Recipe Talk

I was in Cuba a few years ago and a street vendor sold me a delisious dessert called "Meletone". I have never seen it here in Florida.

It was a mini tart that tasted like it had an almond fixture in the middle.

I would love to make this at home, if any one can help please advise or maybe you have tries something similar by another name.

Thank you.

PASTELITOS

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 18 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Desserts

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------

500 g Plain flour
170 g Butter, chilled and cut into
-small pieces
Tablespoon salt
2 ts Fresh lemon juice
1 Egg
240 ml Iced water
130 g Butter, melted and cooled
60 g Plain flour
360 g Quince paste, mixed with
150 ml Of any sweet wine.
Syrup:
450 g Sugar
200 ml Water
Vanilla essence
Oil or vegetable shortening
-for deep-frying

To make the puff pastry: Cut the butter into the flour
and salt until the consistency of crumbs. Gradually
mix in the lemon juice and add the egg. Then, working
the dough continuously with the fingers, add the water
3 tablespoons at a time. When all the water has been
ab- sorbed and the dough is quite smooth, place it on
a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 10-15
minutes until smooth and elastic. Leave to rest 20-30
minutes, covered with a dry tea towel. Roll out the
dough thinly, to about 80 cm square. Brush the surface
with some of the melted butter, dust it with flour and
smooth the flour evenly into the butter with the hand.
Fold the dough in half and repeat the buttering and
flouring process. Then repeat the process twice more
(4 times in all) until the dough is only 20 cm square.
Roll out to about 40 cm square and trim to a perfect
39 cm square. Cut the dough into 36 x 6.5 cm squares.

To assemble: Place about 1 teaspoon of quince filling
in the centre of half the squares, then top each with
another square at a 45- degree angle so you end up
with an eight-pointed star, and press the dough around
the filling to secure it firmly. Shape the pastelito
into a flower by putting a forefinger in turn on each
point of the star, pointing inwards to the centre,
then use your thumb and middle ringer to pinch the
adjoining points of the bottom square up around the
forefinger. This is less complicated than it sounds.

To make syrup: Heat the sugar and and water into a
small saucepan, stirring until the sugar is thoroughly
dissolved. Boil steadily without stirring for 5-10
minutes until glossy and thickened. Stir in a few
drops of vanilla essence and keep warm.

To deep fry: Put about 7-8 cms of oil or shortening in
two deep pans or saucepans. Heat one pan on medium
heat (to about 75 degrees C) and the other until it is
hot (180 degrees C). Drop 2 or 3 paste- litos into the
warm fat and fry for 3-4 minutes, basting once or
twice, until the layers of puff pastry begin to
separate and open up like a flower. Do not let colour,
but rapidly remove the pastelitos to the pan of hot
oil, and fry on both sides for about 2 minutes until
golden brown. Drain the pastelitos on absorbent paper,
then dip in the warm syrup and place on a serving
plate. Serve at room temperature.

Posted by Stephen Ceideburg

From an article by Meryl Constance in The Sydney
Morning Herald, 7/13/93. Courtesy Mark Herron.

http://www.tasteofcuba.com/forums/

Melocotones (Peaches) Chantilly recipe

courtesy of Cocina Cubana club/ Sonia Martinez/ Pascual Perez/ Nitza Villapol

This is an old recipe from Nitza Villapol. For those of you too young to remember she is the premier Cuban cooking expert. Sort of the Julia Child of the island.

Nitza has a cooking show in Cuban television called Cocina al Minuto. This show evolved into a cooking book (or vice versa). Nitza also produced a second book called Cocina Criolla (from where this recipe comes from). The book, published in the late 50s, contains everything from "real" Cuban recipes, to hints, to measurements, to nutrition facts (as understood back then).
It is hard to get here in the US but it is worth the effort to find it.

1 liter of milk

1/4 tspoon of salt

1 cinnamon stick

10 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large can of peaches

1 jar of strawberry marmalade

Whipped cream for garnishment.

Heat the milk with the cinnamon stick and the salt.

Whip the yolks with the sugar and the flour.

Stir the milk into the yolk mixture slowly so that it does not cook the egg.

Sift the whole mixture into a pan and return to the stove and heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes creamy.

Chill the mixture.

To serve use large wine cups or dessert cups and alternate layers of cream, peaches, marmalade, cream, peaches, marmalade.

Top with the whipped cream.

Serves 6

Pastelitos Recipe (little pies)

courtesy of Cocina Cubana club/ Sonia Martinez/ Pascual Perez

The word "pastel" means pies in Spanish. Pastelitos is the diminutive and it usually means the small round or triangular pastries with fillings. Usually pastelitos are made with delicate, flaky puff pastry, but other doughs can be used. I prefer the puff pastry.

[webmaster's note: although this is a pastry recipe, you will find in some places that "pasteles" or "pastelitos" are sometimes filled with browned hamburger meat and fried in oil, something like a "meat pie". These meat pies, especially from Natchitoches, are a specialty here in Louisiana and pretty popular]

Puff pastry is very time consuming, though not hard to do. I don't make my own much any more as it needs cooler temperatures and a drier climate than where I live; so instead, I have come to rely on store-bought sheets of puff pastry. Pepperidge Farm puff pastry comes two sheets to a package and I use this for small quantities. If we are doing a catering job or for large gatherings I buy the commercial sheets from my food wholesaler.

TO SHAPE THE PASTELITOS:

When using Pepperidge Farm:

-Take the sheets of puff pastry and smooth out the folds a little bit (do not oversmooth it)

-With a very sharp knife, make cuts across the sheets, as if you were drawing the lines for playing tic-tac-toe. You will have 9 squares per sheet.

-Place filling (about a teaspoon full) in the middle of the square.

-Fold down from top corner to lower corner to enclose the filling and form a triangle.

-Press all around the two open edges with a fork to seal tightly.

-Place pastries on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, not too close so that they can puff up without touching the next one.

-Brush the tops with a simple syrup (sugar water-same amount sugar as water) using a pastry brush.

-Place in 350oF oven on the middle rack. Takes about 20-30 minutes to puff up and turn golden and flaky (depends on your oven and altitude, so keep a close eye on the first batch to test your oven)

NOTE: The less you handle the sheets of pastry the more it will puff up.

FILLINGS:

Almost anything can be used as a filling. The traditional filings are small dabs of guava marmalade and cream cheese, "picadillo" (*) style meat fillings, or a sweetened cream cheese filling.

Other fillings I have used succesfully:

Sweet Fillings:

-Mango pieces cooked in sugar to form a marmalade.

-Apple pie filling (I like the Comstock brand)- add a small dusting of cinnamon after you brush tops with the sugar water.

-Cherry pie filling (same brand as above)

Savory Fillings:

-Cream cheese and fresh herbs such as basil or thyme. You need to taste your batch as you add the herbs to the cream cheese to make sure the taste comes through.

-Picadillo style ground beef.

-Cream cheese and ground up potted meats, such as Devil's Ham or Chicken. Once, in a pinch, I even used Spam ground up in the cream cheese. it worked, they were good!.