Guatemalan tamales

Ingredients

• Masa harina700 g
• Pork — in pieces800 g
• Lard200 g
• Tomatoes500 g
• Guajillo chillies4
• Pumpkin seeds80 g
• Sesame seeds40 g
• Onion1
• Garlic5 clove
• Banana leaves16
• Olives16
• Bell pepper1
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Simmer the pork with the onion and salt for an hour. Strain and keep the broth.

   65 min

2. 2

   Toast the seeds, sesame, chillies and tomatoes in a dry pan and blend them with broth; that is the recado.

   20 min

3. 3

   Cook the recado twenty minutes to thicken it and season.

   22 min

4. 4

   Slake the masa harina with warm broth, add the melted lard and work it twenty minutes over a low heat.

   25 min

5. 5

   Pass the banana leaves over a flame for ten seconds each so they turn pliable.

   12 min

6. 6

   On a leaf spread the dough, then a piece of meat, a spoon of recado, a strip of pepper and an olive. Wrap in two leaves.

   35 min

7. 7

   Stack the parcels seam down in a pot and steam them for an hour and a half.

   95 min

About the dish

They differ from Mexican tamales in wrapper and texture: banana leaf instead of corn husk, and a softer dough, closer to a pudding than to bread.

The dough is worked with broth and fat, continuously, until it comes away from the spoon. Underworked, it separates into water and grain as it steams.

Tamales are made on Saturdays — a fixed Guatemalan habit — and sold in the evening from doorways. At Christmas a separate version appears, with raisins and prunes.

Worth knowing

• — Work the dough to the test: a drop in cold water should hold as a ball rather than disperse.
• — Tie the parcels with strips of the same leaf. String is unnecessary and is not used in Guatemala.
• — Line the bottom of the pot with leaf trimmings. They keep the lowest tamales from catching and add aroma.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

26 g

Fat

34 g

Carbs

54 g

More from Guatemala

• Pepián — Chicken in a thick sauce of toasted seeds and chillies. One of Guatemala's oldest dishes.
• Kak'ik — A red turkey soup with charred chillies and spices, a dish of the Q'eqchi' Maya.
• Rellenitos — Balls of ripe plantain purée filled with sweetened black beans and chocolate.