Pasteles, Puerto Rican Meat Pies using cuisinart food processor

Makes about 15-20. Boil 1 hour.

It consists of 4 parts, Achiote(Annato) oil, the sofrito and meat mixture, then the masa (dough) and is a 2 day process.

Achiote Oil

Cook in saucepan on low to medium heat until Achiote seeds color the oil. Then let cool. Watch closely and stir. Use metal. Stains a lot.

• 1/2 c Achiote/Annato seeds
• 1 c oil

Sofrito

Grind in food processor then cook until it stops tasting raw and sharp.

• 1 onion

Then grind in food processor, add to cooked onion, and cook until soft and no longer tastes raw.

• Green pepper
• 1-3 Garlic cloves
• 5-10 sprigs cilantro

Mix into sofrito

• about 1 T fresh squeezed lemon juice to brighten it.

Meat Mixture

Cut in about 1/2 inch cubes

• 1.5 - 2 lbs pork loin or roast (If using roast can fry fat and add back for more flavor)

Sear in achiote oil to brown, then cover with water and cook until tender

Then add

• Sofrito
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste (Optional)

Then let sit in fridge overnight for the flavors to blend

NEXT DAY

Sharpen your food processor blades if they are not sharp. It takes forever to grind with duller blades.

Start heating water in big kettle to boil pasteles in.

Masa

Add to food processor in this order. Visually, the green bananas, plantains, and yautia look to be about the same volume. It goes unsaid that you need to peel everything which can be a bit of work. Mixture grinds best if you make cube-like pieces about 1/2 inch. Slices sometimes don't grind.

• 2 green bananas (guineo verde, not yellow bananas that are green) 
• 2 plantains (Green)
• Small piece, about 2 T, squash (Softens masa. Some people use potato)
• 1.5 lbs yautia (Makes everything stick together. Malanga does not work.)
• about 1 T achiote oil over the yautia so yautia doesn't make food processor stop
• Enough milk, water, or broth from meat mixture so that mixture grinds and turns into a thick, spreadable paste that is more spreadable than cookie dough.

Set up your pastele making station. I generally use our kitchen table since we make a lot at one time.

Put in center of table

• Achiote oil for oiling foil
• Masa
• Meat Mixture
• Sliced green olives with pimiento in center

Put along edges

• about 12 inch by 12 inch pieces of foil. (Traditionally were wrapped in banana leaves. If you want to you can put a piece of banana leaf on foil for flavor. Perhaps could wrap in parchment paper with string if you want. I have never tried that.)

Building the Pasteles

• Put the following on the Aluminum Foil
• Oil foil with Achiote Oil
• Spread a rectangle of Masa about 2 inches from edges of foil
• On 1/2 of the Masa, spoon on meat mixture, and add
• 1 -2 olive halves

Folding the foil

• Fold foil in half
• Then fold over edges 2-3 times to make water-tight packet

Boiling Pastels

• Carefully put foil packets in boiling water and boil for about 1 hour. We usually stuff them in vertically and then turn them at about 1/2 hour.
• Take out and let cool. They are too soft if you try to eat them when they first come out. The dough sets up once they cool.

Pictures

We make about quadruple this recipe so we have to grind the masa in batches and then mix the batches together.

I learned this recipe from a friend about 40 years or so ago and have been making it for my husband's birthday ever since.

When I went to make it this year I had to recreate this recipe from memory because I think my online recipe was too old and it got deleted/archived from my blog. We usually make 4 times this recipe and freeze the pasteles in their foil packets. Then when we want to eat them we run the packet under running water which makes the foil peel off easily, and put the frozen pastele on a plate covered with another plate to heat in microwave.

Chocolate Sorbet using ninja blender and green life scoop express

Mix together in at least a 2 cup bowl. Straight sides may work better.

• 1/2 c sugar
• 6 T cocoa powder
• pinch salt (optional. I tend to forget.)
• 1/4-1/2 t. instant coffee crushed fine (optional)

Add nut milk in small increments. Add just enough liquid to make a paste. Then slowly add nut milk and mix in between additions to avoid lumps of unmixed material. (Like making gravy or fudge.)

• 1 c nut milk (Regular milk foams more than nut milk. Probably can use any milk you want, or even cream.)

Heat in microwave in 1 minute to 30 second hits. Mix in between heating. Cook until sugar is not longer grainy and it perhaps thickens slightly. Kind of like making fudge. Watch to make sure mixture doesn't go over the sides of your bowl.

Then put mixture into your ninja cup that holds about 3 cups liquid.

Add

• 1 cup frozen cherries (Helps cool mixture down so you don't have to put in fridge to cool.)
• 2 capfuls vodka from 375 ml bottle (Optional. Makes softer. Could experiment with other alcohol)
• 1 t. vanilla (Optional)
• Nut milk to fill line on ninja cup.

Blend 2-4 minutes to incorporate air while setting up ice cream maker.

Add to ice cream maker while paddle is turning. Very important! Paddle must be moving while mixture is added or mixture will freeze to bottom and plastic paddle will be stuck and not move.

I like a less sweet sorbet so I cut sugar and chocolate in half along with adding cherries.

Cherry Sorbet using ninja blender and green life scoop express ice cream maker

 Mix together

• 1/2 c honey
• 1/2 c nutmilk (could use water or regular milk probably?)

Put in Ninja blender cup (Mine holds about 3 cups liquid), Add

• about 1 c cherries
• 2 caps of vodka from 375 ml bottle (Optional. Makes sorbet softer. Perhaps other alcohol will work too) 
• Fill rest of way with nut milk

Blend in air about 2-3 minutes while you are setting up ice cream maker. I have a weak, slow ice cream maker and I like a little lightness to my sorbet. 

Then pour mixture into ice cream maker while the paddle is on. Very important! If paddle is not moving, mix will freeze to the bottom and paddle will be stuck in the frozen mixture on bottom.

Let mix about 30'. Mixture will look done. If you used vodka, it will be very soft. Can store extra in freezer but will probably continue to freeze more and may become harder. 

Can also use other fruit, fresh or frozen. I have made it with unsweetened, plain, homemade applesauce. 

Can also add spices like cardamon, cinnamon, cloves.....

Lentil Rice Waffles using WM9 Salton Waffle Maker

 Makes about 8 waffles from about 2 cups of batter. Cook 5 minutes.

Put the following in a jar. I usually put in 24 fluid ounce jar. (Old pickle jar.)  It expands a lot. Add hot water to about 1" above rice and lentils. Mix well. It tends to pack together. Mix it up so that it is loose. Add more hot water as it is absorbed to keep about 1/2" water above rice and lentils. The mixture will expand to about 1-2" from top of jar. Let it cool. 

• 1/2 c rice
• 1/2 c lentils

Once cool add following and let sit overnight or so

• about 1 T whey (optional) (I usually use whey from yogurt that has separated.)

Add the next day

• couple pinches of yeast (I only add if whey doesn't make bubbles or I didn't put in whey. I imagine you could also add baking soda instead.)

Let sit until bubbles form, anywhere from an hour or overnight. The longer it sits, the more it ferments and adds lightness to the waffles. It also can get more sour the longer it sits. So it's a balancing act between enough bubbles and a lighter taste.

Then mix in

• about 1/2- 1 t salt

Reserve some liquid if necessary. Grind finely in immersion blender. (Probably can use any blender. I am used to using a Ninja blender. My food processor does not grind it fine enough.) 

Then mix in

• 2 T oil (Helps keep batter from sticking to waffle maker)
• 1/3 c. sesame seeds (optional but tasty. Can be raw or toasted.)

Add back enough liquid so the consistency of the batter is that of thinner pancake batter but not as thin as that for crepes.

Oil and preheat waffle maker until light turns off. (Oil helps waffles brown and keeps them from sticking)

Pour batter into waffle squares using glass measuring cup or pourable cup making sure none of the waffle maker is showing through. It takes about 1/4 c of batter for each square and ends up being a little over 1 cup for 4 squares of waffles.

Close waffle maker and let everything bake 5 minutes. Adjust baking time to your waffle maker. (Need to bake long enough so middle gets cooked. If middle is not cooked, waffles splits in half with 1/2 on top and 1/2 on bottom.)

Then remove with heat resistant (thinner is better) silicone scraper, flipper, whatever you have that is not metal so you don't wreck the nonstick finish on the waffle maker. Can eat right away or let cool on rack or paper towels in order to freeze for future use. I think toaster heats up better than microwave if you like a crisper texture.

I like them plain but you can put anything on them from nut butter to jam to syrup, etc. My sister eats them with hamburgers.

If you don't have a waffle maker, you could probably cook them in a pan like pancakes or crepes.

Jerry's Boiled Peanuts made from RAW peanuts in crock pot

Your salt to water ratio is 1/3 c. salt to 10 c. water. The taste of this ratio equals the salted taste of the peanuts.

Put in crock pot and stir to dissolve salt

• 1/3 c. Salt 
• 5 c. water

Then add

• 3 lbs RAW peanuts

Add remaining

• 5 cups of water

Stir peanuts up. Put lid on crock pot and cook on High.

Check on it periodically and add COLD water as needed when water level drops a couple of cups down. The peanuts will sink when you add cold water. Maintain initial water level to get right level of saltiness into the peanuts. Always add cold water to shock it and get water into the peanut shell.

Cook overnight on high. Next day test peanuts to see if they are the desired texture. Once they reach desired texture, remove crock pot lid and let peanuts cool into the water. They will sink as they absorb the salty water.

Can freeze baggies of boiled peanuts for future snacks.

Creamed Corn

Grind in blender or food processor and set aside

• 1/3 - 1/2 bag frozen corn from 12 oz bag (can grind while frozen)

Melt in pan

• 1 T butter (or if prefer probably can use oil)

Then add above ground corn and cook a little.

Then add about

• 2/3 to 1 c. half &half (or probably can add whole milk of any kind)

and cook till starts to thicken

Then add

• remaining bag of corn (can be still somewhat frozen)

Cook while stirring continuously until thick and creamy.

I don't measure so amounts are approximate. 

 ref: https://www.thehouseofelynryn.com/2020/11/21/creamed-corn/

Gumbo (Clean out the fridge)

Cook Roux until dark caramel color but lighter than chocolate candy color. Be careful not to get any on you because it sticks to you and makes a bad burn. Can start at a higher temperature but as it darkens, decrease the temperature. Stir continuously. Don’t let burn. Use heat resistant flattish wooden spoon. Some plastic ware will melt when you are browning flour.

·         ½ c. butter/oil/bacon grease, or whatever you have. (can use less if you like)

·         ½  heaping cup of flour

Once the roux reaches the right color, cool the pan of roux in a pan of cold water so it stops cooking and set aside.

 

Saute till soft, maybe even lightly browned

·         1 onion

While the onion is cooking, finely chop

·         2 -3 Celery stalks

·         1 fresh Pepper (or more if you’re using small ones)

·         Hot pepper (optional) (

Then cook till soft

 

Meanwhile blend Cajun spice mixture and stir into cooked vegetables

·         ½ - 1 t. white, red, & black pepper

·         1 -2 t.  oregano, thyme, paprika, salt

·         1-2 t. garlic & onion powder (Optional)

 

Stir into cooked vegetables

·         4-6 garlic cloves (fine mince or garlic press)

 

Deglaze pan with

·         Can of diced tomatoes (optional) or

·         Wine or vinegar

 

Add leftover meat

·         Sausage, beef, duck, chicken, turkey…..

·         Cooked leftover veggies such as corn, greens,… (optional)

·         Black eye peas, lentils, beans, if you don’t have enough meat (optional) or for vegetarians

 

Add enough broth to cover everything

·         Broth such as veggie, beef, duck, chicken, shrimp shell*,….

 

Then add thickeners

·         Roux

·         Okra (optional)

Bring to a boil to thicken.

 

Once to desired thickness, turn off heat and add

·         ¼ - ½ c. chopped parsley

·         Juice from one lemon

·         Uncooked shrimp if want.

 Serve over Rice

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Shrimp Shell Broth

 

Bring to boil

·         Raw shrimp shells

·         Enough water to cover shells

Then let cool