Pastel
A deep-fried Brazilian pastry created in 1940s São Paulo by Japanese-Brazilian immigrants, who adapted Chinese spring-roll and Japanese gyoza wrapping techniques into a distinctly Brazilian street food. That history carries a real, harder edge worth stating honestly rather than smoothing into a cute fusion story: during and after World War II, Japanese-Brazilians faced property confiscation, banking and government-job bans, and internment-like restrictions, and some accounts hold that immigrants sold the snack while downplaying their Japanese identity to avoid wartime prejudice. It shares only its name with the site's existing Chilean pastel de choclo, a baked corn-and-meat casserole, and Portuguese pastel de nata, an egg custard tart, both entirely unrelated dishes despite the shared word for pastry. Real pastel uses a paper-thin, elastic dough, often made with a little cachaça or vinegar for crispness, and is always deep-fried, never baked, until blistered and crisp.
⚠ Contains: Gluten, Dairy. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp cachaça or vinegar
- 2 tbsp oil
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 300g ground beef, seasoned and cooked (or mozzarella for a vegetarian version)
- Oil, for deep-frying
Steps
- Mix the flour, cachaça or vinegar, oil, water, and salt into a smooth, elastic dough. Rest 30 minutes.
- Roll the dough out as thin as possible.
- Cut into rectangles, place a spoonful of filling on each, fold over, and seal the edges tightly.
- Deep-fry in hot oil until blistered, golden, and crisp.
- Drain and serve immediately, hot.