Jewel's Future of Hope: Pastelon

Last Saturday I woke up thinking about the ground beef that had been in the freezer for 10 days. Sort of random thought to be on my mind at 7am. Stuff just does not keep super well in the freezer here so we needed to use it up soon. Hamburgers in my family are sort of hit or miss.... with me and Melanie loving them and the others kind of not so much. What to do with this ground beef??...... Lightbulb goes off... Pastelon!

A pastelon is a Dominican version of lasagna. This is actually my 2nd time making pastelon. My first time was pretty yummy, but I got sick the next day. Honestly, I don't think the two were related, but my body associated the two so it took me 6 months to try it again. In March I bought a small piece of pastelon at the supermarket deli and it was yummy. I decided that I was over the taste aversion and ready to move on in my journey of Dominican cooking. Hurray!

First disclaimer... Typical Dominican Pastelon is with mashed plaintains. However, I found this recipe that won me over with fried Plaintains. Yep, more grease, but so delicious. I think this is more the PuertoRican version, but Shhhh.... don't tell my Dominican family. So here is the link to the recipe that I used. Gather your ingredients:

1lb of ground beef
3-4 eggs
1-2 tbsp tomato paste
several cloves of garlic
one onion
cilantro or recaito as it is called here aka cilantro ancho
1/4 cup of raisins
6-8 olives chopped ( I don't like olives, but they added so much flavor)
4 ripe plaintains (see below, these could have been more ripe but it's what we had on hand)

Chop all the vegetables. Add the chopped green pepper, onion, garlic and cilantro to the ground beef. Add 2 tbsp of vinegar. Mix well. Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil on medium high heat and brown beef. When close to brown add olives, raisins and the Goya seasoning if following the recipe link or any type of general seasoning. This is what we had on hand. This stuff is not good for you.... but when in Rome...

Next you are going to peel the plantains. Google this if needed. I can't offer any tips really, because I'm so bad at peeling plantains. Fortunately ripe plantains or easier to peel than green ones.

Slice the plantain down the middle. Carefully peel away the peeling. Slice the plantains into strips.

Heat oil and fry until beautiful golden yellow. My first batch were a little too golden aka burnt, but they still tasted so yummy. I actually used one extra plantain because I knew that I was sure to be snacking on these way before the Pastelon was ready

Butter pan generously. Layer the plantains first into the pan, followed by the ground beef, then cheese. Repeat again, being sure to end with plantains and cheese. Crack 3 eggs. Mix with 2 tbsp of milk. Stir well and pour on top.

I used 2 mini pans because I couldn't find the 8x8 or 9x9 pan. Bake in oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Enjoy with a nice side salad!