As you can also read in another recipe on the blog, the pastel brasiliane are basically a small fried, stuffed turnover; during our trip, on November 19, 2018 at the “Cosmo beach club” in Florianopolis, a very trendy spot in the Jurere area, we had as an appetizer/snack a plate of mixed pasteis (plural of pastel).
The base is the same for all of them, but the filling can be any food, although the most famous pastel are those with ground beef.
Here I give you two recipes: pastel with ground beef and pastel de frango, that is, with chicken.
For the dough in Brazil they use “massa de pastel”, a roll of frozen dough (see photo below), which you can buy, in Italy, on the Forno d’Italia website.
Not to be confused with:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Budget-friendly
- Preparation time: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
- Cooking time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 15 pieces
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Brazilian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 4 cups 00 flour (all-purpose)
- 2 eggs
- 1 packet baking powder
- 1 cup cold water
- to taste Salt
- 1 lb chicken breast (filleted)
- 1 onion
- as needed olive oil
- 5 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1 cup chopped green olives
- 5.3 oz cream cheese
- to taste Salt
- 2/3 lb ground beef
- 1 onion
- 1 cup chopped green olives
- 5 tbsp chopped parsley
- 2 hard-boiled eggs
Preparation
Prepare a brine with water and salt.
Stir until the salt is completely dissolved.
In a bowl, sift the flour and baking powder.
Place the eggs in the center of the mixture and a little of the brine.
Mix well with your hands.
Add the brine slowly and mix until the dough becomes soft, smooth and no longer sticks to your hands.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
In a non-stick pan add olive oil, onion and salt. Sauté. Add the filling ingredients (chicken, cream cheese, parsley and olives, or ground beef, parsley, crumbled hard-boiled eggs and olives). Let them gently sauté over low heat. Add salt to taste. Roll out the dough so that it becomes thin and crisp.
Form small discs. Place a moderate portion of the filling in the center. Moisten the entire edge of the dough with water using your finger before closing to form a small half-moon. In a non-stick pan heat the oil (or use a deep fryer) and fry the pasteis slowly and evenly.
The Brazilian cuisine is described in a wonderful book by Thiago Castanho which you can find HERE.
