Pasteles
Pasteles are Puerto Rican special occasion food. The whole family usually gets together assembly-line-style to make large numbers of these starchy parcels and get them ready for the boiling pot. No Boricuan Christmas is complete without pasteles.
Makes about 12 to 15 pasteles, enough for 6 to 8 people
Masa (dough)
- Green bananas, peeled and chopped -- 5
- Green plantain, peeled and chopped -- 1
- Yautía (taro root), peeled and chopped -- 1 1/2 pounds
- Russet potato, peeled and chopped -- 1
- Salt -- to taste
Filling
- Onion, chopped -- 1
- Green pepper, seeded and chopped -- 1
- Garlic, peeled and chopped -- 3 to 4 cloves
- Oil -- 2 to 3 tablespoons
- Pork butt or shoulder, cut into small cubes -- 2 pounds
- Tomato sauce -- 1 cup
- Water -- 1/2 cup
- Cilantro, chopped -- 1/2 bunch
- Oregano, dried -- 2 teaspoons
- Salt and pepper -- to taste
For Assembly
- Banana leaves, hard spine removed and cut into 12x6-inch rectangles -- 15 pieces
- Parchment paper, cut into 12x6-inch rectangles -- 15 pieces
- Kitchen string --15 (20-inch long) pieces and 30 (10-inch long) pieces
- Achiote or vegetable oil -- 1/4 cup
Method
Masa
- As you chop the bananas, plantain, yautía and potato, place the chunks into a large pot of cold, salted water to keep them from browning.
- Drain the water and puree the chopped ingredients in batches in a food processor. Add a little water or milk as needed to make a soft dough with the consistency of cooked oatmeal. You may have to let the processor run for a while, and make sure to scrape down the sides. Remove the masa to a large bowl and season with salt. Chill in the refrigerator while you make the filling.
Filling
- Add the onion, pepper and garlic to a food process and pulse to chop finely.
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium flame. Add the onion-pepper mixture and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the rest of the filling ingredients and simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, adjust seasoning and allow to cool.
Assembly
- Get the masa, the pork filling and all of your assembly ingredients together in a workspace. Lay out a piece of parchment paper, then center a piece of banana leaf over it. Wipe the banana leaf dry and then brush the top side with achiote or vegetable oil.
- Scoop up 1/2 cup of the masa and place in the middle of the banana leaf. Spread evenly over the leaf, leaving a 1-inch border around the edges. Place 2 to 3 tablespoons of pork filling in the middle of the masa.
- Fold the top edge down over the filling. Bring the bottom edge up over this. Then fold in both sides to make a rectangular packages. Be careful not to wrap it too tightly or the filling will squeeze out. Flip the package over on the parchment so it is seam side down.
- Fold the bottom of the parchment up over the wrapped package. Fold in each side, then roll up, burrito-like, to complete the package. Tie one of the 20-inch pieces of string around the pastel lengthwise and then three 10-inch pieces across the short side.
- Bring a large pot of well salted water to boil on the stove. Drop in the prepared pasteles and boil gently for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
- Remove from the water with tongs, remove the outer parchment and serve the pasteles with or without their banana leaf wrapping. Goes well with arroz con gandules.
Variations
- The recipe above is a basic pasteles filling. Additional items are often added to the filling when the pasteles are wrapped. Add 5 or 6 capers and 1 pimento-stuffed olive to the filling of each pastel. Or add 5-6 cooked garbanzos.
- Pasteles can also be made with chicken, shrimp or ground beef. For vegetarian pasteles, substitute 2 (15-ounce) cans of drained garbanzos for the pork.
- Stir a little of the sauce from the filling into the masa to give it extra flavor.
- Puree 1/2 pound of peeled, chopped calabaza squash with the masa if you like. Or substitute yuca (cassava root) for the yautía.
- If you want to avoid all the string tying, use aluminum foil to wrap up the pasteles instead of parchment paper.
- Wrapped, uncooked pasteles freeze well for later use. Cook them directly from the frozen state.
Notes
- Pasteles are a favorite Puerto Rican dish. They are special occasion food, and no Boricuan Christmas table is complete without them.
- Don't worry if your first few pasteles look kind of funny. The work will get easier and you will get better at it as you make more of them.
- Spread the work over more than one day by making the masa and filling up ahead. Chilled masa is much easier to work with. Then gather some family or friends and make the pasteles in an assembly line. The work is much faster this way, and it makes for good family fun.
- The special ingredients for pasteles--taro root, plantains, banana leaves--can be purchased at most Asian or Latino markets.
Frozen pasteles
Question: Can anyone tell me, how long can pasteles stay frozen before expiring or going bad?
Thanks
Making pastele
aloha, thank u for your recipe. am ready to make pastele w)the bunch of bananasfrm my yard. am not puertorican, but love the food frm your country. have made some w/recipes from friends, all of which, put together, came out okay..you know how it is..trial & error..not bad.will let you know how it came out. thank you so much for your recipe. I'm confident it will turn out really well, now that I have an autentic recipe. Much Aloha
Pastele
I am grateful to have found a PUERTO RICAN PASTELE RECIPE.
thanx
perfect recipe my man is puerto rican and he loved it... I am white but you would never know just by eating my food lol thanx again
pastele color
can someone tell me why some pasteles are brown while others make them and they look orange in color?
pasteles
they could be made of yuca they are like an orangey yellow color
delicious
It has to do with the aciote
It has to do with the aciote in the masa
because you need to use
because you need to use achote seeds and boil it in oil and thats how you get the orange color.
These are the brown ones,
These are the brown ones, where there made mainly from bananas and plantains, the yellow ones are made with cassava; my fav ; )
We All From The Same GOD and bleed the same BLOOD!
First of all let me say thank you for the recipe ChefBrad. You was the one who tried to reach out to others; who may want to try their hands at making pasteles. It was not anyone else here who made that effect to help others in need. So my hats off to you. I am one who understood your meaning, it don't take a rocket scientist to get your meaning. You say Tomato and I say Tomatoes. It really not a big issue of all of this carrying on. Its only the lonely and needy attention eaters who keeps nonsense carried on. I think you are a wise person to have left it alone. You showed more love to your page and blog then any others here. You was not here for anger, hatred, reviling behavior, nor childlike attitudes. All you wanted to do is share some love and aid those who may want a simple recipe for something they enjoy. I am glad you didn't changed anything. Those who are of a Latin origin should know who they are and don't have to fight, nor bat a war to make it known to others. They just are who they are, it should not matter to no one else but GOD and themselves. He's the one they have to answer to at the end. So be YOU ChefBrad, that is all you need to be. Not to be concern about the non-sense of lonely individuals who feels its all about them. Keep being the man you are with a good heart. No matter what color or culture someone may be we all from the same GOD and bleed the same BLOOD with a different DNA (make up)is all. NO ONE IS BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE!
The Bible says this to all men: Acts 10:34-35 At this Peter opened his mouth and said: “For a certainty I perceive that God is not partial. But in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him."
As we see here in the Bible it says: GOD is NOT partial to any man, so man need to step back and take a look at himself and check his OWN attitude with GOD if he thinks he is better. God will in the end put him in check off list himself it they don't correct their thinking. All men is equal to him.
We should be worried more about the world's conditions as oppose to what may not suit ones taste of words in a recipe that was posted there out of love, what is wrong with this picture??? I wonder about those who claims to be of GOD or love him and displays these kinds of attitudes. Its not about what may seem wrong in a recipe, it about how someone love his brother and cultural food so much he tried to put it out there for others to have a share of partaking of it also. Why not feel proud in that fact that he enjoyed another's cultural food and wanted to share it "HIS WAY". Others can do the same as well "YOUR WAY" on your own page. With the world's problems today and all it's stress we all share in together, and ourselves along with others; why can't we share our joys and likes with one another in our own way. Isn't that is what diversity is about??? If we was all the same we be bored out our MINDS, wouldn't we???
Anyway ChefBrad I want to leave a few words for you if I may. Here it is:
1 Peter 2:15-17 "For so the will of God is, that by doing good YOU may muzzle the ignorant talk of the unreasonable men. Be as free people, and yet holding YOUR freedom, not as a blind for badness, but as slaves of God. Honor [men] of all sorts, have love for the whole association of brothers, be in fear of God, have honor for the king."
This is for you, it made me think of you and your good intentions. Let no one take away from who you are, and keep honoring what God tells us to do with one another. Be a kind hearted man who wanted to share some of his Joy with the world (all sorts of men) that he couldn't share with in person, his food or likes through a simple page. It NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT; COMMUNICATION IS A GREAT THING..ESPECIALLY IF IS WITH GOOD INTENT!
And to the person who was asking about the orange color pasteles, its orange because more annatto for coloring was used in it to give it a more orange look, less makes it look brown. Some people I know may also use a sweet potatoe in it. That is all I will say on this. I could add all I know about Pasteles too; I used to sell them in El Barrio and made good money too. I'm soon to start back selling them again this year. But I won't waste my time on explaining about that. This posting is mainly for you ChefBrad. I wish you the best in your future postings of recipes. One thing, you sure made yourself known in the world, you made yourself a ink spot here on this site and the recipe blob. KUDOS to you CHEF!
Peace to you (ChefBrad) and to all the other brothers and sisters OUT there in the world! Whether you of a Alien Nation or Native Nation, I love you all.
Matthew 22:38-39 "Jesus said to him: “You must love your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’second, like it, is this, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself."
Matthew 13:34 "I am giving YOU a new commandment, that YOU love one another; just as I have loved YOU, that YOU also love one another."
Uh, what now...? Always nice
Uh, what now...? Always nice to throw in some bible verses in a pasteles recipe. Your post was a bit short though. Maybe you could expound on that thought a bit.
pasteles
This receipe is the same as my Mama Juanita's with the capers and olive.I live in Alaska and banana leaf is not available so I will use paper instead.I have not had pasteles in over 20 years.
Thank you
yes i live in alaska and
yes i live in alaska and make pasteles all the time and i get my banan leafs frm the red apple market in mt vierw.
wow you came to my rescue
wow you came to my rescue because my girlfriend wanted me to make her pasteles and I have not made them in over 10 yrs. and wasnt sure if I could remember on my own so I found your recipe and it was a exact duplicate of the way I was shown while in Puerto rico. Thank you so much
Clarification on Tamales and Cakes
The Chef that created this recipe is trying to justify his use of the work 'cake'. In this recipe he/she uses 'cake' to describe the pasteles which is a mistranslation and clearly demonstrates the person's lack of awareness to the culture. Instead of continuing to justify yourself by comparing your description to 'crap cakes', just respect the cultural food you are providing a recipe for and 'DELETE' the work cake. Also, those that persist in comparing this to tamales are also showing a disrespect to the puertorican culture. my husband is from mexico and his first time making pasteles with us (my puertorican family) and his first time trying pasteles was a very different culinary experience for him. They are 'not' tamales no matter how you try to make the shoe fit folks.
pasteles
Im from Hawaii and I am 1/4 Puerto Rican. I know I love pasteles I wish I could make them! I'll have to try out the recipe, Its just hard to get green banana's in Nevada, I make gundule bean rice all the time though. Im planning a trip to Puerto Rico, never been there, can anyone give me some info about where to go and where to eat? What can you do for fun there?
Puertorrican rice pasteles
I'd like to get the recipe for "pasteles de arroz" Puertoriquenos.
Gracias, Rosie
All I have to say is, Ay
All I have to say is, Ay Dios Mio!!! and I love pasteles!!!
You say cake others say tamale
First I appreciate that you have gone out your way to share this incredible recipe that is so dear to many Puerto Rican's hearts. I am sure you mean no disrespect when you described pasteles as savory cakes. I even see why you would use the word cake and if anyone has trouble with the word they should look at a dictionary and they will see why calling pasteles cakes can be applied.
Having said that though if what your intent is to describe it as accurately as possible then in my opinion it is more accurate to call pasteles a "savory tamale-like dish".
Thank you for sharing the recipe and people please try being civil with one another.
On a side note I remember a co worker of mine that married into a Puerto Rican family telling me how much she loved going to her In-laws and eating Puerto Rican Cod-Fritters. Which left me with a blank stare for a second or two till I realized she was talking about Bacalaitos. It was the 1st time I had ever heard it described using it's english translation. Needless to say it brought a smile to my face once I realized what she was talking about.
We call cakes bocochos in
We call cakes bocochos in Puerto Rico.
Pasteles
Que mucha caca hablan ustedes aqui. Todavia nadie ha visto lo obvio.
Que nunguno sabe na de su lengua y necesitan entender Ingles y la propia traduccion.
Honestly, you should all be beaten with a "stupid stick"
Your Spanish is horrible,
Your Spanish is horrible, making you look even less educated than all of the people you think should be beaten with a "stupid stick." "Nunguna" is not a word, it should be "ninguna." Caca? What are you, five years old? Maybe you should learn Spanish before dishing out all that criticism!
Hey, Pasteles are hard to describe to a gringo!
Hi, I'm a Nuyorican & I've been making pasteles for a couple of years & I'm married to a gringo. While making them, my husband would come along & watch. I was describing them as "dumplings" made out of green bananas because they're like grating a potato & then dumping them into boiling water, like a dumpling. lol! So I guess it's okay to describe them as a tamale because that's what gringos will only understand. Now if I can get my gringo to eat arroz con gandules!
The term gringos is very
The term gringos is very offensive. You are married to a caucasian, yet you degrade him by calling him that. I can't stand it. Just go around calling people that, why don't you just go around calling african~americans the n-word. I mean come on. Have some respect. And not all white people are stupid. You tell them tamales, and you are disrespecting another culture. Grow up and have some respect. I understand if you are just ignorant, but look it up or ask before throwing terms around.
Btw-i love pasteles. My abuela made the best.
... you need to chill out and
... you need to chill out and enjoy some pasteles.
I need somebody's help please...
My husband is Puerto Rican and I am not. My mother n law gave me these Pasteles to make for him. They are in the frozen state. She told me all I had to do was boil water with some salt and cook them for approx 1 hour. They completely fell apart. They looked like mush. What did I do wrong???!!! I unwrapped them from the aluminum foil and put them in the boiling water. I was so excited to surprise my hubby and it totally didn't work for me. Can somebody please help me?
Hi - Do not unwrap them,
Hi - Do not unwrap them, boil them with the foil. Take them out of the foil after they've cooked. Good luck - what a nice mother-in-law you have!
Funny Stuff
It almost sounds as though we have the makings of an international incident over semantics.
I have had:
panCAKES
potatoCAKES
wheatCAKES
savory CAKES
and none of them were considered a dessert. Calling a pastel a savory cake conjures up the EXACT pictue in my mind of a pastel. Perfect translation imo. Savory is "good", cake is a small block of food.
What's better, a pastel or a tamale? Who the eff cares! Some people hate pasteles, some hate tamales. The rest of us like 'em both. Hell, I might even eat them both at the same meal, ON THE SAME GD PLATE!!! This just totally cracks me up that we feel like a foreign army has invaded our shores because someone suggested that they are comparable.
Jeezus people! Nothing like death threats over a simple recipe. Maybe I should compare both tamales and pasteles to a hamburger or maybe harpoot kofta. Add a good German beer and you got a meal!!!
Anyway, bon apetit ... salud ... probecho! ~~~BELCH~~~
Amen
Amen
Who cares?
Really people? You guys are just sitting there discussing how this recipe is not a ''cake'' or ''pastel''. or some random thing. Really i understand why u guys are arguing but there is really no need ok? Cuz i;m pretty sure everyone knows what this food item is and if sumone told them about this edible treat using a different name the other person wud still know. So plz stop bickering cuz it's really sad. Oh and I lUV THIS RECIPE ME AND MY MOM ARE TRYING TO MAKE IT TOO SO IF ANYONE HAS MADE THIS PLZ ADD UR COMMENT ABOUT HOW U MAKE OR WHAT U ADD FOR A PERSONAL TOUCH THANKS :)
In order for the pastelles
In order for the pastelles to be moist and soft. Is best to add 1/2 plantain. Not thw whole plantain as stated above.
1/2 of canned carnation milk. I make mine Grandma style. Also I add Achote to my masa not just to the banana leaf.Enjoy!
Pasteles vs cakes
Chefbrad, don't bother trying to explain it. Most people don't have the brain power to understand what you,re trying to say.
...wait, so are pasteles
...wait, so are pasteles cake or not?
Pasteles are not cake and the term was used incorrectly!
For the record, I am of Puerto Rican descent, both my parents came from Puerto Rico and I was born in the states.
First let me say that I do appreciate the posting of this recipe and I plan to use it some day soon.
To the person who posted this recipe, remember that you are posting a description of a recipe that is very specific to a particular culture, and if the members of that culture are telling you that you are describing it incorrectly, then perhaps you should take their word for it. Just from a respect and compassion point of view you should have changed the description by now.
You originally responded with a defensive attitude and quoted the dictionary.
I will do the same and systematically prove you wrong.
Definition 1a Pasteles are not breadlike so that definition is wrong!
Definition 1b Pasteles are not sweet or baked so that definition is wrong!
Definition 1c Pasteles are flattened but are not baked or fried so that definition is wrong! Keep in mind you can't combine parts of definition 1a, 1b and or any others to prove your point.
Definitions 2 and 3 are not used to describe food.
No where in any of the definitions does it say or suggest anything to do with boiling except in definition 1a it uses the wording "usually fried or baked" which leaves open the possibility for "boiling"... but again Pasteles are NOT a breadlike food so you are still wrong!
As far as people thinking their culture is better than anyone else's... if you have that attitude you need to grow up, period!
1
a : a breadlike food made from a dough or batter that is usually fried or baked in small flat shapes and is often unleavened
b : a sweet baked food made from a dough or thick batter usually containing flour and sugar and often shortening, eggs, and a raising agent (as baking powder)
c : a flattened usually round mass of food that is baked or fried
2 a : a block of compacted or congealed matter
b : a hard or brittle layer or deposit
3 : something easily done
PR Pasteles y Tamales
If you live in Colorado and would like to make Puerto Rican pasteles or Colombian tamales you can find almos all the ingredients in the supermarket Rancho Liborio in Aurora, CO
1400 E. Cofax Ave. Aurora, CO 80010 (720) 343-1210.
I am planing to make PR and Colombian dishes for Christmas and New Years. I love Puerto Rican Pasteles.....the green bananas, the green platano leaves, the green platano, the achiote seeds or paste you can find in Rancho Liborio Supermarket. The garbanzos you can buy natural or in Goya can. The only ingredient that Rncho Liborio does not have is the Yautia, but....go to the Little Zaiogon where the Vietnamese people sale fish and natural products and you will find the Yautia (they call it Taro root) it is the same, I bought 2 pounds of yautia....so....I will be making pasteles tomorrow Tuesday for Christmas. You will spend a little be of gas but it is worthy to make your pasteles at home. There is not a Puerto rican supermarket or restauran in the Denver area. Well......make your own pasteles...are the best. I will also make Colombian tamales, I love to cook both. My father in law was Puerto Rican and I learned to eat the delicious Puero Rican pasteles. The Colombian tamales and the Pr pasteles are made both in plantain leaves......delicious! I wish you everybody a Merry christmas and a Happy New Year.
Bogota.
You say pasteles & I say tameles,let's call the whole thing off.
The Queen of France said, "Let them eat cake", when told that her people were hungry. She meant "bread", but in translation from French to English, it came out as "cake". We say bizcocho for cake while the Larousse Spanish-English dictionary translates the word to mean sponge. To us Puerto Ricans bizcocho is cake and the dictionary says that cake is pastel. Bicho is a beast, animal or bug while for PR's, well I won't translate that....
Comparing pasteles to tameles and visa-versa is silly and ridiculous. Comparing Mexican food to Puerto Rican food is like comparing Chinese food to Japanese food or for that matter Italian to French food. They are different cuisines and one isn't better than another and if something is bland it's because the cook not not very good. Mexicans do not use as much garlic as us and that will make a difference when it come to beans and stews, but they use other ingredients that we do not like chocolate to make mole. A good mole can kick butt and sometimes I use it over yuca or plantains instead of mojo. Personally I love food and I love to cook.
Before the Spanish came to the Americas, the Aztec used corn and the Taino used yuca(manioc),the Spanish brought meat such as pigs, chickens and cows. Eventually raisins, olives and plantains, bananas from Asia via Africa, coffee from the Middle East, sugar. The Americas gave the world chocolate, corn, chile peppers, tomatoes, pineapples, potatoes...the list goes on and on. We now share all these wonderful foods and as a Puerto Rican I love the idea that my veggie pasteles are stuffed with eggplant, red and yellow peppers, corn, garbanzo, raisins, capers and olives. I now work at a Mexican restaurant that makes Kimchi and korean BBQ tameles. Vegan tameles with tofu, cooking the tofu in Puerto Rican sofrito and soy sauce. Come on folk use your imagination, experiment. Take the best from each others cuisine.
I will be eating pasteles
I will be eating pasteles today with yellow rice and gandules.
After living in PR for 6 years, most of these comments, are really baseless. No, I am not Latin and given most remarks here, most of you do a dis-service to your native culture/s ... especially the Puerto Ricans who are acting like spoiled children.
Feliz Nzvidad
Gente. Lets get this right. Pateles are pasteles y tamales are tamales. no matter what you call them they will all end up in the same place( en el toilet) lol Suave
Patelles' a PR recipe
Thank You! I Needed a recipe for one of my favorite foods to eat with my friends when I was in my High School, growing up days. Now that I'm over 50' and have traveled the world and being back in Philly has been a trip. Anyway, I came across this Puerto Rican recipe because my partners and friends parents were straight up. You could taste the love, in all the food. Thank You for the recipe...icjr
I love it all
I use to live in Hartford Connecticut. My best friends were Puerto Ricans. I was treated like a king every day I went to my friends mom,s homes. Im ate chuletas fritas, gandules con arroz, bacalaitos, and yes on ocassion, pasteles. They were some of the best years of my life. I was in food heaven. Then I moved to Tucson, Arizona. I met and became friends with mexicans who also treated me special with tamales, frijoles and arroz, tacos, burros etc. What I,m trying to say is it is all good, and thank God it,s all different. I hope you puerto ricans feel sorry for me because I have,nt had a pastele in 24 years lol. Heck, people here have never heard of Mofongo!!!!! Please never stop being proud of who you are and where you come from, both puerto rican and all other hispanic countries. I love it all
It's True, Wa are All PROUD!
Honestly all this discussion.
Let's just celebrate our Cultures and what they mean to us. We are all of Hispanic origin, whether you are Carribbean, Latin, Mexican, Does it really matter? We all have food in our cultures that speak to us, and remind us of Familia, Love, and what holds us all together. Part of the fabric of who we are is enveloped in the foods we eat. Yes, no one can compare the quality of one food to another. There may be similarities, but flavors, techniques, and experiences are all different. I love to celebrate the heritage of my Friends, Regardless of the culture they come from. Diversity is part of the joy of LIFE, and keeps the Sabor REAL!!!
As the Guerro in the room, you can be sure, that I embrace it all, and only wish that my culture had as much to offer as all of yours!
Muchos Gracias!
Feliz Navidad!
This is insulting and hard to grasp
I am an American. I am engaged to a man who's family is Puerto Rican He was born and raised in New York. His Grandfather was Born and raised in Puerto Rico. His Grandfather moved to American to give a better life to his family and all of this arguing and opinions are aggravating. My Fiancees Grandfather now resides in New York and I am trying to learn this recipe for my fiancees family. I would like to perfect it before I serve it to his Grandfather Jose. I do not want to insult him by the food not tasting as it did when he lived in Puerto Rico, So can someone please give me some Ideas or tips to make this a good Experience for Grandfather before he dies of the cancer he has. I want him to have a good Home cooked Puerto Rican meal before he dies. So these petty squabbles you people seem to be having doesn't matter to me. I just want to be there for my fiancee, his family and most of all his Grandfather. CAN ANYONE HELP? Or must u people keep fighting and disgrace the Puerto Rican Ancestors u say your standing up for.
Pasteles are just Pasteles
Pasteles are just Pasteles PERIOD! Don't translate it to what YOU feel is the right term... and don't ever compare them to tamales!!! Tamales are good but, Pasteles are made from scratch. Not corn meal!!!!!
maybe I can help
I think I can help; pasteles to puerto rican means that the masa is totally different than the tamali masa there's no comparison. Pastel to the mexican culture means cakes Like Birthday cake. The Puerto rican culture words are more Taino and Jibarro than Spanish from Spain. The Mexican Spanish has the dialect of Spain. JUST VISIT SPAIN AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT I MEAN
In response to: "The Puerto
In response to: "The Puerto rican culture words are more Taino and Jibarro than Spanish from Spain."
Firstly, the spelling is "Jibaro," not "Jibarro." Secondly, the Puerto Rican lexicon also has roots in Spain, in a place called Andalusia (Andalucia in Spanish). There are many parts of Spain, and the part of Spain that most Puerto Rican settlers arrived from just so happened to pronounce words slightly differently. I would bet money that the Spanish Hernan Cortes spoke when he landed on the Yucatan Peninsula was slightly different than the Spanish brought by the original conquistadors of Puerto Rico. (Cristoforo Colombo was a Genoese, anyway!) Tainos had an influence on certain words we use, like "hamaca" and "huracan," but our Spanish is not Taino, because frankly, the Tainos didn't speak spanish. "Jibaros," also spoke/speak Spanish, and there are many Puerto Ricans who still consider themselves to be Jibaros today. Puerto Rican spanish also has some African influence.
Even within Spain the dialects are different, so your comparison of Mexican and Puerto Rican spanish seems null.
Sorry to go on a rant but it bothers me when people state OPINION as FACT. Do some research and learn about your own countries and others. I am an educated Puerto Rican and I love my country, the way we speak spanish, and our pasteles.
Side Note: Puerto Rican at Mexican birthday party says "LETS CUT THE BISCOCHO" Not a good idea.
Wow, you guys can't be
Wow, you guys can't be serious. Here in Georgia a cake, a teacake, and hoecake are three very different things with similar names. There is no way you could confuse one with another, especially when there is a recipe to reference(duh).
How about y'all give some constructive advice instead of getting all snippy about Spanish to English translations. Y'all call non-sweet flour based things pasteles we call them savory cakes which means non-sweet. Same thing different way to say it.
pasteles
help!
thi is a little irish woman trying to make my puerto rican husband his mother's recipe for pasteles
it says to grate bananas
what i would like to know and i grate the bananas and then store them to make the next day
my husband works nights and he said he would grate bananas one day and then we can put them together next day
CAN WE DO THAT????
Offended??
I see the similarities between the tamal and pastel and take no offense to that. Tamales taste awesome and pasteles taste awesome.
tamales
tamales taste like crap. like some old mexican woman ate a whole corn husk and then pooped it out her bung hole and said. hey, since we are oh so poor and we have nothing else to eat i will eat this escrement that came out of my anus after eating a whole corn husk and call it tamales. yum tasty tamales. i dont think so. they do not taste wasome they taste like a monkey grated corn between his butt cheeks and then made the "masa" using as a secret ingredient monkey poop.
Pasteles recipe as cultural lesson
After reading all the comments, I thought I was going to die laughing. I'm definitely photocopying this thread for my Caribbean culture class. Between the funny pseudo-nationalist rantings of a few and the well-intentioned tries at explaining cultural culinary differences, there is no better way of showing my students the contradictory nature of Puerto Rican identity. By the way... I'm making this recipe for my class!