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 Published Friday, December 18, 2020
How to cook Christmas Tico tamale
By Melissa Pette Christmas is around the corner! We are a week away from celebrating the big holiday dinner with our social bubble. In Costa Rica, as many expats already know, the tamal is a must-have on the Costa Rican table for the night before Christmas. So, the best way to end this Christmas recipes column is to review Ana Calderon's traditional Tico tamales recipe. Thank you so much to Ana Calderon for sharing her family Tamales Guanacastecos recipe with us. She was born in Santa Cruz in Guanacaste, and now is a resident of Union County, New Jersey, U.SA. "In my lovely Guanacaste land, tamales are the traditional food at all celebrations: Christmas, New Year's Eve, weddings, community fairs, quinceañeras, and every party. It is not like in San José, that tamales are cooked only at Christmas," Ana said. She has nicely adapted the ingredients to make 20 tamales, enough for the whole family. Christmas
Tico tamales
By Ana Calderon Union County, New Jersey The ingredients you will need are: 1 package of cornmeal. 4 wedges of garlic. 1/2 kilo of pork meat. 1/2 kilo of chicken breast. 1 package of rice (preferably pre-cooked). 2 cans of green peas. 2 large red sweet chili peppers. 2 cups of vegetable oil (traditional recipe uses pork fat). 2 cans of carrots. 2 cups of Lizano sauce. 2 white onions. 2 pepper teaspoons. 2 cumin teaspoons. 3 teaspoons of annatto powder. 1 package of banana leaves to make tamales and 1 roll of thread for tamales. These two are easily found in the supermarket. On the day before preparing the recipe, marinate the meat. Remove the grease from the pork and chicken. Marinate the meat with 1 cup of Lizano sauce, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of annatto powder. Leave the meat in the fridge for one day. On the next day, add the rice in a rice cooker, add one chopped onion in very small squares, add a chopped red chili in very small squares, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 2 teaspoons of annatto powder, 2 wedges of garlic and 1/2 cup of oil. In a large pot, add the meat (that was left marinating from the previous day), then add water to cover the meat. Add 1 cup of Lizano sauce, the rest of the pepper, cumin, annatto, two wedges of garlic and 1/2 cup of oil. Cook over high heat for 30 minutes. The meat must be very well-cooked. Take out the meat and let it cool. Then cut the meat into square pieces about 4x4 centimeters. In the remaining meat stock in the pot, remove the two garlic wedges. Add the package of cornmeal and 1 cup of oil. Stir over high heat for 30 to 45 minutes, until the dough is cooked. Add water if the sauce evaporates too quickly. The consistency of the dough should be similar to plasticine. In a bowl, mix an onion cut into very small pieces, a sweet chili cut into small pieces, the green peas and the carrot. This is a vegetable mix. Spread two banana leaves on the table. Clean the leaves with a paper napkin. On the leaves, put a large spoonful of dough (the soup serving spoon works perfectly), on the dough add a tablespoon of rice, a piece of pork and another of chicken, a tablespoon with the vegetable mixture. Close the leaves carefully. Cut about 60 centimeters from the tamales thread and roll up the leaves. It is like putting a ribbon around a gift. Make sure the tamal is tightly closed. Don't forget to tie a double knot at the end. The recipe is for making 14 to 20 tamales. Join two tamales with more threads. To make pairs of tamales, more commonly known as “piña de tamal.” Put the paired tamales in a very large pot of boiling water. Cook for one more hour. Then let the tamales cool a bit before eating. If you put them in the fridge, heat the tamal again in boiling water for 20 minutes. The preparation is very elaborate, requires a lot of work, but it is worth it. Thank you so much to readers and especially to those who take their time to write. Wishing you all the best this holiday season. Feliz Navidad! ------- Editor's note: Email your comments or inquiries to Melissa Pette at melissaamcr2017@gmail.com. Do you want to share your recipes with AM Costa Rica readers? Send your homemade recipes with a horizontal photo of the dish to food@amcostarica.com.  |
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