Tamales and Champurrado

This morning Petra, Mari and I got together at Mari's house to make tamales and champurrado. I'll tell you later what they were for. These tamales, a speciality of Petra's home state, Veracruz, are extremely labor intensive. First step: Buy banana leaves, cut them, wet them good, then roast them over an open flame to soften them. Petra did that yesterday. Second step: Boil chicken breasts with onion, and blend and boil together guajillo chiles, tomatoes, garlic cloves, onion and water. Third step: Mix the masa (corn meal that is used for making tortillas) with chicken broth, until it's smooth, add 1 kilo of lard and put on to boil until it's thick and "done". How do you know it's done? Ask Petra of course!

After making the salsa and letting the masa cool, we break up the chicken, then start making the tamales. Here's Mari breaking up the chicken - I helped her as well.

Then the real fun starts. Put some of the cooled masa onto a banana leaf (yes, it's greasy!), spread it out, add the chicken which has been placed in the yummy salsa, fold exactly like Petra insructs, and put the folded tamale in a bowl. Later it'll be added to the huge "tamale pan" to cook until done.

See? I DID help!

To make the champurrado, now that all the tamales are done (they're in that huge pan and will be cooked for an hour this afternoon), take 1 kilo of masa (this is for 100 people!), add water, mix with your hand until there are no lumps left. Add lots of water, then add the mix to the pan containing boiling water and a stick of cinnamon. Add piloncillo to taste (that's raw sugar in big lumps, sold in the market) and four chocolate squares - it must be Abuelita's chocolate, no other is good enough! Stir and cook until it tastes right. How to know when it tastes right? Ask Petra of course! What a great cook is Petra! As well as Mari! And what a fun morning for me with these two incredible ladies!