Name: Pastel com Diablo Dentro
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Cape Verde, West Africa
Ingredients: 500 g sweet potatoes, boiled, peeled, and mashed; 500 g cornmeal, fine or medium; sweet potato cooking water, as needed for dough; 300 g canned tuna, drained and flaked; 2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped; 1 large onion, finely chopped; 2 whole malagueta peppers, finely chopped; 1 clove garlic, minced; 1 tsp vinegar or lime juice; salt, to taste; 3 cups vegetable oil, for deep frying

Pastel com Diablo Dentro

Cape Verdean fried sweet-potato and cornmeal pastries stuffed with a fiery tuna, tomato, onion, garlic, and malagueta filling.

Country

Cape Verde

Region

West Africa

Time

60 min

Serves

Level

medium

What to know before you cook

Use this overview to check the occasion, serving ideas, regional context, and cooking commitment before you begin.

When to cook it

Best for Street food and celebrations. Plan on a medium cook and about 60 minutes total.

What to serve alongside it

On its own as a snack

Follow the collection

Street Food is the easiest collection to explore after this dish. Street Food

Regional lane

Cape Verde national table. A structured Cape Verde dish in the AfroKitchen archive.

Chef watch-outs

Rushing the base before the raw edge has cooked out.
Adding all seasoning early and forgetting to adjust at the end.
Cooking on heat that is too high once the dish should be steaming or simmering.

How you know it is ready

The aroma should smell rounded rather than raw or sharp.
Oil, sauce, broth, or steam should look settled and deliberate.
The final texture should match the dish style before you plate it.

Make the dough

Boil sweet potatoes until tender, then peel and mash smooth. Mix in cornmeal gradually, adding a little sweet potato cooking water as needed, until the dough is moldable and does not crack. Rest covered for 30 minutes.

Kitchen noteThe dough should be soft enough to shape but firm enough to hold the filling.

Rest dough 30:00

Make the filling

Fry onion until soft. Add garlic, tomatoes, and malagueta peppers, then cook 5 minutes. Add tuna, vinegar or lime, and salt, and cook 5 more minutes until dry. Season well.

Kitchen noteThe filling must be dry because wet filling makes soggy pastels.

Cook filling 10:00

Assemble

Roll dough thin. Cut into circles. Place a spoonful of filling in the centre, fold into half-moons, and seal edges with a fork.

Fry

Deep fry in oil at 180C until golden brown and crispy, about 3-4 minutes.

Kitchen noteFry in batches without crowding.

Fry pastels 04:00

Serve

Drain the fried pastries on paper towels for a minute, then serve them hot while the crust is crisp and the spicy filling is still warm.

Pastel com Diablo Dentro

What to know before you cook

See the dish before you cook

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Step-by-step method

Pastel com Diablo Dentro

What to know before you cook

See the dish before you cook

Build the table around Pastel com Diablo Dentro

Step-by-step method

Cook around Pastel com Diablo Dentro