Recipe(tried): Empanadas de Yuca for Carolyn!

Dear Carolina:

I will try to simplify the recipe as much as possible. In modern times we have the food processor as a great help. Mine is completely unexpensive, from Sears, but there are modern editions sold at Kmart, that are completely unexpensive and perform all difficult chores for the modern cook. I hope that you are referring to what we call in PR, Empanadas de Yuca. This is one of my favorite traditional dishes.

EMPANADAS DE YUCA
(make 24 empanadas)

10 lbs fresh yuca
olive oil with achiote (can be substituted for 2 envelopes of Saz n con Culantro y Achiote)
2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves or 2 tsps garlic salt
Plaintain or banana leaves wilted in the stove, over one of the burners

STUFFING FOR THE EMPANADAS:

5 lbs boneless chicken breasts and thighs, cut in small slices (you can use pork instead of chicken, cut in the same way, without grease or fat)
1 cup of homemade Sofrito
1 cup of tomato sauce (I process 1 can of tomatoes in their own juice and use it instead of the tomato sauce)
1 can pimentos, drained and sliced
1 cup of golden raisins
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 tsp ground oregano or cilantrosalt and pepper to taste.

PROCEDURE:

Peel the yuca and process with a little milk. Place in a big bowl.Add the Saz n con Culantro y Achiote for color and flavor and the garlic salt or crushed garlic and salt to taste. Correct the seasoning.

Prepare the chicken or the small pork slices (chopped is a better description)as a stew, adding the tomato puree',ground oregano, Sofrito and maybe a few sliced stuffed green olives and capers. You can add chopped cooking ham if you are using chicken, in order to add the ham flavor. After stewing the chicken or pork you will have a guisado. If the ground yuca is too dry you can use a little bit of the salsa to produce a malleable base.

Prepare the wilted banana leaves, passing each one on top of the stove until it is wilted. Then you begin the assembling process.

Over the banana leave you add some PAM (Cooking spray)in the area where you are going to place the Empanada)you place 1 1/2 cooking spoons (cuchar n de cocina)of the yuca mixture, sufficient for the empanada. You put 1 big cooking spoon of the chicken stew without the sauce (as dry as possible)over the yuca mixture, also adding sliced pimento, a few raisins, a few sliced almonds, making sure that there will be enough of everything for the 24 empanadas. Then you double the empanada covering completely the misture and stuffing. But, different from the pasteles, the two ends are not doubled (up and down end). You make the 24 empanadas. Select the ones you are using and freeze the rest in aluminum foil paper. They keep for ages.

COOKING PROCESS:

Preheat the oven for 375 F. You bake them for 45 minutes, changing their sides (Voltear) at half of the baking process. If they are freezed, then use the same temperature but bake frozen for 75 minutes.

Empanadas are great with just a big green salad and a Rice with Gandules by the side. Dont be discourages by the recipe, dear friend. Maybe you can prepare the stuffing the day before and then the yuca mixture.

Buen provecho!

Gladys/PR