Pasteles

As far as I know, this was my first encounter with traditional Puerto Rican cuisine. In Adam-terms I will try to explain what I ate for dinner tonight. Pasteles are a mixture of some type of dough or corn meal with pork, peppers, onions, and plantains. They are wrapped in the plantain leaf and then wrapped tightly with wax paper and bound with string. They are typically eaten during the holidays in Puerto Rico and Chinatown with me.

So a friend had given me one that his family had prepared over the holidays and I finally remembered to bring it home from work and make an easy dinner out of it. The preparations are easy:

1. Find Puerto Rican
2. Ask for pastele
3. Place in boiling water for 45-60 mins.
4. Cut strings and unwrap.
5. Como

To start I would recommend putting hot sauce/tabasco/etc. on it to give it a little bit of a kick because it can get slightly water logged. It was pretty good though. I've always enjoyed the plantain/pork combination in most hispanic cuisine. This one wasn't that different.

Pasteles, check.