Making Costa Rican Tamales For Christmas

masa harina

🥗Healthier: whole wheat flour

💰Cheaper: cornmeal

Whole wheat flour adds fiber, while cornmeal is often less expensive.

pork

🥗Healthier: chicken

💰Cheaper: ground beef

Chicken is leaner, and ground beef can be more affordable.

banana leaves

🥗Healthier: parchment paper

💰Cheaper: aluminum foil

Parchment paper is healthier, and foil is commonly available.

chicken broth

🥗Healthier: vegetable broth

💰Cheaper: water with seasoning

Vegetable broth is lower in calories, and seasoned water is budget-friendly.

The tamales are easiest when you make the rice and pork ahead of time. You can also make the rice while the tamal masa is cooking for the first round, but I prefer just to make the pork and rice the day before.

Start with your very large stockpot. Add your entire packet of Maseca or similar tamal base to the pot. Next, add 2 cups of cold water and begin to mix this with your hands. The cold water will help so that the Maseca doesn't form little balls when you add the other ingredients.

Add 2-4 cups of pork broth, chilled to room temperature, to the masa mixture. Stir until well mixed. (If you don't have pork broth, chicken or beef from a box will do.)

Next, add margarine, shortening, or pork fat and your packet of chicken bouillon (consomé de pollo). Keep mixing everything until you have a base masa that is the consistency of watery cream of wheat.

Place ingredients on a hot stove and begin to heat, stirring occasionally to mix all the ingredients. Traditional Costa Rican cooking style calls for completing this step over an open fire or on a wood-burning stove, but I just do it on my regular old stove.

You will heat and stir until the mixture boils and the consistency is that of cream of wheat. If you like your tamales a bit saltier, you can taste this as you go and add up to an additional 2 tablespoons of salt. Some people add a bit of black pepper here but I never do.

While the mixture is cooking, someone usually sets up the plantain leaves and string to begin preparing for the next step: assembling the tamales. In Costa Rica, plantain leaves are huge and a dime a dozen, but in the States, you may have to buy banana leaves instead. I recommend double wrapping the tamales either way. This means placing two plantain leaves on top of each other.

Once you have laid out all of the leaves, start by placing a good spoonful of masa in the middle of each leaf. I would say this is just over 1/2 cup of masa.

Next, place a bit of rice in the middle of the masa. From here, add a couple of carrot slices, a few red pepper slices, and some pork. Some people add peas, hard-boiled egg, raisins, garbanzo beans, mashed potatoes, onion, green sweet pepper, green beans, etc. Our family doesn't.

Now you will fold the tamal. Pull up each of the long ends and roll them down as if you were folding a bag of chips or a paper lunch sack. Flatten this down on top of the tamale, then fold the short ends over. Place one tamal on top of the other and wrap them tightly with twine.

When you wrap these, it's just like wrapping the ribbon around a Christmas present- except you do it twice, once on each side.

Place all of the tamales back into a large pot (or just wash the one you were just using) and cover them with water. Cover and bring to a rolling boil.

Boil the packets for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool in the boiling water for at least 30 more minutes. Remove, dry, and enjoy. In true Costa Rican style, you can slather with Salsa Lizano and eat with coffee and good company.

Cooking Techniques

Equipment Needed

Spice Level:

Dietary