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Fried pastries recipe (pasteis)
- Cuisine: Brazilian
- Makes 16
Pastéis can be filled with savoury or sweet fillings. Here, we offer both a savoury version with hearts of palm and a sweet one with guava paste. Take your pick of either, or halve the quantities for each filling and make eight of each variety. The dough requires a bit of stretching, so if you own a pasta machine, we suggest you use it to roll out the dough. Just before eating the pastries, pierce a hole in them to allow the steam to escape.
Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra, to deep-fry60ml (¼ cup) cachaça*
2 tbsp white vinegar
600g (4 cups) plain flour
Hearts of palm filling
60ml (¼ cup) olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, seeded, chopped
2 x 400g cans hearts of palm (palmitos)*, drained, chopped
¼ cup flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
250g queijo fresco*, grated
Guava paste filling
800g guava paste (goiabada)*
480g queijo fresco
Icing sugar, to dust
Preparation
To make hearts of palm filling, heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook onions and garlic, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes or until onions are browned. Add tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes or until tomatoes soften. Remove pan from heat and stir in hearts of palm and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Cool slightly, then stir in cheese.To make guava paste filling, using a knife dipped in hot water, cut guava paste and queijo fresco into 16 slices each.
To make dough, whisk together oil, cachaça and vinegar in a small bowl. Combine flour and 2 tsp salt in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Gradually add cachaça mixture and 185ml (¾ cup) warm water to well and stir in flour mixture until mixture forms a slightly stiff dough; add extra water if mixture is too dry. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 2 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Wrap in plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes.
Divide dough into 8. Working with one piece at a time, roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface until a 4mm-thick rectangle. Fold into thirds widthwise, then, working from the centre upwards and rotating dough when necessary, roll out to a 40cm x 14cm rectangle. (Alternatively, roll out dough using a pasta machine.) Cut each piece in half to make 2 x 20cm x 14cm rectangles.
To fill pastries, spread ¼ cup hearts of palm filling or a slice each of the guava paste and queijo fresco over one half of each rectangle, leaving a 1cm border. Brush edges with water, fold dough in half over filling and press edges to seal. Crimp edges using a fork. Place on a lined oven tray and cover with plastic wrap. Repeat with the remaining filling and dough.
Fill a deep-fryer or large saucepan one-third full with oil and heat over medium heat to 180°C (or until a cube of bread turns golden in 10 seconds). Working in batches of 2, gently drop pastries into oil and fry, turning halfway, for 4 minutes or until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Dust guava paste pastries with icing sugar to serve.
* Distilled spirit made from sugarcane.
* Hearts of palm (palmitos) are available from Asian and South American food shops.
* A soft, mild cow’s-milk cheese available from selected delis. Substitute haloumi.
* Guava paste (goiabada) is available from Portugese, Asian and Indian food shops.
Drink For the savoury pastries, try the 2010 Montes Sauvignon Blanc ($9) and for the sweet ones, go with a beer: Dos Equis Lager Especial ($15 for a sixpack).
Photography by Brett Stevens.
If you enjoyed this Fried pastries recipe (pasteis) then browse more Brazilian recipes, pizza, pie and tart recipes, dessert recipes, prepare ingredients in advance recipes, egg-free recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.
Brazilian Restaurants
Displaying 10 of 33 Brazilian Restaurants.
| Restaurant | Book Online | Suburb | |
| 1. | Rio's Brazilian Restaurant | Richmond | |
| 2. | Wildfire | Sydney | |
| 3. | Copacabana International | Fitzroy | |
| 4. | Brazilian Touch Restaurant & Bar | Milton | |
| 5. | BlueFire Churrascaria Grill & Bar | Docklands | |
| 6. | BlueFire Churrascaria Grill and Bar | Main Beach | |
| 7. | Favela | Potts Point | |
| 8. | Fiesta on Oxford | Bondi Junction | |
| 9. | Churrasco | Coogee | |
| 10. | Braza Churrascaria | Leichhardt |
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