As we unwrap the layers, first the aluminum foil, then the banana leaf, a rich, savory scent fills the air. I’ve been working all afternoon with my friend, Luz, preparing tamales as they are made in Guatemala, where she is from. We have had a great afternoon cooking, talking, sipping wine as we slice, dice, mix, stir, taste and assemble everything before friends and family sit down together to eat a luscious meal. All afternoon, I am struck over and over by the smells. First the corn dough that we stir and stir for forty five minutes, until the wooden spoon sticks straight up out of the pot. Then the sauce, made with tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and pumpkin and sesame seeds; the steam fills the air with a spicy, nutty perfume as we pur?e it in batches in the blender. For me, the banana leaves are the biggest surprise. I hadn’t thought they would have a smell, but they have a pungent, grassy bouquet that intensifies as the tamales steam in the big pot on the stovetop. It is obvious when they are done, because the banana leaf smell mellows and the corn, tomato and peppers make themselves more noticeable.

A couple of weeks ago, I showed my blog to Luz after a discussion about food. When I used to talk about food with people, I used to just say that I like to spend time in the kitchen. But it’s kind of like telling somebody something in another language, they usually just stare. If you’re like me, you know that stare, that moment when you realize that other people don’t understand, that you are speaking a different language, foodeese. Now when I tell people about my food obsession, I have something to point to, the blog. So, I was in her office and I just pulled it up and told her to check it out, as a sort of proof of my alien status. The next day, she came into my office and asked if I wanted to learn how to make tamales. I sat up like a dog and begged. She hadn’t realized that I had been wanting to do this, seriously, for about 15 years. I’ve read about them, copied recipes, bought books, thought about it, talked about it, tasted them, blah, blah, blah, words, words, words… (I see you don’t really speak foodeese, do you). So, we made plans and I went to her house and I learned a new trick.

Most people think of tamales as a particularly Mexican dish. They originate in the pre-Columbian era (before Columbus) probably in what is now Mexico between 5000 and 7000 years ago. But tamales are made all over Central America in a variety of ways and sometimes are known by different names. Part of their spread happened before colonial times, and part of it happened because of colonial occupation. In Chile, Ecuador and some parts of Bolivia, they know them as humitas, in Venezuela they are called hallacas. In Per? and other parts of Bolivia they are pasteles de choclo, though in some parts of Bolivia and in Chile the pastel de choclo is a corn and meat casserole. In Argentina, Belize, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States, they are usually called tamales. In some parts of these countries, these words are used to describe two different ways of preparing them. I’m sure that if you’ve spent extensive amounts of time in one of these places, you’d know the finer points of vocabulary, ingredients and method from that area. If you’re from one of these places, you are probably convinced that there is only one, true version, probably your grandmother’s. Ultimately, we’re talking about a corn husk, banana leaf or some other large leaf that is used to enclose a corn meal dough that may or may not have things mixed into it or placed inside of it before it is bound up and steamed, boiled, baked or grilled to form a complete meal. The word tamal (the singular of tamales) is of nahuatl origin and means wrapped. Now who in their right mind would say that Spanish is easier to learn than French? That’s one stereotype that should be put to rest.

The most important thing about tamales in general is the main ingredient: maize, also known as corn. This cereal originated in Mesoamerica and spread throughout the American continents and was quickly brought to the rest of the world after European contact in the late fifteenth and earlier sixteenth centuries. In Europe today, corn is thought of as a food for animals and poor people. This is because when Europeans brought corn back with them, they overlooked the processing that corn was put through in the Americas that made it more nutritious. This process is called nixtamalization and involves cooking the corn with an alkaline substance, usually lime, or lye or sodium carbonate from ashes. This process makes the maize more nutritious, allowing up to 750% more absorption of the available calcium, for instance, as well as providing smaller amounts of other important minerals and vitamins such as iron, copper, zinc, niacin. It also reduces the amounts of some carcinogens present in the corn. The process of soaking helps remove the pericarp, the hard part of the corn kernel, after which the resulting product is dried and ground. In the southern United States, this is known as hominy or grits. Other than removing the pericarp and making the maize more nutritious, nixtamalization improves flavor and makes it easier to digest. The first instances of nixtamalization have found to have occurred in Guatemala around -1200 to -1500 BCE. This process was commonly practiced by the ancient Mayans and Aztecs, but apparently not by the Aztecs, but they used a wider variety of crops and their cuisine did not rely so heavily on corn.

As Luz cooked, I helped her and took lots of notes. The recipe below is her version of tamales. Where she is from, they use a mix of masa and rice flour. She also uses chicken breast or boneless chicken thigh, though it is customary to use chicken (or pork or beef) cooked on the bone that is cooled and shredded before being put in the tamales. Luz doesn’t like to use lard, so she uses vegetable oil and that’s easier to find in the U.S. and healthier anyway, so I’m sure no one will complain about that deviation. The other ingredients she used for the filling: red sauce, olives, capers and red pepper are traditional, but there are many options. I’m sure that if you learned how to make them somewhere else, you have another way of making them. Here is a video of some Guatemalan women and a young girl making them to help you see the assembly process. Luz uses a banana leaf to wrap her tamales, and then adds a sheet of aluminum foil to protect them from the water, but as you can see in the video, you can wrap them in two banana leaves and tie them with string if you have a steamer. Here’s a picture of cooked, unwrapped Guatemalan tamales; as you can see, the one in the lower left looks like ours. If you’d like to branch out and make other kinds of tamales, the best books on the subject are Alice Guadalupe Tapp’s Tamales 101 and Mexico One Plate at a Time by Rick Bayless. There’s also the tamale trail, a website with great recipes, oral history and other information documenting the tamale tradition of the Missipi Delta region of the United States.

As I finish my second tamal and drain my glass of wine, I see why this is food made during the holidays in Central and South America. Two women spend the day cooking a feast. It’s time consuming, but it’s not really work. We talk, giggle, share stories and learn from each other. As we sit down to eat with people who are important to us, we share our day’s work and our laughter. After the meal, we are all sleepy and content.

Tamales Colorados Guatemaltecos

Guatemala-Style Red Tamales

For sauce

• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 4 ancho chiles
• 4 guajillo chiles
• 1 lb. tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 cups chicken broth or water
• salt to taste

Remove stems and seeds from chiles and place seeds and chiles in a dry skillet over medium low heat and toast, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place tomatoes, onion, garlic on a pot with broth or water over high heat until it comes to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer until tomatoes are completely soft and beginning to break down. Turn off the heat and put the seeds and chiles into the pot. Let mixture cool slightly and then pur?e in batches in a blender, or use an immersion blender, until sauce is completely smooth. Add salt to taste. This step can be done one or two days ahead.

For dough

• 4 cups Instant Corn Masa Mix
• 2 cups Goya brand rice flour
• 6-8 cups water
• 1-2 cups corn oil
• salt to taste

Put the corn flour and the rice flour into a large pot. Slowly add in the water and then the oil, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon to avoid forming lumps. The mixture should be quite liquid, like a loose pancake batter. Put the pot on the stove over medium low heat and cook stirring nearly constantly until the wooden spoon can stand upright on its own in the dough. Add salt to taste. Turn off heat and let dough cool to room temperature. This step can be done one day ahead.

For filling

• 1 lb. boneless chicken (breast or thigh meat), cut into pieces
• 1 red pepper, seed and sliced
• 1/2 cup capers
• 24 large green Spanish olives (not stuffed), sliced in half

For assembly and cooking

1 package Goya brand banana leaves, defrosted, cut into 14″ x 12″ pieces,
24 pieces aluminum foil, approximately 14″ x 16″

Place one banana leaf on top of one piece of aluminum foil.

Place 1/2 cup dough in the middle of the banana leaf.

Place 1/4 cup sauce on top of the dough using a teaspoon and mix the sauce a little into the dough.

Place one piece of chicken in the middle of the sauce.

Place two olive halves on top of the sauce

Sprinkle on a few capers.

Top with a piece of red pepper and douse with another spoonful of sauce.

Gather together the top and bottom of the banana leaf, roll them together, pull in the left and right ends and flip the whole thing over to form a closed package.

Repeat these steps with the aluminum foil (but don’t flip it over).

Repeat until you have 24 packages. Place a large pot on the stove and add one inch of hot water. Place all of the tamal packages into the water standing upright. Cover with any leftover banana leaves and put on the lid. Turn heat to high until the water comes to a boil. Turn down and simmer until tamales are ready, about one hour. Add water if necessary to make sure they don’t burn the bottom of your pot. Use your nose to know when they are done.

When they are done, remove tamales from the pot. Unwrap and discard the aluminum foil and serve each tamal on a plate on its opened banana leaf. The tamales can be frozen and reheated either by steaming or in the microwave. Any ingredients leftover from assembly (dough, fillings, meat, sauce) can be stirred together, simmered for about a half hour and served over rice.