Christmas Tico tamales

By Ana Calderon

From Santa Cruz, Gunacaste

Living in Union County, New Jersey

The ingredients you will easily find at any supermarket are:

• 1 package of cornmeal.
• 4 wedges of garlic.
• 1/2 kilo of pork meat.
• 1/2 kilo of chicken breast.
• 1 kilo 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.
• 1 roll of thread for holding tamales. 

Marinate the meat the day before you make the tamales. 

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 and 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, plus 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, 2 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. Leave the meat stock in the pot. Then cut the meat into square pieces about 4x4 centimeters.

Use the remaining meat stock in the pot, but first, remove the two garlic wedges. Add the package of cornmeal and 1 cup of oil. Stir over high heat for 30- 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 modeling clay.

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, another of chicken and a tablespoon of 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 tamales again in boiling water for 20 minutes.

Cooking tamales is time-consuming and labor-intensive, but it is well worth it.

I bet you can’t eat just one.

Have a Pura Vida Christmas!

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Find more tasty step-by-step Costa Rican food recipes on the AM Costa Rica Food & Good Eating page. You are invited to share your favorite recipes with a horizontal photo of the dish by emailing food@amcostarica.com.