Easy Pastele Stew Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is pastele stew made of? ›

The best part of the circle-island trip is stopping on the side of the road to buy local produce and homemade goods like the Puerto Rican pastele. The pastele is a meat pie, flavored with the Caribbean achiote spice, lined with grated green bananas and stuffed with stewed pork and olives.

There are flavors in tomatoes that are alcohol-soluble, so adding red wine along with tomato paste also helps to enhance beef stew." Laurence has a few other tricks I've borrowed to create the best beef stew, including adding Worcestershire, which gets a serious umami punch from anchovies.

Not necessarily a recipe but a few ingredients will make a huge difference. The first one is tomato sauce, tomato paste, or roasted chopped tomatoes. They lend a richness and a bit of sweetness along with acidity.

To cook them, bring a large pot (or a few pots) of salted water to a boil and add the pasteles, either fresh or frozen, in a single layer. Let cook for 1 hour, or an hour and 10 minutes or so if they are frozen. Repeat with the remaining pasteles, then unwrap and serve right away.

There are generally two types of pasteles: guineo and yuca. Any type of pastele requires masa, or a ground-up paste made of the juices and pulp of guineo or yuca. We added calabasa (wild pumpkin), and yautia (a starchy root, also called malanga) to our masa mixtures this weekend.

Hawaiian poi is a purple pudding like dish that you'll find everywhere from our grocery stores to food trucks. Poi falls in to one of three categories; “one-finger”, “two-finger”, or three-finger, which refers to its consistency and how many fingers you'll need to scoop and eat it.

Puerto Rican pasteles. Related to alcapurria, tamales, hallacas, and guanimes, pasteles were originally made by the indigenous people of Boriquen (Puerto Rico). Tainos made masa from cassava, yautía and squash. The masa was then filled with beans, fruit, chilies, corn, nuts, meat, fish and wrapped in corn husk.

Pasteles are a tender, savory, and complex Puerto Rican delicacy. Delicious masa filled with a savory meat stew cooked and then steamed in banana leaves is an ideal treat for the holidays or any time. Their versatility is impressive.

"Soups and stews really need to simmer for long periods to allow the ingredients to meld together. Taking that a step further, most soups and stews are better if you prepare them the day before serving. Allowing them to cool and then reheating them really helps bring out the flavors and textures."

Why put tomato paste in beef stew? ›

A bit of tomato paste amps up the flavor of beef stew, giving it a richness and a punch of umami that makes the stew truly memorable.

Seasoning Your Stew

For seasonings, I like Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and a good red wine. I've also used a dark beer in place of the wine and been very happy with the results. You can certainly play with your own favorite seasonings, but I would recommend keeping them fairly simple.

Milk can add richness to soup. Chowders made with milk, are thicker than water-based soups. However, the best way to thicken a soup might be to stir in a tablespoon of flour which has been combined with a cup of water to make a smooth base such as you use for gravy.

Personally I would add as many aromatics and flavor enhancing substances that I like. If the stew is already finished, then you can sauté onions, garlic peppers, celery and carrots then add them to the stew. I would also add some herbs and finally salt and pepper to taste.

The three main thickening agents for gravies are flour, cornflour and arrowroot. The first two are normally used in savoury dishes while arrowroot tends to be used in sweet dishes – that said, arrowroot will work in a savoury dish as it has no flavour.

Pasteles are made with pork and adobo stuffing encased in a green plantain masa and wrapped in banana leaves. Although time-consuming and labor-intensive, these pasteles are worth the effort.

Pasteles are a tender, savory, and complex Puerto Rican delicacy. Delicious masa filled with a savory meat stew cooked and then steamed in banana leaves is an ideal treat for the holidays or any time. Their versatility is impressive.

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef, pork, venison, rabbit, lamb, poultry, sausages, and seafood.