Puerto Rican pasteles keep the party going
The holidays are still going strong in Puerto Rico!
Amigos! Happy new year! What did you do to celebrate, anything fun? I spent time with family and friends in Spain, and was even lucky enough to see my old friends Ferran and Albert Adrià—we cooked some amazing wild game birds together.
Today I want to celebrate the longest holiday season I know about, from my friends in Puerto Rico, who start partying in mid-November and don’t stop until after mid-January! Right now we are still in the middle of things…it’s Three Kings Day on Saturday, then the festive week known as Las Octavitas, begins. So since we are still partying like we’re in San Juan, I thought I’d share with you a recipe for pasteles, the very famous dish of pork and root vegetables wrapped in banana leaves.
These pasteles comes from one of the chefs on my team, Jesus Serrano, who first joined us in San Juan and spent months working with World Central Kitchen after Hurricane María in September 2017. He then became the pastry chef at minibar, and now does pastry for our research and development team. Maybe you remember him from our video last year with the wild golf ball cake he developed.
Jesus grew up eating these pasteles made by his mom, but this, he told me, was his first time making them himself. “I’ve seen her doing it for years, every holiday, and now it’s time for me to do it myself. When you are away from home, and you miss food that reminds you of childhood, you have to start learning how to do it. It’s never too late. And this is one of those things that everyone who lives in the States is missing during the holidays.”
So friends, let’s learn along with Jesus—I love that attitude of “it’s never too late.” They can be a bit tricky the first time you make them, but I think you’ll be able to do it. You should watch some videos of Puerto Rican cooks making and wrapping them to get the picture—or watch Jesus doing it here:
And if you want to add anything else to it—some cooks like to add roasted red peppers or olives—do it! Just make sure to serve them with pique, the Puerto Rican vinegar-and-pepper hot sauce. Jesus says that some Puerto Ricans will eat them with ketchup, but he says it’s not really traditional. “Younger people might like the ketchup, but pique is the way.” You heard it from Jesus! By the way, there’s a recipe for Pique in the World Central Kitchen cookbook on page 293…do you have a copy yet?
Jesus’s mom used to make hundreds of them around the holidays, from Thanksgiving through Los Octavitas, both to eat at home and to give away to family and friends. This recipe makes about 6 dozen—you can have some over the weekend, freeze a few dozen for a rainy or snowy day, and still give a handful away to your neighbors to build up some good will for 2024. If you make them, send me a picture! I would love to show Jesus…he just got back from his own holiday break with his family in Puerto Rico, where he ate many, many pasteles made by his mom.
And of course, we are three days away from the Three Kings in Spain, a holiday that kids look forward to even more than Christmas! Last year I shared with you a recipe for the amazing roscón de reyes…if you want to try your hand at that one, take a look (or just order one from your local Jaleo or at Spanish Diner!)
So now…Jesus’s mom’s pasteles!
Puerto Rican Pasteles
Makes about 60