Pastel de Feira

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •Rolling pin or pasta roller
• •Wide skillet for filling
• •Heavy 4-liter pot for frying
• •Kitchen thermometer
• •Spider skimmer or metal slotted spoon
• •Wire rack or paper-lined tray

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the dough

   Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and stir with your hand. Add the oil, vinegar, cachaça if using, and 3/4 cup warm water. Mix until shaggy, then squeeze and fold until the flour disappears. The dough should feel firm and a little dry, not sticky like bread dough. Add extra water 1 tablespoon at a time only if dry flour stays in the bowl, because too much water makes a dough that fights the rolling pin.

   The cachaça is an honest shortcut. It helps the surface blister and crisp because the alcohol evaporates quickly in the hot oil. No cachaça? Use vodka or leave it out. It will still work, just a little less feira-crackly.
2. 2

   Knead and rest

   Knead the dough on the counter for 5 to 7 minutes, until it turns smooth and stops cracking at the edges. Wrap it and let it rest for 30 minutes. Resting isn't laziness, it's technique: the flour hydrates and the dough relaxes, so you can roll it thin instead of wrestling it across the counter like a punishment.

3. 3

   Build the refogado

   Warm 2 tablespoons oil in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it murcha, soft and see-through, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic for 1 minute, just until you smell it. This is the refogado, the base that makes the beef taste like food and not just browned meat. Burn the garlic and it turns bitter, and it will not apologize.

4. 4

   Brown the beef

   Add the ground beef, salt, pepper, and cumin if using. Spread it out and let it dourar before stirring too much, then break it up and cook until the liquid disappears and the meat starts to sizzle again, 8 to 10 minutes. You want a dry filling with browned bits, not a wet pan. Wet filling leaks, and then the oil gets angry and the pastel opens like bad gossip.

5. 5

   Finish the filling

   Stir in the olives if using and the parsley or scallions. Taste and adjust the salt. Spread the filling on a plate and let it cool completely before filling the dough. Hot filling softens the dough and makes sealing harder, so give it the time. A Tuesday is a Tuesday, yes, but physics still has its little opinions.

6. 6

   Make the molho

   Stir the vinegar, water, tomato, onion, parsley or scallions, and salt in a small bowl. Let it sit while you roll the dough. The vinegar pulls juice from the tomato and onion and gives you that sharp feira spoonful that cuts the fried richness. No bottled sweet sauce needed here.

7. 7

   Roll very thin

   Cut the rested dough into 4 pieces and keep the pieces covered. Roll one piece on a lightly floured counter into a long, thin sheet, about 1 mm thick, thin enough that your hand almost shows through. Turn and flour only when it sticks. Thick dough fries heavy and bready; thin dough blisters, crackles, and behaves like pastel.

8. 8

   Fill and seal

   Cut the dough into rectangles about 12 by 15 cm. Put 2 tablespoons cooled beef filling on one half, or one rectangle of cheese if making cheese pastéis. Leave a clean border. Brush the edge with a little water, fold the dough over, press out the air, and seal with a fork. Air pockets puff too hard and can burst, so press from the filling outward before crimping.

9. 9

   Heat the oil

   Pour the frying oil into a heavy pot so it is at least 6 cm deep, with plenty of empty space above it. Heat to 180°C or 350°F. No thermometer? Drop in a small scrap of dough. It should bubble right away and rise steadily, not sink sadly and not darken in seconds. Oil too cool makes greasy pastel. Oil too hot browns the outside before the dough crisps properly.

10. 10

    Fry until blistered

    Fry 1 or 2 pastéis at a time, turning once, until golden with little blisters across the surface, about 1 to 2 minutes per side. Don't crowd the pot. Too many at once drops the oil temperature, and then the dough drinks oil instead of frying crisp. Transfer to a rack or paper-lined tray and salt lightly while hot.

11. 11

    Serve right away

    Serve the pastéis while the crust is crisp, with the molho de feira spooned on the side. Bite carefully, because cheese holds heat like it has a grudge. This is not food that improves by waiting. Call people to the table before the last batch leaves the oil.

Chef Tips

• •Use low-moisture cheese for pastel de queijo. Fresh, watery cheese leaks, and then everyone blames the folding instead of the cheese. Prato, low-moisture mozzarella, or a firm minas padrão all behave.
• •The beef filling must be dry before it goes into the dough. If you see liquid in the skillet, keep cooking until the meat sizzles again. That sound tells you the water is gone and flavor is building.
• •You can buy ready-made pastel dough when dinner has to happen fast. That's a real Tuesday shortcut. The cost is flavor and control over thickness, but it is still better than pretending a powder packet is cooking.
• •Freeze assembled raw pastéis on a tray, then bag them. Fry straight from frozen, one or two at a time, adding a little extra time. Don't thaw them or the dough sweats and sticks.
• •Do not reuse frying oil forever. Strain it once it cools, keep it for another savory frying day if it still smells clean, and throw it out when it turns dark or sticky.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made up to 24 hours ahead and kept wrapped in the fridge. Let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before rolling.
• •The beef filling can be cooked up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Use it cold or room temperature, never hot.
• •Assembled raw pastéis can be frozen for up to 2 months. Freeze flat first, then transfer to a bag so they don't stick together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 105g)