Pasteles
Most of the components for pasteles, a traditional Puerto Rican holiday dish, can be made a day or two in advance, then brought to room temperature for assembly. You can prepare the masa ahead, and freeze it for up to several months. Pasteles can also be cooked right away, refrigerated for a few days or frozen in zip-top containers for several months. Some use only green bananas or green plantains – which are unripe, firm and very green – for the masa; some add potatoes or pumpkin; some add yuca, also known as cassava, and others use only yuca. If you can’t find one or more ingredients, use what you can find. Lucy Ramirez adds pork gravy to the masa (other cooks may add milk or oil) and makes sure there’s a little pork in every bite of the pastel. Traditionally, pasteles were fully wrapped in banana or plantain leaves before being wrapped in parchment paper or foil. Today, many cooks use a piece or strip of banana leaf to give each pastel the nutty flavor of the leaf. Serve them with a
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