Dec 11
20
Making Pastelles at Christmas
Every Trinidad Christmas should involve Pastelles. However they are very time consuming to make and need some special ingredient’s which are not always available when you are overseas. Another essential is to have a Pastelle press which is similar the same as a Tortilla Press used in South America. This will take all the guess work out of rolling the corn flour dough.
You will need to spend time cooking the meat and adding the raisins, olives and capers. Getting the meat right will make all the difference to the final product. You can add some bolognese sauce or chopped tomato sauce to get the consistency and flavour right. Also you will need to make sure the meat is seasoned right with green seasoning, all purpose seasoning, salt and black pepper.
Pastelle making seems to turn any home into a production line with one person pressing and one person folding etc. Before you know it everyone gets a rhythm going and the pastelles are flying into the steamer. Banana leaves need to be boiled, wiped and cut to size and foil needs to be cut to the right size.
After all this and at 1am in the morning all the pastelles are cooked and ready for freezing in the morning. Just before tired family members drag themselves to bed a taste test is required accompanied by some homemade pepper sauce and tomato kethcup. Another year of Pastelle making is done and everyone can sigh with relieve.
