Last December I had the opportunity of escaping Stockholm’s cold weather for a couple of weeks to go spend it back in my beautiful hometown Panama.
I noticed that the longer I spend without going back home, the more Europe-influenced my meals tend to be. That’s why, whenever I go back, I always try to learn a new dish or at least return with an inspiration boost and, obviously, my luggage full of local coffee and precious spices.
My proposed challenge this time was to master the recipe for a traditional “tamal”.
My experience of tamal is that of a luxurious food, mainly because I only remember eating it during really special occasions: Mother’s Day, Christmas, etc.; this wasn’t everyday food for my family – a tamal was a treat.
Tamales are usually prepared in banana leaves. You tend to find these leaves in Asian stores, but since they might still be a bit of a hassle to get around here, I decided to ease down this recipe by making instead a “tamal de olla”. It translates to tamal in a pot and it’s practically the same recipe, just we’ll cook it in regular baking forms instead of the leaves.
I always thought this would be the-most-difficult-thing-to-cook-in-the-world, but after realizing that the corn dough is basically a cousin of polenta, it all made sense and I wanted to give it a shot.
(As if it wasn’t worthy, where will you possibly find tamales in Sweden?!)
Note: Tamales are also normally made with a chicken stuffing, but I’ve managed to veganize it by using mushrooms instead.
The recipe requires some exotic ingredients which can easily be replaced if necessary. Culantro, the backbone of Panamanian cuisine, can be exchanged for coriander, but do pay a visit to your local Asian store, it can be labeled as Thai parsley or strong coriander. Achiote is mainly used for coloring, similar to saffron, so you can skip it if you don’t find it.
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Vegan Tamal de Olla
Serves: 10-12 servings
Ingredients
For the mushroom marinate:
430g mushrooms
Season with: soy sauce, paprika powder, salt and pepper to taste
For the "guiso" (stew):
190g onion
6-8 garlic cloves
200g red bell pepper
140g tomato
½ habanero pepper (ají chombo - around 5g)
25g "culantro" (or coriander)
20g parsley
280g petit pois (green peas)
140g green olives
80g tomato paste
Optional: 5g achiote (mainly used for coloring)
360g precooked corn flour
1L vegetable broth (or water - I use vegetable broth in this recipe to add extra flavor to the dough)
Instructions
Start by marinating the mushrooms - slice them thinly and season them with some soy sauce, paprika powder, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and set aside while preparing the rest.
Let's continue with the guiso - In a food processor mix the: onion, garlic, bell pepper, tomato, habanero pepper, culantro and parsley until you get a chunky salsa texture.
Warm up some oil at medium heat in a saucepan and throw in the salsa we just mixed in the food processor. Let it cook for a couple minutes until you see some steam coming off.
Add the marinated mushrooms and stir well. Let it cook until it releases more liquid and starts to bubble.
Lower the temperature and add the green peas and olives. Add also the tomato paste, achiote, paprika powder and salt and pepper to taste. The idea is to get a stew which is not too dry since we'll use some of that liquid to prepare the corn dough.
Making the dough - in a big bowl, put together the corn flour with the broth (or water) and combine with your hands. The dough should not be too dry and almost hold itself.
Add this dough to the guiso in the saucepan and let simmer at a very low temperature for a couple minutes. Make sure to combine everything very well, this is what will give the dough its bright yellow color and bring all flavors and ingredients together.
Transfer the resulting dough into two medium baking forms and bake in the oven at 180 C for 10 minutes.
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The post Vegan Tamal de Olla – Panamá Recipes appeared first on vanevalentine FOOD.