Pasteles - Not your typical birthday cake
This weekend another PCV came to visit so I got to see my site through new eyes. She's a city girl 100%, and coming to visit was "like summer camp" way out in the middle of nowhere for her. I got a lot of "oh wow, this is really rural" over the past four days. I tried to keep a fairly full schedule so she could get a sense of some of the activities in my life right now and see some of the beauty my rural site has to offer. We made pasteles (recipe below) and lemon bars for my birthday, played baseball, got rained on, planted seeds in bottles, spent a few hours in the sewing class, hung out with my host family (playing cards and watching Frozen, of course), chatted a lot, and visited the river to wash my puppy and check out Honduras. I may have convinced Alex that her FOMO (fear of missing out) was real and she had to jump off the rocks into the Torola river because who knows when she's coming back to visit again. It just so happens that, since rainy season is in full swing, Torola is BROWN. Well, I got an excellent picture and she survived, so I call that a success. Check out Alex's blog for my pictures, since my internet is too slow.
In sewing class, we turned in our pants for a grade and are on to shirts. On Monday we cut out the patterns we made and started sewing all the pieces together. Everyone is getting faster and better with the machines, and it helps that shirts have significantly fewer complicated pockets. The shirts were done by Wednesday and now it's on to child-size pants. If we stay at this pace, we will have time to make a blouse for ourselves at the end! That's next week! AHHH!!
English is chugging along as usual, with my dedicated little group. I throw them far too much vocabulary, but they are getting better all the time. The last lesson was on "to have," and clarifying when to use "I have" and when to use "I am." Clear as mud - I don't know rules of English at all.
Also, my project manager found me a 4.5-pound bag of chocolate chips in San Salvador that she's buying and sending on the shuttle for me. Have I mentioned how much I adore my two project managers?
New book count: 38
Book count: 50
TV: I finished Season 2 of The Wire, a series about the Baltimore PD, which I am thoroughly enjoying. It's a smart show, not a flashy explosive edge-of-your-seat show. From occasional comments from other PCVs, I think it has been a steady PCV watch for years - evidently everyone has those weeks when they totally neglect all responsibility and blow through an entire season of The Wire.
In Spanish, pastel means cake, so imagine my confusion when I got to El Salvador and when they served us pasteles, I got a bag full of these little orange potato-filled fried treats. There's a woman in La Suncuya who makes them every day and they are so good. Now that I'm there all the time for sewing, it has become a weekly (or twice or three times a week) post-class purchase. She sells 5 for a quarter in a bag with cabbage, lime and hot sauce - a pretty good deal if you ask me.
Salvadoran Pasteles
As dictated by my host family
Makes 50 small pasteles (feeds 5)
Ingredients: garlic, tomatoes, green chile (not spicy), onion, cumin, black pepper, chicken flavor, salt, maseca, water, achiote (annatto powder), potatoes, cabbage, lime, hot sauce
Peel and boil 3(?) potatoes
Liquefy in a blender:
1 clove garlic
1 tomato
1/2 green pepper
1/4 onion
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
5 4 oz chicken cubes or the equivalent in bouillon (basically enough to add flavor but not so much everything tastes like chicken soup)
Mix to make masa:
1 part maseca
1 part liquid
Mix the liquefied ingredients slowly into the maseca, adding achiote uniformly throughout to give it an orange hue. I don't actually know if this adds flavor or just makes it orange - achiote doesn't have a ton of flavor.
The dough should hold together but not be sticky. If it's too wet, add more maseca...too dry, add more liquid (add water once you run out of veggie liquid).
Put a piece of saran wrap on the work surface.
Make aprox 5" rounds on the saran wrap and fill with boiled mashed potatoes. Fold in half over the potatoes with the saran wrap (this is so it doesn't stick all over your hands) and press closed.
Cook in oil until crispy.
Serve with shredded cabbage, lime a little bit of salt and hot sauce.
In sewing class, we turned in our pants for a grade and are on to shirts. On Monday we cut out the patterns we made and started sewing all the pieces together. Everyone is getting faster and better with the machines, and it helps that shirts have significantly fewer complicated pockets. The shirts were done by Wednesday and now it's on to child-size pants. If we stay at this pace, we will have time to make a blouse for ourselves at the end! That's next week! AHHH!!
English is chugging along as usual, with my dedicated little group. I throw them far too much vocabulary, but they are getting better all the time. The last lesson was on "to have," and clarifying when to use "I have" and when to use "I am." Clear as mud - I don't know rules of English at all.
Also, my project manager found me a 4.5-pound bag of chocolate chips in San Salvador that she's buying and sending on the shuttle for me. Have I mentioned how much I adore my two project managers?
New book count: 38
Book count: 50
TV: I finished Season 2 of The Wire, a series about the Baltimore PD, which I am thoroughly enjoying. It's a smart show, not a flashy explosive edge-of-your-seat show. From occasional comments from other PCVs, I think it has been a steady PCV watch for years - evidently everyone has those weeks when they totally neglect all responsibility and blow through an entire season of The Wire.
In Spanish, pastel means cake, so imagine my confusion when I got to El Salvador and when they served us pasteles, I got a bag full of these little orange potato-filled fried treats. There's a woman in La Suncuya who makes them every day and they are so good. Now that I'm there all the time for sewing, it has become a weekly (or twice or three times a week) post-class purchase. She sells 5 for a quarter in a bag with cabbage, lime and hot sauce - a pretty good deal if you ask me.
Salvadoran Pasteles
As dictated by my host family
Makes 50 small pasteles (feeds 5)
Ingredients: garlic, tomatoes, green chile (not spicy), onion, cumin, black pepper, chicken flavor, salt, maseca, water, achiote (annatto powder), potatoes, cabbage, lime, hot sauce
Peel and boil 3(?) potatoes
Liquefy in a blender:
1 clove garlic
1 tomato
1/2 green pepper
1/4 onion
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
5 4 oz chicken cubes or the equivalent in bouillon (basically enough to add flavor but not so much everything tastes like chicken soup)
Mix to make masa:
1 part maseca
1 part liquid
Mix the liquefied ingredients slowly into the maseca, adding achiote uniformly throughout to give it an orange hue. I don't actually know if this adds flavor or just makes it orange - achiote doesn't have a ton of flavor.
The dough should hold together but not be sticky. If it's too wet, add more maseca...too dry, add more liquid (add water once you run out of veggie liquid).
Put a piece of saran wrap on the work surface.
Make aprox 5" rounds on the saran wrap and fill with boiled mashed potatoes. Fold in half over the potatoes with the saran wrap (this is so it doesn't stick all over your hands) and press closed.
Cook in oil until crispy.
Serve with shredded cabbage, lime a little bit of salt and hot sauce.
That is a great picture of you!! Glad you had a visitor. Kate can't wait to be the next one!
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