Empanadas De Yuca

INGREDIENTS:

WRAPPING:

1/2 cup Achiote seeds (for color)
1 cup oil
1 package banana leaves (warmed or at room temperature)

MASA:

4lbs fresh yuca, grated**
1 cup milk
2 packets sazon
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon salt or Homemade Adobo

FILLING:

1 tablespoon oil
1 cup Basic Sofrito
1 cup tomato sauce
1 can sliced pimentos, drained
1 can garbanzos, drained
1/2 cup capers and olives
1 teaspoon adobo
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper (to adjust to taste)

DIRECTIONS:

PREPARE MASA:

Combine all masa ingredients in very large bowl or pot and mix thoroughly. Color should be consistent and a light orangy yellow. If making the day before, cover and place in refrigerator.

PREPARE FILLING:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in pan.
Add sofrito, tomato sauce, oregano, cumin, cilantro, olives and capers. Sautee a minut or two until fragrant.
Add chopped chicken or pork and simmer until well done, about 15 minutes. Sometimes I add a cooking spoon of the SAUCE ONLY (make sure to not include any pieces of the filling) to the masa for flavor.

***PREPARE WRAPPING:

Simmer 1 cup of oil with 1/2 cup of aciote sees in small saucepan for 3 minutes. When ready, oil should be red in color. Strain oil into small bowl. Discard seeds.

Break off about 10 pieces of foil the length of your arm. Cut banana leaves in 10 pieces each just about two inches shorter than the length of your arm. Place one piece of banana leaf on top of each piece of foil in a neat stack in front of you so that they alternate.

Behind that, should be the bowl of achiote, the bowl of masa at room temperature, the bowl of garbanzos, the bowl of pimentos, and the pan of meat placed on the table.

BEGIN ASSEMBLY PROCESS:

Spread 2 tablespoons of achiote oil (or cooking spray for the health conscious) in center of banana leaf.
Spread 1 cooking spoon of yuca mixture on leaf, flattening out.
Spread 1 cooking spoon of meat without sauce (as dry as possible) over yuca mixture.
Top with a few pimentos and garbanzos.
Top with 1/4 or 1/2 cooking spoon of masa on top of pimento and garbanzos.
Fold over the banana leaf from top to bottom but do not seal ends.
Fold foil (very very lightly flattening out contents as you go along) the same way but lightly seal the ends of the foil if you will be freezing this later use. If baking then do not seal the ends. Select the ones you are using and freeze the rest. They keep for ages.

COOKING PROCESS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line oven with foil (in case of any drips from open ends of empanadas). Bake empanadas for a total of 45 minutes. Make sure to turn over half way through the baking process. If they are frozen, then they must be baked for 75 minutes.

TIPS:

This recipe can be made in one day but if you want to do this the lazy way do the following:

DAY ONE: Prepare Masa and prepare meat filling.

DAY TWO: Assemble

**Pre-grated yuca can be found in the frozen vegetable aisle of your supermarket. They come in 4lb bags. This DRAMATICALLY cuts down on preparation time and grated fingertips. If you insist on using fresh Yuca, be my guest. It must be peeled and grated on the finest holes of a cheese grater by hand or grated with the finest grating plate of a food processor.

***You might want to use your kitchen table if your counter isn’t big enough to spread out. Placing everything in an assembly line will make the process quicker and easier.

Croquetas de Arroz

Ingredientes:

2 tazas de agua
1 cubito de gallina
5 cdas. de mantequilla
1 taza de arroz
1 sobre de crema de guisantes
2 tazas de leche en polvo preparada
4 dientes de ajo
1 cebolla grande
4 huevos
1 taza de queso parmesano rallado
4 tazas de nestum arroz

Preparación:

Lleve al fuego el agua con el cubito de caldo y 2 cdas. mantequilla, cuando esté hirviendo agréguele el arroz, baje el fuego y tápelo dejándolo hasta que esponje y seque.

Lleve al fuego el contenido del sobre de crema de guisantes con la leche moviendo hasta que espese. Sofría en la mantequilla (3 cucharadas) los ajos y cebollas picaditas, agréguelas a la crema con los huevos, queso y nestum; mezcle con el arroz y forme con las manos humedecidas las croquetas.

Fríalas en abundante grasa caliente.

Receta para 40 croquetas grandes.

Arroz con Bacalao

Ingredientes:

300 gr. de bacalao salado
perejil fresco picado
azafrán
2 tza. de arroz parboiled
1 lata de tomates salvia
1 cebolla mediana
3 dientes de ajo finamente picados
pimienta al gusto.
1 pimentón
1/4 tza. de aceite de oliva

Preparación:

Lave muy bien el bacalao y póngalo a remojar el día anterior, cambiando el agua 2 o 3 veces más.

En el momento de la preparación escurra el bacalao, ponga a hervir agua y cuando arranque el punto de ebullición introduzca el pescado. Déjelo cocinar unos minutos, saque del agua y deje reposar. Prosiga a eliminar la piel, las espinas, desmenúcelo y resérvelo.

Lleve un caldero al fuego con el aceite, ajo, azafrán, la cebolla y el pimentón finamente picados. Deje sofreir un poco y agregue el bacalao. Mientras se integran los sabores licúe los tomates y agréguelos al caldero conjuntamente con 4 tazas y media de agua, salvia y pimienta. Cuando rompa el hervor agregue el arroz sin lavar, deje que rompa nuevamente el hervor y deje cocinar a fuego bajo, tapando y removiendo de vez en cuando.

Cuando el arroz se haya cocinado, que debe quedar jugoso y no seco, agregue rociando, una copita de jerez.

Pasteles
(pa-ste-les)
(makes 36)

Filling:

A-2 pounds lean pork meat, without bone
6 tablespoons jugo de naranja agria (sour orange juice)

B-Crush and mix in a mortar:
4 sweet chili peppers, seeded
4 fresh culantro leaves
2 large cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons whole dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt

C-Cube finely:
1 pound lean cured ham
1 green pepper, seeded
1 onion peeled

D-1 1/2 cups seeded raisins

E-1 can (1 pound) garbanzos (Chick-peas), liquid included
1 cup water

F-24 olives, stuffed with pimientos, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons capers
6 tablespoons Achiote Coloring (cook anais seed in 1 cup vegetable oil)

Wash and dry pork meat rapidly and cut into very small cubes. Mix meat cubes with the sour orange juice.Add ingredients included in B to meat.Add ingredients included in C and the seeded raisins. Mix together well.In a saucepan, bring to boil ingredients included in E. Drain the liquid over the meat mixture. Remove skins from chick-peas and add chick-peas to the meat mixture.Add olives and capers.Add ingredients included in F, mix well, cover, and set in regrigerator until the masa is ready.
Masa (Paste)

A-4 pounds white yautia, peeled
4 pounds yellow yautia, peeled
15 green bananas, peeled and rinsed in salted water
2 cups lukewarm milk

B-1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) Achiote Coloring
2 1/2 tablespoons salt

Wash, drain and grate the yautias and bananas. Crush gradually in a mortar yautias and bananas. Mix in a bowl with lukewarm milk to make a smooth paste. (If using an electric blender, crush gradually yautias and bananas with lukewarm milk. Set in a bowl.)Add the Achiote Coloring and salt, mix well, cover, and set aside to make the pasteles.
To Shape and Cook the Pasteles

Use 20 bundles of plaintain leaves. They should be long and wide.With a knife, remove the central ridge to give greater flexibility to the leaves. Divide leaves into pieces, about 12 inches square. Wash and cleen leaves with a damp cloth.Place 3 tablespoons of the masa on a leaf and spread it out so thinly, that it is almost transparent. Place 3 tablespoons of the filling in the center of the masa.Fold the leaf one half over the other to make a top and bottom layer of plaintain leaf and enclose the contents in it. Fold it over once more.Fold the right and left ends of the leaf toward the center.Wrap in a second leaf placed on the diagonal.Tie the pasteles together, in pairs, with a string, placing folded edges facing each other.In a large vessel, bring to a boil 5 quarts water with 3 1/2 tablespoons salt. Add 12 pasteles and boil, covered, for 1 hour. Halfway, turn over pasteles. When cooking period is finished, remove pasteles from the water at once. Repeat process with rest of pasteles.

Note: Parchment cooking paper may be used in place of plaintain leaves.

Green Banana Cakes (Pasteles):

WITH MEAT…….

Recipe for 5 people, 2 green banana cakes per person.

1. You will need 2 to 3 green bananas (depending on the size of the green bananas) for each Green Banana Cake. For 10 Green Banana Cakes you will need 20 to 30 green bananas.

2. A small pork’s thigh, or 1 lb. of pork’s thigh meat with out fat and grease.

3. Two large diced potatoes (one inch square pieces).

4. Olive oil, 1/2 a cup.

5. Coriander and Annatto (Sasón) seasoning 3 packets.

6. Adobo with black pepper, one teaspoon. (see the “Rice with Pigeon Peas” recipe below to see what Adobo and Sofrito are).

7. Sofrito, 2 large table spoons.

8. Sasón Accent seasoning, one packet.

9. Half of a teaspoon of salt.

10. Green Banana leaves, cooking paper and cooking or kite string.

11. Stuffed Olives. 12. 1/2 a can of Tomato Sauce.

First put on some rubber gloves, peeling green bananas will stain the hands and anything else it touches.

Making the Green Banana Pulp Mass.

1. Carefully peel the raw green bananas using a small knife, cut off the end points of the bananas and cut the banana peel down the middle to open the banana peel and using the small knife peel the banana peel off (avoid stains they don’t come out) throw away the peelings and use the inner banana and grate them or blend them in a blender into a very fine pulp mass.

Make a mixture of 1 teaspoon of salt, then mix 2 packets of Coriander and Annatto (Culantro y Achiote) seasoning, then mix this into 1/3 of a cup of olive oil in the blender, blend well and take this mixture and mix it well into the green banana pulp mass in your blender or by hand.

Making the stew filling.

1. First take the pork and remove all the fat and grease, until you have one pound of cleaned pork meat. Cut the meat into 1 inch piece. Place the cleaned pork meat into a pressure cooker and boil the meat in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes to tender the meat.

2. After the pork meat is cooked (tenderize) in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes, open it and add 2 peeled diced (one inch square) potatoes, boil the potatoes in the open pressure cooker with the meat until the potatoes are cooked.

3. Next take 2 large table spoons of olive oil and place it into a large frying pan. Heat the olive oil and add 2 large spoons of Sofrito, the Adobo with black pepper, the Sasón seasoning and stir fry the mix. After stir frying the mix, add one half of a can of Tomato Sauce to the mix, mix in the cooked potatoes, then add 10 stuffed olives and add the cooked tenderized pork meat. Cook and stir over a low flame until it boils.

Making the Green Banana Cakes.

Finding green banana leaves might be hard for some of you people, if you can not find the green banana leaves just use cooking paper for wrapping the cakes. But the banana leaves do give the Pasteles a special taste, so try and get them by all means.

Cut a 7″x7″ inch piece of banana leaf and spread it out on a large (over one foot square) piece of cooking paper. Take one spoon of the gravy of the stew and spread it on the banana leaf. Then take 3 large table spoons of the mixed green banana mass and spread it out evenly over the green banana leave only.

In the center of the spread out mixed green banana mass, place one heaping table spoon of the stew in the middle, this table spoon should have even parts of meat and potatoes with 2 stuffed olives for each cake.

Then carefully double the outer paper with all the ingredients in the middle to form the green banana cake to the size of the green banana leaf with the stew inside the green banana pulp mass. Then fold over all the over lapping paper to make a small package. Then tie it up with cooking string or kite string into a neat little package about 3 inches wide and 7 inches long.

Make as many cakes as you can with your ingredients until you run out of ingredients.

You may now either freeze the green banana cakes for future use, or you may boil them for eating right away.

Cooking the Green Banana Cakes.

First if the Green Banana Cakes are frozen let them thaw out then take a large pot and fill it half way with water, bring the water to a boil and place the wrapped Green Banana Cakes into the boiling water, let them boil for about 40 minutes. Serve 2 Green Banana Cakes with cooked white rice per person with stewed red beans if you like, but it can be eaten with rice alone with a nice salad on the side. And if you like Louisiana Hot Sauce, give the hot Green Banana Cake a even coating of Louisiana Hot Sauce to spice it up a little. Hmmmm! Delicious!