The pasteles came first this year, juju's family (including an aunt and her kids) and i gathered at his house to begin the process. I'll try and explain it, but don't take my word, I've only been around twice when they are being made.
The 'dough' consist of a few fruits and vegetables, i think. **I was asked to make a correction. Pasteles contain no fruit, Platanos (Green Bananas) are considered vegetables, I deeply apologize for the misinformation**It has platanos, gineos, yuca and patato. You have to process all those ingredients together until it becomes the consistency of baby food, that in itself takes a while. Im not sure if its the platanos or the gineos that are extreme hard to open. Think of a banana, you know how you just 'fold' the top stem part and just peel? Well, these you literally have to take a knife to it, and they make your hands black due to sap residue from the tree they once called home.
The part that really takes its toll on you it cutting the meat. You have to cut the meat to about 1/3rd of an inch squared. Doesn't sound too bad right? But when you have to do it to 25+ pounds it sounds nearly impossible. The clock ticked away as Irma ( jujus aunt), Evelyn (My FMIL) and i cut the meat. It was late, everyone else was sleeping, and there we were, almost delusional, with sharp knifes. We cut the last piece of meat at a little before 3 am. We had to stop, we were endangering our fingers.
We still had to actually assemble the pasteles and cook them. That we did the next day with a bit more help. One person cut the foil, another added the dough and the meat, another person folded the aluminum closed, counted and stacked them.
Pasteles are delicious. But i see why they only make them once a year.
For the tamales the process is very similar. My family and i gather early on the 24th of December to begin to prepare the tamales we will have for dinner that same night. There is prep work that goes on behind the scenes a few days before the 24th, my mom prepares all the salsas that we will use to fill the tamales, hand kneads the corn dough, grates cheese, basically anything that will ensure that we are efficient as possible on the 24th.
Tamales are made out of corn dough and filled/stuffed with meat/salsa, cheese/salsa, plain, and even raisins and coconut. Once the dough is properly mixed and kneaded, we spread the dough on corn husks, and they move down the assembly line to be filled with the designated ingredients. The corn husks get removed before they are consumed, its funny though, when people don't know that you are supposed to remove the husk, and they try and eat with corn husk and all. Its quite a sight, seeing that corn husks are nearly impossible to bite through.
Victor and I spread the dough, the old fashioned, love filled way, while Gaby took the commercialized cold hearted way. Victor and i spread the dough onto the husk with the back of a spoon, sort of as you were making a PB&J sandwich. Gaby used a tortilla maker.
We gave her a hard time about it.Once they are ready to be cooked, they are steamed for about an hour.
Cookie watched from down below. There she is in her Ho!Ho!Ho! shirt and her favorite green blankie.
Notice how we all practiced GMP. Safety and Cleanliness first, even cookie had to wear a hairnet. Poor thing, my brother demanded she wear a 'bodynet'
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