Puerto Rican Beef Pastelillo
Equipment
- Puerto Rican Grandmother
Ingredients
- 10-15 Green Olives Manzanilla
- 1 lb Ground Beef, 93/7
- ⅛ tsp Garlic Powder
- ⅛ tsp Onion Powder
- ¼ tsp Adobo
- 1 pkg Sazon
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp pepper
- 1 pkg Flour Round Discos Goya, found in frozen aisle
- 1 tbsp Sofrito
Instructions
- Ok, the best way to make this is to talk to a Puerto Rican mom or even better a grandma. Abuela is what you should call her. Don't ask her for her recipe, invite her over to teach you how to properly season ground beef. She will open your mind up to a whole new world of flavor.
- Ok, if you can't find an Abuela, then grab the ingredients up top and let's attempt to channel our inner Puerto Rican. I'm 2% so it should be easy. To the side is a picture of some of the brands we normally use.
- Here is a picture of the Discos you need to buy. They are usually in the frozen food aisle. Make sure to not buy these last minute. Leave them in the fridge overnight so they thaw out.
- chop in half around 10-15 olives. I'm not a big olive lover, but my wife is so I think she added more. No worries though. This is the one dish I actually like having the olives in. It just adds a different flavor to the whole dish.
- Place a frying pan on medium high heat. When it's hot go ahead and add in the ground beef, all the spices and brown the meat mixture. Once it's browned go ahead and add in the chopped up olives.
- Keep cooking the ground beef until it's completely cooked through. While it's cooking you want heat up a large frying pan to 375°. If you plan on making the same dinner, you already need this. I do recommend a deep fat fryer for this, but it doesn't matter if you don't have one. You can still use a frying pan, it just has to have enough oil in it for the Pastelillo's to be half way submerged.
- Once the meat is done lay the discos out and put the mixture in the middle
- Then fold it in half pinching together the outer edges with a fork on both sides. Make sure these are sealed. If you don't when you go to fry them they will open up and the oil will get inside and well, Mamita will not be very happy.
- The package of discos has these little sheets that separate the discos. Just use them to keep your pastelillos from sticking to each other.
- Once the oil is ready, go ahead and dump 2 in the oil. Flip them over after about 30-60 seconds. then let them cook again until you start to see it browning nicely.
- Pull them from the oil and let them sit on a paper towel for about 5-10 minutes to cool down. Then enjoy a nice little appetizer before the main course. You will be tempted to eat like 4 of them. Don't do this because Abuelita will give you a cocotazos if you ruin your dinner.
Notes
Wife Rating: 10
Husband Rating: 10
Once you've done this you will start to explore making other fillings for the pastelillos. We do ham and cheese sometimes as well and they are amazing.
The price for the meal does not include the basic spices. It does for the more exotic stuff like Sazon and Adobo. If you don't use these in other meals then try adding them. Adobo can be used in almost every dish and really makes flavors pop.
This recipe will make 10 pastelillos. We would recommend only cooking 3-4 and save the rest for the next day. You can store them in the fridge for around 2 days before having to cook them, or you could freeze them for another time.
Our final picture looks like our pastelillos were a little overdone. They shouldn't be that dark. So keep your eye on them as they cook pretty fast.