This is a pastalon recipe that I picked up from youtube. It was some other people who made it, it wasn’t Ida from Sweets And Beyond. The mashed yucca casserole was her recipe though and the arroz gandoules is my recipe but I have done an arroz gandules recipe with the pasteles. Look on that page on how to make it. I am going to post a link at the end of this post. This one had either halal hotdogs which can be beef chicken or turkey or halal lunch meat for the one you see in the picture. Another one is strictly vegan because it is just beans.
There is this one lady in the so you think you can cook group in facebook who had a bunch of overripe plantains and she didn’t know what to do. So she asked for help.I said in group That i know a recipe that is a Puerto Rican dish called pastalon. It is called a Puerto Rican shepherd’s pie or lasagna. It is a very simple dish. Please refer to my pasteles recipe how to do the picallio which is the meat
Halal Pasteles With Arroz Gandoules
Please refer to this page for the sofrito , picallio and arroz gandoules recipes.
There is another option I want to tweak to help this lady with her plantain dilemma which I had suggested to her was to add suya spice to the ground meat. Ok from right this moment Nigerian meets Puerto Rican!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Super I am so excited and i am going to try this dish for myself.
Please refer to my first fried stew recipe the tomato base part only for making the fried tomato stew part and keep that to the side.
For the meat part if your choice is to do the suya spice by either making your own or buying a ready made suya spice blend. Use either ground turkey, veal, chicken,beef, lamb or goat. Add the suya spice, add 1 cooking spoon of oil, 1 small onion, 1 bullion cube, 1 pinch of crayfish, 2 cloves of garlic, the ground meat and cook until it is done. It would take about 10 minutes. Add the pepper sauce you have sitting to the side and blend everything. Add 2 dashes of Maggi or knoor aroma. At this point i would also add a tsp of tomato paste and stir very well until the sauce thickens and turn off then you are ready to peel and cut lengthwise the ripe or overripe plantains. Take the plantain pieces you cut and fry it in vegetable oil. Keep frying until they are all fried up. Now beat one egg and oil the pan or even my faithful cast iron you see here in the picture.First lair just cover the bottom with fried plantain pieces. They have to be long slices not dodo. When the pan is covered use the beaten egg and brush it over the plantain pieces and add meat mixture, either the picallio or the meat with suya spice added. Add pieces of cheddar cheese and continue building just like a lasagna by adding the plantain pieces followed by egg followed by choice of picallio or suya spiced meat and finally followed by cheddar cheese until you reach the top. The final lair should have cheese too and bake it in a hot oven. 400 degrees F or 204 degrees C. Oops please preheat your oven first before starting on making these.
Well I hope this is a help to the lady that needed to know what to do with her surplus overripe plantain. There is a big oopsie and I apologize that it is taking this long. The yucca casserole I have photographed here with the pastalon and non veg and arroz gandoules.
For the yucca casserole recipe pictured here:
It is 1 or 2 fresh yucca tubers or better off yet 1 bag of frozen yucca also known as cassava. Now I am making amends to post this recipe for this casserole. Thanks for your patience. Boil the yucca in 1 gallon or 4 liters of water for 30 minutes or until soft. This is like how you would do a potato.
After the yucca is soft, drain and let cool. This is easier to remove the string in the middle. Place back in the pot and mash with a potato masher. Add 2 cloves of garlic crushed with a mortar and pestle, 1 pinch of black peppercorns ground in to a coarse powder, 1/4 cup of milk, 3 dashes of adobo, 1 pinch of oregano, 2 pats of butter, 3 tbs of olive oil and mix very well.
Take a bread loaf pan or cast iron skillet sprayed with cooking spray, smooth the cassava or yucca mixture out evenly. Top with 3 handfuls of grated cheese of choice. Bake in a 375F or 190C for 20 to 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. It also has to be slightly brown on top. Here it is finally and thanks again for your patience.
Enjoy with your malt beverage of choice.
