Page 19 - AHATA

A7
LOCAL Friday 30 May 2025

A quick snack for the road: Learn how to make the Aruban

Pastechi!

(Oranjestad)—If you ever 100 gram balls and roll it
been to Aruba before, flat with a rolling pin. The If you want to store some
you probably heard of thickness of the pastechi pastechis for later use, you
(and even tried) the Aru- depends on your taste, but can freeze them. A good
ban Pastechi. Beloved by the average thinness would tip is to place a piece of
young and old, this tasty be around ¼ inch or so. wax paper in between
treat is a staple for party each pastechi if you are
snacks, a quick lunch or Filling for the pastechis var- to store them on top of
even breakfast! ies according to your taste. one another. This way the
The easiest and most com- pastechis don’t stick to
Here’s how to make the mon filling you’ll find in Aru- each other when defrost-
Pastechi dough. ba is a simple cheese fill- ing.
ing. For this, we usually use
Ingredients: shredded Gouda, but feel Here in Aruba we enjoy
4 cups of wheat flour free to use any cheese that pastechi at any time of
1 tbsp baking powder (if and add all the dry ingredi- lightly dusted until its sur- melts well when frying the the day, but it has be-
using self-rising flour, omit ents before giving it a quick face is smooth. You’ll know pastry. come almost tradition to
baking powder) mix. Next add the butter, your dough is ready when it eat pastechis for breakfast
1 tsp salt water and egg and mix doesn’t stick to your hands Place the filling on your on the way to work. Many
1 tbsp sugar until thoroughly combined. or the surface on which rolled out piece of dough, roadside snack trucks sell
0.5 cup of melted butter At this point, your dough you’re kneading it. Let your fold it in half and pinch the pastechi from early morn-
1 cup water will start to get sticky; time dough rest covered for 15- sides shut with a fork. If you ing to noon, and offer a va-
1 egg for an arm workout. Knead 20 minutes. have a folding tool, feel riety of fillings like cheese;
your dough into the bowl free to use it for this process. ham and cheese; ground
Directions: you are using or on a clean After resting, divide your Your pastechi is ready for beef and pulled chicken to
Sift your flour into a bowl surface with some flour dough into approximately the fryer! name a few.

Lessons from our elders:
Plants and fruits for medicinal use

(Oranjestad)— Though which the answer is based said to have a few benefits
western medicine is now on harvest time. Tiny trees for our health. According
widely used for common produce tinier pomegran- to customs, pomegranate
illnesses and to keep our ates that can be harvest- skin tea can help those that
bodies healthy and happy, ed early on. Contrarily, suffer from diarrhea. Dried
it is still very common in big trees produce bigger pomegranate skin tea is
every household in Aruba pomegranates, but they also good for people who
(and around the world) to need enough time to fully have worms. Pomegranate
have staple home rem- ripen before harvesting, flowers can be boiled to
edies that is passed on otherwise you might end make a drink and this can
through generations. Here up with bitter seeds. Pome- be used for irritated gums;
are some tips that our el- granate trees are also very just take a swig and let the
ders have passed on to us easy to plant. In essence, tea sit in your mouth for a
over the years. if you just throw the seeds couple minutes.
on the ground, they could Source: Remedi i Kustum-
Sweet potato grow into a tree. ber di nos Bieunan (Medi-
According to our elders, In terms of medicinal use, cine and Customs of our
sweet potato is mostly use- ter until it starts to sprout. pomegranate tree, for pomegranate skins are Elderly) by Dinah Veeris
ful for low blood pressure. Then you may plant it in the
People who suffer from low ground. Sweet potatoes
blood pressure were ad- need plenty of water to
vised to eat sweet potato 2 grow, especially in the first
to 3 times a week. Howev- week in the ground. It was
er, if you have high blood said that once you start to
pressure, it is best not to eat notice the ground crack
too much sweet potato, as underneath the flowers, it is
this raises blood pressure. time to harvest. This should
Sweet potatoes are also happen around month 3.
great for people who work Pomegranate
hard labor jobs, and it’s Pomegranates are also
been said to be aid blood one of the easier fruits to
circulation in the body, plant and harvest. Origi-
as well as help those with nated from Persia, this
hemorrhoids or diarrhea. plant can grow almost ev-
Many of our elders opted to erywhere. In Aruba, there
plant sweet potatoes them- are many homes that have
selves, mostly because of a tiny or big pomegranate
how easy it was to do so. tree. You may be wonder-
Cut the end of a sweet po- ing what the difference is
tato let it sit in shallow wa- between a small and big