This morning Theresa Perez stopped by the house for a short visit.  After a bit she asked me what my plans were for the day and when she found that I had nothing definite planned I was invited down to their house in San Juaquin to learn how to make _tamalitos_ (little tamales).  [Mayan tamales are quite large – about 4” square -- and wrapped in a plaintain leaf.  By comparison, these are small.] 

Theresa had purchased 100 ears of corn at the market.  Wow!  After arriving at the house we got down to business.

STEP 1.  COLLECT ALL THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT. 

·         A 3-foot piece of 4X4

·         A sharp machete. (You can do ANTHING with with a machete) 

·         Assorted pans, bowls, smaller knifes, smaller cutting boards.

·         Several children (Teresa has five.)

The children are most important unless you want to spend a very long day doing this alone.

STEP 2. CUT THE BASE OF EACH EAR SQUARELY OFF.

Edrei – a big strapping 20 year old boy – got this job.  He set up the big piece of wood on the kitchen floor and started working on the ears with the machete. 

STEP 3. HUSK THE EARS

Ingrid (age 12) and Zenny (age 16) had the job of peeling the husks off the ears. The first two husks are trash. The next two are tender and clean, and are saved to wrap the tamalitos.

STEP 4. CUT THE CORN OFF THE COB

Stacy (17) and Theresa cut the corn off the cob. This is a really hard job, especially if your knives are not too sharp, which describes most Belizean knives.  I helped with a few ears, and tired quickly.  (Dull knives + green corn = tough work)

With no apparent effort, Stacy and Theresa filled a huge bowl with “niblets”.

STEP 5. GRIND THE CORN

After Ingrid and Zenny finished the husking, they moved to the grinding machine to turn the niblets into maza.  It is a big old hand grinder that Theresa has had for many years.  Zenny and Ingrid took turns cranking the grinder. You can really build up muscles grinding 100 ears of corn.   After an hour of grinding, Theresa added 6 green and red  habanero peppers. (ooh, ooh, hot, hot!)  After stirring well she added about 1 1/2 cups of melted lard. 

STEP 6. COCONUT MILK

Theresa was concerned that they would not be tender enough and decided to add coconut milk to the mixture.  To get coconut milk in volume, you need a special tool.  It’s an old machete blade with the end curled up kind of like a spoon, and little teeth cut in the spoon. Edrei cut the coconuts in half with his ubiquitous machette.  Stacy sat on the flat part of the tool, and used the toothy end to scrape the coconut meat out of the shells.  They added water to the coconut meat and let it soak for a while.  Running it through a strainer, they had 2 cups of coconut milk. 

STEP 7.  BUILDING THE TAMALITOS

You put about 1/2 cup of the mixture in a husk,  fold up the broad end and roll it into the little tamales we are used to seeing in the US.  100 of these are set upright in a big pot.  (Believe me this is a really big pot)

STEP 8. COOKING

While Theresa and Ingrid are building tamalitos, Zenny is out back building a big  wood fire with wood chopped by Edrei and his machete. It looks a lot like laundry day in the old West.  Then they fill the pan with water, put the lid on tight, and cook it for about 30 minutes.

A WEATHER INTERLUDE

About the time the cooking was done we got a typical Belize rain.  In other words the sky opened up and it poured about 3 inches in 5 minutes!  Theresa and Zenny dashed out to get the pot, about 3 feet from the back door, and got soaked to the skin by the time they got back in.  They changed clothes.

 STEP 9. EATING

Stewed chicken and tamalitos are GREAT!!  It’s very easy to over eat.  Stacy has been known to eat 10 tamalitos at one sitting along with a lot of chicken.  We tease her a lot but she doesn’t care.  At 17, she loves tamalitos and she can burn up those calories with the tasks that Theresa assigns her.  Rick ate five and I, being good, ate two. 

It was a great meal and everyone had a good time.  Tamalitos can be made in smaller quantities but you really miss out on an unforgetable experience. 

Copyright, CASELab, 1999. All rights reserved