🎄De Parang Now Start: 5 Days 'Til Christmas
Trini Christmas Classic recipes that will level up your plant-based plate one at a time.
Happy Wednesday, Love!
How are you? How is your holiday menu shaping up?
This year, here at RECIPE'D we're celebrating five days til Christmas with classic Trini Christmas recipes to add a lil Caribbean flair to your table.
Today, I'm highlighting a must-have Trini Christmas Classic, pastelles. Similar to tamales from Mexico and known by the same name we call it throughout the Caribbean and South America, these are generally a corn-based dough filled with a hearty sweet, and savory meat mixture. Obviously, for our plant-based versions, we've swapped the meat for some equally satisfying vegetable-based options.
De parang now start. Grab your apron, and meet me in the kitchen.
Three Plant-Based Pastelle Options
Vegan pastelles can get boring as it’s easy to fall into flavors that are regularly available. I originally learned to make lentil pastelles which are great, but variety is the spice of life. So, in 2020 I started getting adventurous!
Listen, if you’ve been subscribed for a while, you know that I love “nut meat”—pecans, walnuts, I’m not picky. Thus, nut meat had to be on the list.
For this recipe, I went with pecans because their inherent sweetness is a bit more appealing than walnuts for this flavor profile. Furthermore, they are healthier across the board.
If you have a nut allergy, don’t worry; I’ve got you covered. You can try a simple veggie mince. If you don’t like mushrooms, black beans or lentils are good meaty swaps to add for either of these recipes, OR for the veggie mince, you can omit them and add more eggplant. Either way, It’ll be just as delicious.
Three years ago, I came across a vegan sweet potato pastelle recipe. It was definitely not something I’d ever thought about before, but its now something that has become a standard practice for me. They’re unexpectedly delicious. Check the deets below.
Let’s get to making these pastelles.
Here’s what you’ll need (for two dozen):
2-3 cups of plant-based mince
2-3 whole fig/ banana leaves or 12-15 pre-cut leaves (available on Amazon, if you can’t find them at your local market)
4 cups of cornmeal flour
6 cups of hot water
1 large container of vegan margarine
1 jar of stuffed olives
1 jar of capers
1 large bag of raisin
2.5 tsp Salt
Roucou
Trini green seasoning
Ketchup
Soy sauce/ coconut aminos/Tamari (optional)
Sazon or all-purpose season of choice
Pimento peppers
Tomato paste
Pepper sauce (optional)
Oil
Equipment: rolling pin and parchment paper OR a pastelle press and parchment paper.
Here’s what you’ll need to do:
#1 Make your dough
In a large bowl, combine your cornmeal flour and margarine with salt.
Pro tip from my teacher: slowly add your cornmeal into your hot water not the other way around. Using this method will help you to better control the consistency of your dough because you are thickening by adding cornmeal as needed as opposed to trying to thin the dough with the hot water. It makes the process much easier and less time-consuming.
You know your dough is done when it is slightly crumbly but still soft and easy to maneuver. Mix with your hands.
Divide your dough into 24 balls and cover with a damp cloth or paper towel to avoid them drying out.
Set aside until you’re ready to make your pastelles.
#2 Let’s make a mince or three!
Veggie Mince:
1 cup of roasted broccoli
1 cup of mushrooms
1/2 large eggplant
1 large clove of garlic (optional)
Cut your mushrooms—I use Baby Bella and Portobello because I have easy access to them; Button, Oyster, or any you have readily available will work— into quarters and dice your eggplant. Blitz all of your ingredients in the food processor until you achieve the consistency of ground/minced beef. Use as instructed for the rest of the recipe.
Pecan and Mushroom Mince
1.5 cups of pecans
1 cup of mushrooms
Paprika
Garlic powder
Liquid smoke
Boil your pecans in water seasoned with paprika, garlic powder and liquid smoke until fork tender. Drain and remove from the heat. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.
Chop your mushrooms into quarters and then get everything into the food processor. Pulse your mixture until you achieve a ground/minced beef consistency.
Sweet Potato Mince
2 large sweet potatoes finely grated
Brown sugar + oil OR prepared browning gravy
Trini green seasoning
Paprika
Garlic powder
Keep in mind that of all of the minces, this one has the most delicate base flavor. It will have to be seasoned aggressively to elicit a familiar pastelle flavor profile. Combine your grated potato with the green seasoning, paprika, a pinch of salt, and garlic powder. Unlike the other minces, you will have to prepare browning gravy before cooking this one up (see below).
Mince made, it’s time to season it
First things first, you want to chop up your olives, pimentos, and capers into small pieces. Put your raisins to soak in warm water (I add a little cranberry juice or whiskey sometimes); it helps them to rehydrate slightly. I prefer this texture as opposed to the normal texture of raisins—to each his/her own, do what you like.
Combine your mince with the olives, capers, and raisins. I like to season these plant-based minces as I would meat. Therefore, I add a small amount of tomato ketchup and a splash of dark soy sauce along with my dried seasonings and green seasoning—incorporate well, adjusting seasonings to taste.
Fried and laid to the side
Once your filling is well seasoned, get it in a frying pan with a splash of coconut oil.
If using sweet potato mince, BEFORE you add your mince to the pan put a little oil and a large pot spoon of brown sugar into the pan. With a wooden spoon, stir gently until your sugar is a caramel-like consistency. When the sugar is frothy and very dark, add your mince and a splash of warm water. Add a pinch of sugar and adjust seasoning to taste.
For all minces, add a bit of roucou and tomato paste into your pot as you are cooking down your minces. The roucou adds a distinctly Trini flavor. The tomato paste adds a meaty umami flavor. Cook down until your mince is browned and cooked through.
Set aside.
#3 Leaf prep
Make sure your fig leaves are cut, cleaned, pliable, and greased. You can pass them over an open flame to make sure they are nice and easy to work with. Our leaves were pre-cut from our vendor to about 6 x 5”. Our pastelles ended up medium-sized. For more bite-sized pastelles, cut your leaves a little smaller.
#4 Assembly: It’s Pastelle time
Now is the time you should turn up the music, pull up a good stool, and settle in. This is going to take a little while. Especially if it’s your first or second time. Make it fun. Have someone working with you that you can have a good conversation with because that’s part of the enjoyment of making this Christmas favorite.
I don’t own a pastelle press so we used a large rolling pin and parchment paper to roll out our dough onto the leaves. You are slowly flattening your dough balls into a thin cornmeal circle by gently pushing it out from the center to the sides of the leaf. You can use your oiled fingers to gently assist the dough after removing the parchment paper.
Once the cornmeal is laid out, you are going to add your filling. You don’t want to add too much or too little. Pay attention to ridges on the banana leaves, make sure that you have the leaf oriented so they are vertical. You will use them as your guide, add the filling in the center of your dough going North to South. Leave half an inch to three-quarters of an inch on each side. Then use your clean fingers to pat the filling down into a flat rectangle.
Once you’ve gotten the amount of filling you want nicely lined up in the center, fold the left side of the leaf in gently being mindful to use the back of your hand to rub the back of the leaf to coax the cornmeal to fold over. If it sticks, use the other side to help coax it down. Look at this video of Ms. Loraine showing me how to do it.
As soon as both sides are done, you can do the same for the top and bottom, making sure to gently lift up the folded top and bottom to make sure the dough is folding and sticking to itself. Also, gently reinforce the corners by rubbing the sides and using your hands to edge up the leaf in those areas.
Fold the remainder of your leaf over to cover the pastelle. Gently tug at one end to make sure it’s snug and then turn it over and gently pat it down with the pads of your fingers. Set aside.
For every two pastelles that you make, wrap them together seam to seam using foil. Repeat this process until all of your pastelles are done.
Get a large pot and colander. Fill the pot with water and put it to boil. Once the water is boiling, add the colander on top and add your foil-wrapped pastelle packets into the colander. Let them steam for 25-30 minutes. They are then ready to serve or freeze.
If you learned anything useful from this issue, I hope it is that this is not the easiest process, but it is certainly worth it! Do this with 2 or 3 people. Use the time to love on your circle and it will fly by. Not to mention the delicious spoils of your labor. Share this issue with them.
Try it. You won’t regret it!
Until we meet again, remember food is a love language, feed your stomach and your soul.
XOXO,
Mel
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