Risa: Ihope you like the PASTELON

RisaG:

I have a lot of vegetarian recipes and books, and also vegetarian books on Puerto Rican Cooking. At first, vegetarians in PR felt deprived because most of the food and recipes were from other countries. But, little by little, we changed our own recipes, using new vegetarian ingredients, and now you can find excellent books and restaurants. There is even one restaurant, here in San Juan, where they perform classical music and serve excellent fruit shakes and all kind of vegetarian delicacies.

The Indians used the yuca (casava) as one of their main sources of energy and food. This is common in all the countries where the Caribe Indians and the Tainos lived. In Puerto Rico as in Cuba, it was widely used, and we have a common taste for dishes made with yuca.

My mother, which is now 92 years old, and which does not cook anymore because of her advanced age, was a wonderful cook. She used to prepare a recipe that she learned from her grandmother which is quite difficult to describe, because there is not an accurate word in English that can describe it. The name in Spanish is PASTELON DE YUCA. It is something like a chilean Pastel de Choclo, but essentially different because of the different ingredients. It was prepared with yuca, uncooked, that was grated, put in a cheese cloth, covered and pressed, and most of the starch was taken out. Then, to this yuca they added annato oil, crushed garlic, ground oregano, Salt, and they formed a soft dough. With the dough they covered the bottom and the sides of a roasting pan. They left enough of the dough, for later covering the roasting pan.

A Picadillo, prepared with dried currants, ground beef, onions, tomatoes, pimentos, green peppers, stuffed green olives, capers, wine, salt and pepper, ground cinnamon, dashes of allspice or nutmeg and cumin, and ground almonds was prepared. White cheese, the one typical of Puerto Rico, was grounded and added to the Picadillo, after it was cooked and cooled. Then the dough was covered with this mixture, and then completely covered with the remaining dough. The color was light red because of the Annato oil. It was covered with banana leaves and it was cooked in a coal oven.

Now, this dish is simpler because you can find the already grated yuca at Latin Markets, you can use Bijol, or Adobo con Achiote, instead of the annato oil, and you can bake it in a preheated 350 F oven for at least 1 hour. But nothing can substitute the special flavor that Banana Leaves give to the dish. If they cannot be find in a specialty or Latin Market, then you can use Aluminum foil. But the results never will be the same.

After it is solidified and cooked, then you remove the leaves and you bake it until it is golden in color. So many wonderful menus can be planned with this recipe. It can become vegetarian if you use vegetarian hamburguer ground meat. If you are interested, I can gladly give you the quantities and suggest a Menu. Again, keep on giving us wonderful times with your This Weeks Winners.