Passport & Plate - Pastelitos Criollos
United Kingdom | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
500gr plain flour
1 tsp. salt
200gr butter, softened
1 glass of water
5-6 oz. dulce de membrillo (quince paste), cut into small squares
vegetable oil for frying
For the sugar syrup (unless you want to use agave syrup or maple srup):
1¼ cups sugar
1/3 c. water
a few drops of lemon
sprinkles for decorating
How to prepare this recipeSift the flour into a bowl leaving space in the middle. Add the butter here and work it into the flour mixture with your hands, until a loose, crumbly dough begins to form. Add water in (with the salt in it) gradually and knead the dough just until it becomes relatively smooth and uniform and is not sticky. Allow it to rest for one hour.
Roll out the dough into a large rectangle. Cut into squares and reserve half of these for the bottom. Place a quince paste square on each. Cover with another square, placing it per the first square so that you get an 8 point star. Wet your finger lightly with water, and trace a circle around the cube of dulce de membrillo, then fold them so that you can squeeze the ends.
Sugar syrup:
Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat, add a few drops of lemon. Bring to a low boil and cook for five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat
Frying the pastelitos:
Heat a medium-sized pot filled with oil to a medium temperature. Place 5 to 6 pastelitos in the oil. Spoon oil over the pastelitos and move them around a bit with a wooden spoon. Before they are fully cooked, gently put the heat up in order to get the pastelitos golden. Remove them and drain them on paper towels.
Dip the pastelitos in the syrup and allow them to cool down. Decorate them with sprinkles or leave them as they are!
The story behind this recipeThis recipe evokes childhood memories of winter days and the holiday “25 de Mayo” in Mendoza, Argentina, which celebrates a revolution and the beginning of Argentina's Independence. We helped my grandmother (daughter of Spanish immigrants) cook these fun treats in her kitchen.
Pastelitos are small pastries that have a quince paste square inside. They have transformed from original recipes brought by the Spanish immigrants, which are derivates of sweets from the north of Africa.
Lolita, my grandmother, would have made the quince paste with quince from her fruit farm in Mendoza. She stored it in a room in the back of the kitchen together with all the jam, cherry liqueur and various delicious treasures that our parents would entitle themselves to ‘just go in and steal’, as she put it. On a Saturday afternoon, before our “25 de Mayo” lunch, we would help make pastelitos.
Us kids weren’t normally allowed to help in Lolita’s kitchen; we were only to watch and not disturb her when she cooked. Sometimes, if there was more than two of us, we were sent away from the area altogether. But we kept popping back in as there was always something exciting going on, beside the smell of cooking. A huge copper pot with jam in the making, spaghetti coming through the pasta machine…
However strict Lolita was about not helping her in the kitchen, when pastelitos were made, we had our tasks. Once the dough was ready and cut into the needed shape, we would put the little quince squares (which I tried hard not to eat) on the dough pieces and fold them as she instructed. We had to be tidy here as they needed to close properly. She would then fry them, and later coat them in the syrup she had made.
The next morning we would go over to her house, passing through the display of white and blue flags downtown. After eating lunch with the family we finally got all sticky eating pastelitos. Revlution day was when we got some independence in that kitchen.
