yautia, pared
15 green bananas, peeled
2 cups lukewarm milk
achiote lard reserved when filling was made
2 1/2 tablespoons salt
Wash, drain and grate Yautia and bananas and pound all together in
a mortar or blend in an electric blender to make a smooth paste.
Stir in luke warm milk gradually. Add the achiote lard and salt,
mix well, cover and set aside to make the pasteles.
20 bundles of plantain leaves
used in place of plantain leaves). They should be long and wide.
With a knife, remove the spines in the center to give greater
flexibility to the leaves. Divide leaves into pieces about 12
inches square. Wash and clean leaves with a damp cloth. Place 3
tablespoons of the masa on a leaf and spread it out so thinly that
is is almost transparent. Place 3 tablespoons of the filling in
the center of the masa. Fold the leaf one half over the other to
make a top and bottom layer of plantain leaf and enclose the contents
in it. fold it over once more. Fold the right and left ends of the
leaf toward the center. wrap in a second leaf place on the diagonal.
Tie the pasteles together in pairs with a string, placing folded
edges facing each other. (You should now have a rectangle with
string going once around the long length and 3 times across so that
8 fairly even squares outlined with the string.
12 pasteles,
5 quarts
water with 3 1/2 tablespoons salt. Add Pasteles and boil, covered,
for 1 hour. After half an hour turn them over in the water. When
cooking period is finished, remove pasteles from the water at once.
