[ Tamales Vs. Hallacas ]
After going hunting for a few ingredients and following a recipe, I got ready to make tamales. Back home in El Salvador people eat tamales all year through, but in Venezuela hallacas (the tamal equivalent) is only eaten during Christmas. Because it is a holiday tradition I decided to try and make them myself. (Brave I know) I asked my mother-in-law if she wanted to help and she happily agreed.Friday morning 8 a.m.
After boiling a whole chicken with the typical onions, tomatoes, celery, garlic and salt, I moved on to take the meat off the bones and prepare the stuffing for the tamales. I took my time and made sure it was well seasoned.
A couple hours later I took some harina pan and started to mix it with a wodden spoon with the chicken broth and some corn oil, after it was done I left it sitting there covered until it is completely cool.
The day progressed and the time to wrap them came, that´s when my mother-in-law came in the picture. I wanted to do a traditional tamal. Stuffed with chicken, potatoes, olives, chickpeas and peas, but no, I was informed I was not wrapping my tamal properly, that hallacas are wrapped with banana leaves and then tied with a string, I was also not stuffing them properly, because tamales are to be like hallacas with capers, raisins, and right before you are ready to wrap you ad a slice of red peppers and a bit of onion, oh take off the peas as well. Trying to be gracious I let her do as she wished and stuffed, wrapped and tied the tamales as hallacas.
We put them in water to boil for an hour or so. We let them sit for a couple hours and when we served them, they were amazing. (Well for my first time ever making tamales/hallacas they were absolutely marvelous)
And so, we created a new tamal/hallaca tradition at home.
Interesting fact: the word tamal comes from nahuatl and it means wrapped (envuelto)
This is the tamal recipe, translated from spanish:
INGREDIENTS:
(Makes 85 tamales)
-4 bags of harina pan or maseca
-4 chickens
-2 lbs. potatoes
-2 can of petit pois
-2 lbs. tomatoes
-3 large onions
-5 green peppers
- 3 Celery branches
-2 bottles of corn oil
- 8 oz chicken broth
- 2 garlics
- 1 can of chickpeas
- 1 can of green olives
- Paprika
- Salt
- 24 banana leaves
A. CHICKEN STUFFING
Put the chickens in water, salt, onion, tomatoes, celery and garlic and boil until meat is tender.
Let everything cool off and separate the chicken from the broth. Remove the meat from the bones.
B. SALSA
In the blender put all the cooked veggies, from the ckicken, salt and paprika, some chicken broth and extra tomatoes to make the salsa.
In a hot pan with a bit of oil put some finely chopped onions, drop the chicken cut into little pieces and the salsa. Move it constantly until it is fully cooked.
C. MASA or DOUGH
Put the harina pan or maseca in a large pot, add the chicken broth. In a separate dish, mix some oil with paprika and add as needed. Do not stop stirring the dough while it cooks and make sure you stir it with a flat wodden pallette. Once it is cooked, put aside and cover with plastic, let it cool completely.
D. VEGETABLE STUFFING
Peel the potatoes and boil until tender, once they are fully cooked, cut into small cubes
Drain olives, chickpeas and peas.
E. WRAPPING
In a large pot, boil some water. Take the banana leaves and put them in for about 10 minutes, so that they become flexible. Take them out and dry them properly.
F. TAMALES DESIGN
Take a large banana leaf of 30 x 40 cms (appr.) put about half a cup of dough in it, making in to a bowl shape. In the middle add some chicken and salsa, potatoe, chickpea, olive, peas and firmly wrap it. (some people like to tie them with string)
Once you are finished wrapping all the dough, you are ready to cook them. Take a large pot and put a couple banana leaves at the bottom, add the wrapped tamales and cover them with fresh water. Boil for about an hour.
I know it sounds like a lot of work, but they are delicious!
TIP: Tamales taste better after a few hours of having made them.
Labels: latinamerican culture, tamales
posted by {imaginativa} @ 10:06 AM
1 Comments:
You are very brave to try this on your own. by the way, my son is engaged to an El Salvadorian girl!!! Guess who will be making our tamales and hallacas!?!?!
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