Pasteles (pronounced pas-TEL-les; singular pastel) are a traditional dish of Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. In Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and also throughout Panama, it is similar to a tamale and said to have originated from the Canary Islands. In Central American cuisine, it more closely resembles a British pasty or an Italian calzone. There are different types of flours to make dough, depending on the type of pasteles, including pasteles de masa (in which the masa can consist of a combination of grated green banana, green plantain, taro and pumpkin, cassava or rice), pasteles de yuca (cassava), pasteles de arroz (rice) and plátano (plantain).
Pasteles contain a variety of fillings. The filling depends, once again, on the type of pasteles. Pasteles can be filled with ground meat, diced meat, pudding, or vegetables (either 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, milk and annatto 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 and 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 annatto 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 or more 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.
In Hawaii, locals say pateles without the first s. This may be related to the absence of consonant clusters in native Hawaiian words, and perhaps also to the frequent weakening or loss of /s/ at the end of syllables in Caribbean Spanish.
Colombian pasteles are called pasteles de arroz and are more of a tamale then a typical pastel. The masa is made up of rica that is seasoned and left out in the sun, they call this Orear. The masa or orear is filled with many things. Pickled vegetables, chorizo, pork, chick peas, olives and potatoes are the most common stuffing. Colombian pasteles are wrap twice once with cabbage leaf then again with banana leaf.
Pasteles de hojas (pasteles in leaf) or pasteles Dominicano. There are common but hard to come across the island. Pasteles are mainly made around the holidays and are simple. The masa contains three tubers or plantains and two tubers and is filled with ground meat.
In Puerto Rico pasteles are the most cherished culinary recipe. There are many recipes traced back to African salves in Puerto Rico, with are mashed green banana stuffed with pork and wrap in banana leaf and called pasteles. But most common today are pasteles de masa and are the most time consuming. The masa takes hours and many people. Pasteles de masa is made up of grated green banana, green plantain, taro, potato, pumpkin, liquid from the meat mixture, milk and annatto oil. The meat is a stew of pork bunt, ham, beacon, raisins, chickpeas, olives and capers seasoned with sofrito, adobo, and annatto oil.
Pasteles de yuca is one of many recipes in Puerto Rico that are popular around the island and in Latin America. The masa is mostly yuca with a little potato and yam. The filling is currants, shrimp, craborlobster cooked in coconut milk, sofrito, adobo, and annatto oil.
Doña Marina López a culinary educator was interviewed for a book named Puerto Rico grand cuisine of the Caribbean by, José L. Díaz de Villegas Freyre. She says that a typical pastel takes green banana only, without tuber. "The green banana is from the mountains, the plantains from the coast".
Doña Berta Cabanillas, auther of Cocina a gusto, holds that slaves working at sugar mills invented pasteles.
Pasteles do how ever have there roots in Puerto Rico and are a mix of fufu and tamales.
