Puerto Rico Empanada or Empanadillya of Yucca Recipe?

Question

There is a recipe my grandmother use to make when I was a little girl but alas the recipe has been lost since she passed away. It was like pasteles made of yucca and wrapped in banana leaf and then foil and baked in the oven. Abosolutely delicious! I am not sure if it is called empanada or empanadilla de yucca. I think it is empanadilla de yucca. Does anyone know what I am talking about and if so would you have a recipe? I am dying to know how to make it! This would be a heartfelt recipe for me.

Thanks to everyone but the search continues! What I am looking for is just like pasteles except that it is made from yucca and instead of being boiled it is baked in the oven. Also, I am not looking for pastelillos or the dough patties with a stuffing. Helllllp! If you know what I am talking about but don't know the recipe would you please, pretty please, be kind enough to ask around.

Answer 1

My girlfriend is Puerto Rican, I'm Greek, and her mother makes Pasteles with plantains. I just found this on wikipedia... Puerto Rican empanadas, called pastelillos, are made of flour dough and are fried. They can be filled with ground beef, chicken, guava, cheese, or both guava and cheese.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empanada#Puerto_Rico




My girlfriends mom taught us to make pasteles this way:

Filling:

A-2 pounds lean pork meat, without bone
6 tablespoons jugo de naranja agria (sour orange juice)

B-Crush and mix in a mortar:
4 sweet chili peppers, seeded
4 fresh culantro leaves
2 large cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons whole dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt

C-Cube finely:
1 pound lean cured ham
1 green pepper, seeded
1 onion peeled

D-1 1/2 cups seeded raisins

E-1 can (1 pound) garbanzos (Chick-peas), liquid included
1 cup water

F-24 olives, stuffed with pimientos, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons capers
6 tablespoons Achiote Coloring (cook anais seed in 1 cup vegetable oil)

Wash and dry pork meat rapidly and cut into very small cubes. Mix meat cubes with the sour orange juice.


Add ingredients included in B to meat.


Add ingredients included in C and the seeded raisins. Mix together well.


In a saucepan, bring to boil ingredients included in E. Drain the liquid over the meat mixture. Remove skins from chick-peas and add chick-peas to the meat mixture.


Add olives and capers.


Add ingredients included in F, mix well, cover, and set in regrigerator until the masa is ready.
Masa (Paste)

A-4 pounds white yautia, peeled
4 pounds yellow yautia, peeled
15 green bananas, peeled and rinsed in salted water
2 cups lukewarm milk

B-1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) Achiote Coloring
2 1/2 tablespoons salt

Wash, drain and grate the yautias and bananas. Crush gradually in a mortar yautias and bananas. Mix in a bowl with lukewarm milk to make a smooth paste. (If using an electric blender, crush gradually yautias and bananas with lukewarm milk. Set in a bowl.)


Add the Achiote Coloring and salt, mix well, cover, and set aside to make the pasteles.
To Shape and Cook the Pasteles

Use 20 bundles of plaintain leaves. They should be long and wide.


With a knife, remove the central ridge to give greater flexibility to the leaves. Divide leaves into pieces, about 12 inches square. Wash and cleen leaves with a damp cloth.


Place 3 tablespoons of the masa on a leaf and spread it out so thinly, that it is almost transparent.


Place 3 tablespoons of the filling in the center of the masa.


Fold the leaf one half over the other to make a top and bottom layer of plaintain leaf and enclose the contents in it. Fold it over once more.


Fold the right and left ends of the leaf toward the center.


Wrap in a second leaf placed on the diagonal.


Tie the pasteles together, in pairs, with a string, placing folded edges facing each other.


In a large vessel, bring to a boil 5 quarts water with 3 1/2 tablespoons salt. Add 12 pasteles and boil, covered, for 1 hour. Halfway, turn over pasteles. When cooking period is finished, remove pasteles from the water at once. Repeat process with rest of pasteles
Note: Parchment cooking paper may be used in place of plaintain leaves.



I found the same exact recipe on the net, I hope it's the same one you might know!


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Answer 2

Go to this website: http://www.ricanrecipes.com/recipes/detail.php?category_id=10&id=44

They have great Puerto Rican recipes and you will find the one that you are looking for

Answer 3

Empanadillas. Turnovers, bigger than pastelillos, filled with beef, crabmeat, conch, or even lobster.

Answer 4

yes I know what you are talking I made some yesterday but is call a patheles as far as the recipe it's my mom and it a secret