Pasteles de Platano
Savor the rich flavors of Puerto Rican Pasteles de Platano, a traditional dish made with green plantains, filled with savory meats, and wrapped in banana leaves.
Labor-intensive and deeply communal, pasteles are Puerto Rico's answer to tamales. Made from a masa of grated green banana, plantain, yautía (taro), and achiote oil, stuffed with a savory picadillo of pork, olives, capers, and raisins, then wrapped in banana leaves and boiled. Families gather in pasteleras — pastel-making sessions — in the weeks before Christmas, wrapping dozens at a time. Each family guards its recipe jealously.
- Made from grated green banana masa
- Wrapped in banana leaves
- Boiled, never baked
- A Christmas family tradition
Ingredients
- 3 green plantains
- 1 chopped onion
- ½ lb white yautia
- 1 chopped bell pepper
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 chopped tomatoes
- ½ cup achiote
- 1 lb pork meat
- ¼ lb ham
- 3 cilantro leaves
- ¼ tablespoon salt
- 1 minced cilantrillo
- ¼ lb salt pork
- ¼ cup achiote
- 2 tablespoons capers
- ½ cup olives
- ½ tsp marjoram
- ⅓ cup raisins
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup cooked chick peas
- 3 packages plantain leaves
- Strings to tie
Directions
Peel the plantain and the yautia and soak in salted water for 5 mins. Grate vegetables on the finest side of the grater. Add the milk, salt and 1st achiote then mix well until color is uniform. Season to taste and set aside until filling is made. chop the pork, ham, salt pork into small pieces and add capers, olives, raisins, chick peas, onion, bell peppers, tomatoes, minced cilantro, cilantrillo, achiote and oregano. add ½ water and cook for 20 mins. Clean and trim the plantain leaves and cut into 10" pieces. use one or two pieces for each pastel. Grease inside of each leaf and put about ⅓ cup vegetable mixture in center of leaf, spread it out to a rectangular shape. Place about 2 tablespoons of filling on top of the spread. Fold the leaves lenghtwise so edges of mixture meet, fold sides towards middle, and fold ends down (almost like folding an envelope but tighter). Place 2 pasteles together with folded sides facing each other, tie like a christmas package. boil for 45 minutes in salted water. Remove from water and drain before serving. serve hot.
Recipe sent by: Cindy Rodriguez from Tennesse.
My Favorite Recipe Book
Find recipes like this and more in the recipe book Puerto Rican Cookery by Carmen Aboy Valldejuli. My mother gave me this recipe book on my 18th birthday and it has been my staple recipe book ever since.
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