Pastel

Pastel is a very common food here in Brazil – at least in the south-east, where I live.

It is sold in open-air markets and usually eaten with a glass of caldo de cana – a.k.a. garapa – which is sugarcane juice. It’s delicious!
Some of us like to add a tablespoon of “vinagrete” - a kind of salsa made with tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and parsley – to our pastel before each bite:

It’s easy to buy ready to use pastel dough, but since I wanted to share this food with my foreign readers I decided to make the dough from scratch, using a recipe from a dear friend of mine.

I was having a hard time trying to put into words a good description of pastel and my dear friend Valentina came to my rescue – she told me they’re similar to wontons and can also be described as a cross between Chinese spring rolls and Indian Samosas.

It was really, really hard to roll the dough without a cylinder or a pasta machine – I used a rolling pin. I kept thinking about all the calories I was burning before even eating the pastéis… :)
In the end, the pastéis were delicious and totally worth the effort. ;)

UPDATE - Freya left a comment saying she'd like a dulce de leche pastel (a pretty delicious choice, I must add). ;)
I forgot to write that sweet pastéis are even more delicious sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon after they're fried.
Tks for reminding me, Freya!

Pastel

500g all purpose flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cachaça
warm water
vegetable oil for frying

Filling – you can use a huge number of flavors, such as cheese, ground beef, ham + cheese and tomato, hearts of palm. Sweet fillings are also possible: dulce de leche, guava paste, chocolate.
Use your imagination, the sky is the limit!

I made half filled with pizza cheese and dried oregano and the other half with hearts of palm cooked in olive oil with chopped onions – you can find a good recipe here, which I used to make bread boats. I added a pitted olive to each pastel, too.

Mix the flour, oil, cachaça and salt in a bowl. Add water, a little at a time, and work with your hands until you form a smooth dough – firm but not sticky.

Take amounts of dough and roll them using a cylinder or pasta machine – they should be very thin. Lightly dust your working surface with flour and place rolled out dough on it.

Place portions of filling in one side of rolled out dough then fold other half of sheet over filling:

Cut to form the pastéis and press down firmly around each one of them using a fork so they won’t break when you fry them:

Place them in a baking sheet, separating the layers with cling film or plastic:

Heat a generous amount – 3 cups would do - of vegetable oil on a medium saucepan and fry the pastéis until they’re golden – the oil has to be very hot and the pastéis will be ready fast. Remove from oil and place them in a baking sheet lined with paper towel:

Makes 16 pastéis – aprox. 15x7cm each.