Christmas in Honduras, part 1

We were sad not to see Andrew and Laura this Christmas, but they had a nice Christmas with Laura's mom, Miguelina, and sister, Lorena, with them for several days. They had some traditional Dominican food for Christmas dinner, goat and pasteles en hoja. Andrew kindly sent me these photos of the long process that Miguelina went through to make this dish.

You start with mashed green bananas seasoned and colored with annatto.






Wash the banana leaves.





Spread some of the banana mixture on the leaf, then add a spoon of seasoned cooked meat (I think Andrew said it was three different meats cooked together.)




Cover the meat with more banana mixture.







Fold the banana leaf around the banana and meat.






Wrap each packet in paper (maybe parchment paper?).






Tie securely.





Repeat.

Then steam them in a big pot, but he forgot to take photos of this step.


The dish near the top is what they look like after they are unwrapped.