La Tamaleada! Exploring a Central American
Christmas Tradition
Silvia, on the job at Kurà. Not making tamales.
Preparing, sharing and eating tamales is a beloved Christmas tradition throughout Mesoamerica - the cultural region spanning from Mexico to Costa Rica in which people share certain traditions, language and histories that date back to pre-Colombian times. Every year in early December, families and friends in Costa Rica gather for Tamaleadas, or tamale making parties, to divide and conquer the many labor-intensive and time consuming steps required to produce the delicious, leaf wrapped packages. Recipes and key ingredients will vary from family to family, but the significance of the tamale remains the same; a beloved ritual that brings family together to honor their heritage & celebrate the season.
I recently caught up with Silvia Solis, General Manager of Kurà, at an early December gathering in San Jose. From the city she was heading to her mother’s home for her family’s annual Tamaleada, which she kindly agreed to share with us below. Prior to joining Cayuga and working in hospitality, Silvia studied biology, conservation and ecology, attending graduate school and conducting field research in both Costa Rica and Mexico. She has sampled tamales near and far, but her mother’s remain her favorite.
Silvia’s signature tamale ingredients spread
“The "tamal" is a preparation that is purely Mesoamerican, there is no translation into English or any other modern language. It's a pre-Hispanic or pre-Colombian tradition, which means it was here way before the Spanish invaded Mesoamerica.
Tamales are basically a dough made from corn, masa - the same you use for tortillas. You can buy masa pre-made but my mother makes it herself. The corn must be white and has to be "cascado", which is the process to get rid of the peel or skin (this is the thing you get between your teeth from the popcorn!). To make our tamale masa, my mom cooks the corn with potatoes and also bacon fat which gives it a fantastic taste! In some recipes you’ll see that the fat or lard is added later in the process, but we add ours while the corn is still cooking. Once the corn is cooked we take it to the grinder, "molino de maiz, " and grind those three ingredients together into a dough. Then comes the good part, we mix the formed dough with a special blend of pork and chicken broth which has already been prepared previously, until the mixture has a texture like pudding. (Some people use just pork broth or just chicken, or a vegetarian broth if preferred.) Finally, the dough is then cooked down again, this time with the addition of lots of salt and pepper to enhance all of these delicious flavors.
Wrapped tamales ready for the final round of cooking.
The dough is prepared the same day you make tamales, but preparation for the other ingredients starts a couple of days prior. You have to prepare the broth, both chicken and pork meat, sauces (in my house we use a tomato sauce), rice with "achiote" (a natural condiment that gives a nice orange color to the food), carrots cut in small pieces, and then other various condiments. and fixings. In my house we create a "fusion" tamale blending ingredients from mediterranean cuisine, so we like to add capers, raisins, chickpeas and olives.
The other main task to accomplish before the main tamaleada is preparing the plantain leaves that are used for wrapping the packages. (Plantain or banana leaves are typical in Costa Rica. In Mexico and the American Southwest you are more likely to find tamales wrapped in corn husks.) The leaves must be trimmed to the right size and length, cleaned and then prepared "soasadas", not fully cooked but grilled just a little bit so they are flexible enough to wrap the tamales without breaking. To tie the tamales we use a cotton thread called "manila" or natural fiber from the plantain plants.
The day of the tamaleada starts early for the main chefs as we must prepare the masa dough and this step alone takes several hours. Once the dough is finished cooking and while it is still warm, we pour a scoop of it on to the plantain leaf and spread it a bit. On top of the dough we arrange the rice, meat on the side, peppers, other veggies and sauce on top. Of course the ingredients must have specific array and that's a "family signature"; my mom believes that how you arrange the ingredients is very important. When you open the tamal to eat it, it must look as good as it smells and invite you to devour it!
Silvia’s mother assembles the perfect tamale.
Once all the ingredients are in place and portioned correctly, we close the leaves with specific folds to seal out the water and pack the tamales in pairs to tie them up. The tie is very important, as the tamales must stay together through one more round of cooking! After all the tamales are ready, pair and tied, you must cook them one more time in a big pot with boiling water for about 45min. Traditionally the tamale pot is gigantic and we use a "fogón" or a fire on the ground so is easy to drop and pick up the tamales. If the folds and ties are good, then the tamales can boil for as long as necessary without any accidents like allowing water to seep through the leaves!
After the last cooking process you have to let them rest for another hour or until the cool down so that they hold their shape when you open them to eat. My mom was telling me the story of her first time making tamales by herself; she was so anxious to see the final product that she opened the tamal while still hot. Instead of retaining its shape the tamal “melted” and just spread all over the dish! You can imagine how upset she was after days of prepping and cooking - she started crying thinking that she had messed up the processed and ruined all of her hard work. But luckily my grandmother was around and explained that she just needed to be patient! “
Do you celebrate the holidays with a Tamaleada? Leave us a comment if you’d like to share your key ingredients or family recipe! And if you’d like to try making tamales at home, check out this version of a recipe from the Smithsonian: “La Tamalada: A Christmas Tamale Tradition”