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Api con pastel
Bolivian hot spiced purple-corn drink with a crisp fried cheese pastry dusted with icing sugar
On cold mornings in La Paz, El Alto and Sucre, market stalls ladle out steaming api: a thick, spiced drink of purple corn flour with cinnamon, cloves and orange peel. It's served with a pastel, a big, thin fried empanada filled with fresh cheese and dusted with icing sugar, crackling and blistered outside. Some stalls swirl the purple api with white (corn and milk) api in the same glass. Chef's tip: whisk the corn flour into cold water before it meets anything hot, or it lumps immediately.
- Total time
- 75 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
For the api
For the pasteles
Method
0/7 doneStep 1: Whisk 5 ½ oz purple corn flour (harina de maíz morado) into 2 cups cold water until completely smooth. Set aside.
Step 2: Bring 4 ¼ cups water to the boil with 2 cinnamon sticks, 5 whole cloves and 2 strips orange peel and simmer for 10 minutes until the water tastes spiced.
10 minStep 3: Pour the corn slurry into the pot in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Add 5 ½ oz sugar. Cook over a low heat for 12–15 minutes, stirring all the time, until thick, glossy and deep purple, like a pouring custard. Common mistake: stopping stirring; it catches and forms lumps within moments. Strain out the spices and add 1 tbsp lime juice if you like a little tang.
15 minStep 4: For the pasteles, mix 10 ½ oz plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder and ½ tsp salt. Add 1 ¾ oz butter and ¾ cup warm water and knead for 4 minutes until smooth. Rest for 15 minutes, covered.
4 minStep 5: Divide into 6. Roll each very thin, about 18 cm across. Put a sixth of 7 oz fresh white cheese or mozzarella and a little ¼ onion on one half, fold over and seal with a fork or rope the edge with your fingers.
Step 6: Heat 2 cups vegetable oil to 350°F. Fry the pasteles one or two at a time for 1–2 minutes per side, spooning oil over the top, until puffed and blistered golden. Drain.
10 minStep 7: Dust with 3 tbsp icing sugar and serve hot with a glass of hot api.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 560 kcal
- Protein
- 14 g
- Carbs
- 82 g
- Fat
- 20 g
- Fibre
- 3 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does api con pastel take?
- About 75 minutes in total: 40 minutes to prepare and 35 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 6 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- What can I use instead of cinnamon sticks?
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon per stick.
- What can I use instead of whole cloves?
- Ground cloves, ¼ tsp for every 3 whole cloves.
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