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My maternal grandmother was born in a small town in Puerto Rico, on the southern edges of El Yunque, and while she moved to New York as a young woman, every year for the holidays she would make certain foods from her childhood, and so they became a part of my childhood too. She lived with my parents and me until I was eight, choosing to move into a local not-quite-a-retirement-community nearby when my brother was born since she felt our little house was too crowded, but she continued to make the same holiday meals right up until she passed away a few years ago. I have been missing these things since. My mother has been going through a difficult time in her life recently, so I've decided to surprise her this Christmas by making these dishes - half the reason I'm participating in this ICSA is to practice these recipes. I have to thank bartolimu for the inspiration! I've scaled down these recipes here since I was making them in secret for myself. Pasteles (makes 2 to 4 depending on how big you make then) I have never actually made this recipe myself before. It turned out very close to how I remember it, so I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Masa 2 green bananas 1 green plantain 1 or 2 yautía blanca (you can substitute taro or a similar root vegetable if you need to) 1 small russet potato salt to taste  Simply chop everything up...  ...and puree it in a food processor, to an oatmeal-ish consistency. This is the masa, which is Spanish for "goop." It means "dough."  Set this aside in the refrigerator. Filling 1 onion 1 green pepper a few cloves of garlic 1 or 2 tbsp olive oil ~15oz chickpeas 1/2 cup tomato sauce ~1/2 cup or less water ~2 tsp oregano cilantro, if you're not a soapy cilantro type like I am salt & pepper to taste a few Spanish olives (optional - I didn't add any because I added tons of them to my rice) You can cook up some pork instead of using chickpeas, if you like. That's more traditional, but I don't eat meat, so I won't be doing that. Sorry! Cook the garlic, onion and pepper in the oil for a few minutes, then add everything else and simmer for about 20 minutes. Allow to cool.  Wrapping Banana leaves Parchment paper String/twine Achiote or oil  Cut the banana leaves and parchment into ~6" by 12" rectangles. On each leaf, spread a little achiote oil or olive oil. The achiote "oil" I am using here is basically annatto suspended in shortening or something. What you use isn't super important honestly. Spoon the masa onto the leaf, leaving about an inch all around (I added too much in these pictures, actually, and had to spoon some back off).  Spoon about two or three tablespoons of the filling into the middle.  I don't have any pictures during the wrapping process as I don't have three hands and didn't have anyone to assist, but you just fold the leaf - top down, bottom up, and then sides in, then flip the whole leaf burrito over.  Fold the paper in the same way, and tie the whole thing together with string.  I made mine way too big, but they turned out okay for a first try. Boil them in water for about an hour to an hour and a half (they also freeze well at this point, if you want to prepare a bunch ahead of time for later).  Arroz con Gandules (makes about 2 servings) This is a very complicated recipe, by which I mean it is rice and beans. If you buy a can of Goya gandules there will be a basic recipe for this on the label, so it's not exactly some obscure thing. I don't even have measurements for half the ingredients because it basically doesn't matter. ~1/2 cup to 1 cup long grain rice 1 cup to 2 cups broth of your preference ~8oz gandules/pigeon peas 1 onion a few cloves garlic 1 or 2 plum tomatoes tomato paste sweet peppers Spanish olives capers cumin oregano Goya sazon (this is mostly MSG with some coloring, haha) olive oil salt & pepper to taste Cook the onion, garlic and peppers in the oil for a few minutes, then add the tomatoes, tomato paste, spices, olives and capers and cook for a while longer. Toss in the broth and bring it to a good boil, then turn the heat down and add the rice. Simmer until the rice absorbs most of the liquid.  Don't disturb the rice too much while it cooks - you want some of it to Tostones Unlike the other recipes I actually make these all the time. They're super easy and are great as an alternative snack to chips or whatever. Plantains Oil Salt While the other stuff is cooking, cut some plantains into slices, and fry them in a little oil for a few minutes on each side.  Remove them from the pan and smoosh them flat, then fry them again, for a minute or less on each side.  Toss in salt.  Now let's open up one of those pasteles...  I'm very pleased with how this turned out, given that I've never made them for myself before! Serve with the rice and tostones.  And now, for some dessert... Strufoli (makes about 2 servings) But strufoli is an Italian thing?! Yeah, well, like I said my grandmother moved to New York City in her thirties and stayed in the region for the rest of her life, so what do you want? slightly less than 3/4 cup flour 1 egg t tbsp butter, melted 1/8 cup sugar a pinch of salt 1/2 tsp baking powder oil for deep frying honey Licor 43 or some other sweet liqueur nonpareils (I forgot to include these in the picture) slivered almonds (Also not pictured; my grandmother actually used Jordan almonds, but I couldn't find any when I went shopping  ) Sift the dry ingredients together, then add the egg and butter and mix until smooth. Add a little bit more flour at a time and knead the dough until it comes together into a smooth ball, then divide the dough into little balls. Mine were a little too big, but it's not too important.  Deep fry them! I don't really know how hot you want the oil, I just tossed one in as a test once the thermometer seemed to read "hot enough," then cooked the rest.  Drain them and let them cool. Heat the honey to get it a little runny, and mix it with an ounce or two of the liqueur. The amounts of either are not important, so you can do whatever you think would taste best. Toss the strufoli in the warm honey with the almonds. Sprinkle with the nonpareils and serve! 
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Nov 9, 2014 04:29
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| # ? May 3, 2024 20:17 |
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That all looks absolutely delicious. I'm going to have to try making pasteles some time - they look fun.
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Nov 9, 2014 06:01
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Nice writeup. Do you have a good recipe for Mofongo?
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Nov 10, 2014 18:41
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Thanks for the kind words guys.  Unfortunately I don't have a recipe for mofongo; it was never really a thing in our family. I could shoot some emails to my relatives who are still in PR and see if any of them do, but I don't know. Last time I had it was at a restaurant in San Juan, like eight years ago. Medenmath fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 03:09
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That would be great, my friend and I took a crack at it last year but we have no idea if it was authentic or not.
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Nov 14, 2014 20:26
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| # ? May 3, 2024 20:17 |
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im gonna try to make those bannanananannan leaf thingies. yum!
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Nov 15, 2014 12:09
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