Instructions: 1. To make sofrito, blend cilantro, garlic, onion, peppers, oil, and salt in a blender until smooth. Reserve 1/4 cup for this recipe and refrigerate or freeze the remainder in a tightly covered container (it will keep for several months).

2. For filling, fry meat in hot shortening until brown. Add olives, tomato paste, and 1/4 cup sofrito. Cook on low heat for almost 1 hour, then set aside to cool slightly. If all liquid has evaporated from meat, add a few more spoonfuls oil.

3. While meat is cooking, prepare dough. Peel yautias and yuca with a small, sharp knife. Grate with plantains and pumpkin or squash into a bowl. Add paprika and shortening and mix to form a soft dough.

4. To form pasteles, lay a banana leaf flat and cover with a little oil from meat mixture to soften the surface. Place 1/3 cup dough on leaf and spread into a rectangular shape about 1/4 inch thick. Put 2 to 3 tablespoons meat mixture on the left side of dough, then fold over the right side to enclose dough. Continue folding the leaf, tucking under the ends to make a neat, rectangular package. With kitchen string tie together 2 banana-leaf packets like a present.

5. Boil packages (this is what the recipe says but I assume they mean more like simmer, not hard boil) in a large pot of salted water for 45 minutes, making sure that they are always covered by water. Pasteles are done when the leaf peels easily from the dough inside.

Serves 10 to 12

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