GUATEMALAN (VEGETARIAN) TAMALES

This tamale recipe I would consider a little more time consuming then difficult, probably not so simple, but definitely delicious! I made this recipe 'with a little help from my friends', Heidi on my right & Magaly on my left.  When we aren't busy raising kids or kite surfing, we are able to spend an afternoon making tamales together!  

My friend Heidi's mom, Emma, is Guatemalan, not only was she kind enough to share this awesome recipe with us, during her past holiday visit to St Croix, she also held a tamale cooking class for about 15 other moms at my house.  In latin cultures this is a very traditional dish made around the holidays, when we started making the tamales Heidi said 'it feels like Christmas'.  Thank you Emma for sharing your recipe and skills with us, we will hopefully pass this recipe on to our children.  To respect the authenticity of this recipe, we wanted to make it as close as possible to Emma's recipe, but we didn't have everything that was listed.  We didn't have the dried red or black chillies, so we used small little Puerto Rican peppers and a jalapeno in the red sauce.  I also couldn't find any chicken bouillon that didn't have MSG, so we used vegetable seasoning salt. Guatemalan tamales are usually wrapped in banana leaves and made with chicken on the bone.  In the tropics banana trees are abundant, we luckily have a bunch in our back yard.  I have seen banana leaves in the frozen section with international foods stateside.  If you can't find banana leaves, you can use corn husk. The tamales I had when I lived in Texas are commonly wrapped in corn husk and made with shredded pork or chicken. We decided to omit meat and use vegetable protein.  You can add what ever meat you like; chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, or just veggies!   

Here is Emma's recipe typed exactly as she had it written;

Guatemalan Tamales

15 cups of water

4 cups of Maseca (Harina de Maiz)

1 cup of oil

3 chicken flavor bouillon Maggi

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of juice of green olives















In a large pot add the water and Maseca, dissolve very well, to make sure there are no clumps.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Turn on the stove to medium heat and stir until the corn mixture starts to boil.  Keep stirring, preferably with a whisk. Until mixture is well blended and thickens.  Approximately 5 min or more on med to high heat.

Red Sauce

6 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds (toasted in frying pan)
4 teaspoons of sesame seeds (toasted in frying pan) - I added more by accident
1 teaspoon of oregano - we used fresh since I didn't have dried
1/2 onion in pieces
1 garlic clove - we used about 3 cloves
1/2 cup of green olive juice
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of tomato paste
2 cubes of chicken flavor bouillon
16 oz of tomato sauce or canned tomato
2 dried chillies - we substituted small island peppers
2 dried black chillies - we substituted one jalapeno
1 piece bell pepper; red and green
1 big tomato
In a blender mix all these ingredients well.  Then cook put in a big frying pan or deep pot, add about 2 cups of meat and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally to mix well.
You will need to have banana leaves washed, cut into about 5 inch square, ready to start rolling tamales.  After you make all the tamales, steam for about 45 min.
Makes approximately 26-40 tamales.

You will also need tin foil to wrap the banana leaves so when you steam them the stuffing doesn't fall out.  Make an assembly line with the corn filling, red sauce, olives and peppers.  Put about a half cup or more of the corn filling then a big spoonful of red sauce, with one or two olives and peppers.   We also had some capers so added a few of those on top for extra flavor.

Then wrap the banana leaves around on just the sides.  The tin foil is wrapped more tightly like a present, on the top and sides to keep the corn filling in the banana leaves, like below photo.

 

You will need to have a large pot and strainer (or aluminum pie pan with holes) to put on the bottom of the pot to steam tamales.  Put a little water in the bottom of the pot about an inch so the tamales don't sit in water.  Fill pot with tamales and steam for about 45min to an hour.   

After the tamales have cooked, they are best if they have a chance to cool and set.  The corn will thicken once cooled.  They are best reheated and served the next day or after a few hours or so.  I like to top with hot sauce or salsa and a good side dish is rice and beans.  Or just served alone. Enjoy!