Pastelles: the food delight of Christmas

Pastelles are a staple of the Christmas season in TT, but as many people have found out to their displeasure, not all pastelles are made equal.

Therefore, Sunday Newsday spoke to two people who are well known for their skills with the cornmeal and meat delicacies to see if their secrets could sussed out.

While the exact measurements of their herbs and spices remain a mystery, they both had one thing in common – they use the freshest ingredients they could find.

Taryn Cumberbatch opened her restaurant, Taryn’s the Panyol Place on Mucurapo Road, Port of Spain, 16 years ago.

She was born in Venezuela but her father is a Trinidadian so she often visited TT while growing up.

“I really graduated in chemistry but I wanted to open a business of my own as well. I thought, ‘How come, being only seven miles away, I can not find a proper empanada to eat?’”

So, she started her venture selling arepas and empanadas and gradually incorporated other items, including meals for breakfast and lunch. She now runs her business with her husband Wilfred Omana.

Cumberbatch said, in her opinion, every year pastelles seem to become thinner and shorter, which she does not abide. Her version of the pastelle is a bit sweeter than a Trini would expect but they are full of meat with a good layer of cornmeal, unlike some pastelles in which the cornmeal casings are almost transparent.

While her pastelles are popular, her biggest seller is her hallacas.

Hallacas is to pastelles as gulab jamoon is to kurma. Fat. This is because, instead of using ground meat, they are full of chunks of three meats – beef, pork and chicken. However, she accommodates her clients if they preferred only one or two meats to be used. Savoury, moist, and well-seasoned, hallacas have an even thicker cornmeal casing than her pastelles.\

She explained that hallacas are different depending on the region of Venezuela in which they are made with some places using channa or rice in the dish. But her three-meat version is often found the north-east and she garnishes the end product with onions, a slice of boiled eggs, and pepper.

For both products she uses fresh ingredients as much as possible. This is especially the case with the seasonings as she refuses to use powdered or bottled seasoning. She adds capers, olives, wine, roucou, raisins, a sweeter version of molasses, and uses two fig leaves to wrap each pastelle and hallacas to increase the flavour infused into the cornmeal.

“We make sure to find proper, high-quality meat and other ingredients that is as fresh as possible. If not, you simply won’t have a good quality product.”

Halima Holder registered her business, HNH Delights, in 2018 but has been making pastelles for around 25 years. She too swears by the freshest ingredients.

She started learning to make the dish when her mother refused to purchase pastelles any longer, saying it was “too much money to spend.” Every year she would improve as she experimented with flavours. By the fifth year she felt she had perfected it and would tell anyone who mentioned the word “pastelle” that she made it and many times they would order from her.

She always loved to cook and would do so for family events, and even take food for friends at work. People started asking her to cook for them, which eventually led her to catering events.

Like Cumberbatch, she tries for the freshest ingredients, even the meat, when possible. She refuses to buy fish or chicken from the grocery. She would rather go to a pluck shop and fish markets, and when she has to buy beef, she selects the best steaks and grinds them for herself.

She also grinds fresh seasoning before marinating the meats and shredding them.

“If I am known for a good product, I don’t ever want to be inconsistent. It can’t be that this year a customer gets something fabulous and next year it’s horrible. I don’t want to be known for that.”

So, she creates beef, pork, chicken, fish, mixed meats, soy, lentil peas, and vegetable pastelles. These vegetable pastelle are stuffed with carrots, bodi, cauliflower, broccoli, capers, olives, and raisins are optional.

“The same procedure I use for the meat, I cook the vegetables. In the end they don’t taste like vegetables but like meat even though I don’t use any kind of chicken or beef broth or anything like that. What you taste is the capers and olives and seasonings and freshness.”

She also does not use measurements in her recipe but cooks by taste, texture, and sight.

Holder’s other secret is love.

Several years ago, she was cooking for herself and everything was coming along perfectly. Then, someone upset her and she burned the pot three times. Since then, she does not cook if she is in a bad mood or is not in a positive frame of mind.

“I try to be in a loving mindset when I have to cook. If it is this is something I love to do then I’m not going to do it when I’m upset because that changes the whole atmosphere around the pot. I don’t know about anybody else but I honestly believe that. So, if today I’m not feeling to make pastelles, I’m not going to make pastelles.”

Since then, she has practised ways to "change her aura" and improve her mood, including prayer and listening to music, especially when she has an order to fill.

So whatever pastelle recipe you use, the advice from professionals is to use fresh, do not be stingy with the ingredients, keep practising, and keep a positive attitude. The last being a good idea for this Christmas season and the year to come.