![]() Wrapped and unwrapped tamales Oaxaqueños from Oaxaca, Mexico, filled with mole negro and chicken |
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Origin | |
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Place of origin | Mesoamerica |
Details | |
Course | Main course |
Serving temperature | Warm/Hot |
Main ingredient(s) | Masa, Corn husks, banana leaves |
Variations | Can be savory or sweet. |
Approximate calories per serving |
100 |
A tamale (Spanish: tamal, from Nahuatl: tamalli[1]) — or more correctly tamal — is a traditional Latin American dish made of masa (a starchy dough, usually corn-based), which is steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper. The wrapping is discarded before eating. Tamales can themselves be filled with meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables, chilies or any preparation according to taste, and both the filling and the cooking liquid may be seasoned.
Tamales have been traced back to the Ancient Mayans, who prepared them for feasts as early as the Preclassic period (1200-250 BC).[2]
Tamales originated in Mesoamerica as early as 8000 to 5000 BCE.[1] Aztec and Maya civilizations as well as the Olmeca and Tolteca before them used tamales as a portable food, often to support their armies but also for hunters and travelers. There have also been reports of tamal use in the Inca Empire long before the Spanish visited the new world.[1]
The diversity of native languages in Mesoamerica led to a number of local words for the tamal, many of which remain in use.
Contents |
Mexico
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20120210193806im_/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Tamales_mexicanos_navidad2004.jpg/220px-Tamales_mexicanos_navidad2004.jpg)
In Mexico, tamales begin with a dough made from nixtamalized corn (hominy), called masa, or a masa mix such as Maseca and lard or vegetable shortening. Tamales are generally wrapped in corn husks or plantain leaves before cooking, depending on the region from which they come. They usually have a sweet or savory filling and are usually steamed until firm.
Tamales are a favorite comfort food in Mexico, eaten as both breakfast and dinner, and often accompanied by hot Atole or Champurrado, maize-based beverages of indigenous origin. Street vendors can be seen serving them from huge, steaming, covered pots (tamaleras).
In Mexico City, the tamal is substantial enough to keep a person satisfid until Mexico's traditional late lunch hour.
The most common fillings are pork and chicken, in either red or green salsa or mole. Another very traditional variation is to add pink colored sugar to the corn mix and fill it with raisins or other dried fruit and make a sweet tamal (tamal de dulce). There are commonly a few "deaf", or filling-less, tamales (tamal sordo), which might be served with refried beans and coffee.
The cooking of tamales is traditionally done in batches of tens if not hundreds, and the ratio of filling to dough (and the coarseness of the filling) is a matter of discretion.
Instead of corn husks, banana or plantain leaves are used in tropical parts of the country such as Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, and the Yucatán Peninsula. These tamales are rather square in shape, often very large— 15 inches (40 cm) or more— and thick; a local name for these in Southern Tamaulipas is Zacahuil. Another less-common variation is to use chard leaves or avocado leaves, which can be eaten along with the filling.
Tamales became one of the representatives of Mexican culinary tradition in Europe, being one of the first samples of the culture that the Spanish conquistadors took back to Spain as proof of civilization, according to Fray Juan de Zumarraga.
Today, tamales are often eaten during festivities, such as Christmas, the Day of the Dead, Las Posadas, La Candelaria Day (February 2) and Mexican Independence Day.
Cuba
In Cuba, before the 1959 Revolution, street vendors sold Mexican-style tamales wrapped in corn husks, usually made without any kind of spicy seasoning. The fact that Cuban tamales are identical in form to those made in Mexico City suggests that they were brought over to Cuba during the period of intense cultural and musical exchange between Cuba and Mexico, between the 1920s and 1950s.
A well-known Cuban song from the 1950s, "Los Tamalitos de Olga," (a cha-cha-cha sung by Orquesta Aragón) celebrated the delicious tamales sold by a street vendor in Cienfuegos. A peculiarly Cuban invention is the dish known as tamal en cazuela, basically consisting of tamal masa with the meat stuffing stirred into the masa, then cooked in a pot on the stove to form a kind of hearty cornmeal porridge.
Corn-husk wrapped tamales are also popular in southeastern Cuba.
Central America
In Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama they are also wrapped in plantain leaves. The masa is usually made out of maize (non-sweet corn), such as what is known as feed corn in the U.S. The corn usually eaten in the U.S. on the cob (sweet corn) is called elote. Guatemalan cuisine is known in particular for their hundreds of varieties of tamales, popular varieties, include tamales de gallina (chicken), tamales dulces (sweet), and tamal de elote (in Costa Rica, the name can also refers to a type of corn pastry). In Guatemala, a variety of tamal is called "Tamal Colorado," which has a chicken or pork filling, a tomato based sauce recado, (hence the "colorado," which means red coloured). It may also contain olives, red bell pepper, prunes or raisins, capers, and almonds.
The tamal is a staple in Belize, where it is also known by the Spanish name bollo. Nicaragua has a large form known as Nacatamales. In Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras, there are tamales without filling which are served as the bread or starch portion of a meal:
- Tamal de elote (made with yellow corn, sometimes with a sweet or dry taste)
- Tamal de chipilín (made with chipilín, a green leaf)
- Tamal blanco (simple, made with white corn)
During Christmas holidays, tamales of corn flour are a special treat for Guatemalans and Hondurans. The preparation time of this type of tamal is long, due to the amount of time required to cook down and thicken the flour base.
In Panama, tamales are considered one of the main national dishes. The Panamanian tamal is fairly large. The most common fillings are chicken, raisins, onions, tomato sauce, and sometimes sweet peas. Pork is also used. Another variation is tamal de olla, which is cooked in a pot and then served directly onto plates. Tamales are usually served for all special occasions, including weddings and birthday parties, and are always found on the Christmas dinner table.
South America
Tamales are found in the north of Argentina (the provinces of Jujuy, Salta and Tucumán). Tamales Salteños are made with shredded meat of a boiled head of a lamb or pork and corn flour wrapped in "chalas". Tamales Jujeños use minced meat and corn and red peppers.
Another version is called humita. It is found in Peru, Argentina and Chile. It can be salted or sweet. Sweet ones have raisins, vanilla, oil, sugar. Salty ones can be filled with cheese (queso fresco) or chicken. Humitas are cooked in the oven or in the pachamanca. Humitas are not tamales by Peruvian and Argentine standards. In Chile, the food known as humitas is almost identical to the tamal.
Peruvian and Bolivian tamales tend to be spicy, large and wrapped in banana leaves. In Lima, common fillings are chicken or pork, usually accompanied by boiled eggs, olives, peanuts or a piece of chili pepper. In other cities, tamales are smaller, wrapped in corn husks and use white corn instead of yellow corn.
In Brazil, there is a similar food called "pamonha", but it's not really a tamal and has different origins.
In Venezuela, tamales are called Hallacas. They are wrapped in plantain leaves and filled with stewed pork, raisins and olives. They are traditionally eaten for Christmas. Also, the Venezuelan "bollos" are similar to the tamal, wrapped in corn husks, filled with hot peppers or plain, and eaten as a side dish.
In Colombia, they are wrapped in plantain leaves. There are several varieties (including most widely known tolimense as well as boyacense and santandereano). Like other South American varieties, the most common are very large compared to Mexican tamales — about the size of a softball — and the dough softer and wetter, with a bright yellow color. A tamal tolimense is served for breakfast with hot chocolate, and may contain large pieces of cooked carrot or other vegetables, whole corn kernels, rice, chicken on the bone and/or chunks of pork. A related food is the envuelto or bollo, which is often made of yucca flour cooked in a corn husk, and resembles a Mexican tamal more closely but has simpler fillings or no filling at all.
Ecuador has a variety of tamales and humitas; they can be filled with fresh cheese, pork, chicken or raisins. Ecuadorian tamales are usually wrapped in corn husk or achira (aka Canna) leaves.
Caribbean
Conkies are a corn-based, Cookie/Tamale-like delicacy popular in the West Indies. The ingredients include corn flour, coconut, sweet potato, and pumpkin, and the dough is baked by steaming in banana leaves.[3] Conkies are thought to have originated in West Africa, where a similar type of kenkey known as dokompa is popular in Ghana.[4]
In Barbados, conkies were once associated with the old British colonial celebration of Guy Fawkes Day on November 5. In modern Barbados they are eaten during Independence Day celebrations on November 30.
In Saint Lucia it is called Paime, it is usually associated with Jounen Kweyol(Creole Day) which is on the last Sunday of October every year.[5]
In Trinidad and Tobago it is called a pastelle and is associated almost entirely with Christmas. Raisins and capers along with other seasonings are added to the meat filling. The entire thing is wrapped in a banana leaf, bound with twine and steamed.
Sinosphere
Chinese cuisine includes the zongzi which is an equivalent of the tamal but made with glutinous rice and a variety of fillings including pork, chestnuts, mung beans, peanuts, and mushrooms.
Malaysia and Indonesia
Malay cuisine includes the Otak-otak which is made of fish meat. Otak-otak is made by mixing fish paste (usually mackerel) with a mixture of spices. In Indonesia, the mixture contains fish paste, shallots, garlic, green onions, egg, coconut milk, and sago flour or can be substituted for cassava starch. While in Malaysia, it is a mixture between fish paste, chillies, garlic, shallots, turmeric, lemon grass and coconut milk. The mixture is then wrapped in a banana leaf that has been softened by steaming, then grilled or steamed.
India
In India there are many types of tamales. It is usually cooked during festival seasons. It is different names in different parts of the country, such as "modhak", "kolukattai" and "momo". Ingredients added to the tamal in India include glutinous rice dough, coconut, jaggery, sugar or salt and some beans or pulses. The southern Indian province of Kerala is famous for a variety of "ada" (not the same as the Tamil 'ada') which uses rice-flour, grated coconut, sugar/jaggery, spices and a variety of additional fillings such as jackfruit and bananas, all wrapped up in banana leaf and steamed or roasted.
Philippines
An indigenized version of the Mexican tamal, the Filipino tamal is a steamed delicacy made with a mixture of ground white and brown (toasted) rice, ground peanuts and coconut milk topped with strips of chicken, chorizo and slices of hard boiled eggs and wrapped in banana leaves. The municipality of Ibaan in Batangas province is known for this delicacy. The fillings used include chicken, but neither eggs nor chorizo.
Bangladesh
Paturi is a famous dish among the Bengali people. It is a dish where fish is marinated in a mustard paste, wrapped in a plaintain leaf and steamed, just like a Mexican tamal. In the case of Ilish fish (a favourite fish of Bengalis), it is often wrapped in a pumpkin leaf and is eaten along with the leaf.
Nepal
Among Newar communities in Nepal, the moist ground black gram paste is wrapped in colocasia leaf and steamed. Later, they fry it and dip it in a curry sauce (fried onion, tomato, a little mustard paste, ginger and other spices mixed and boiled with water). While frying, the wrapper is firmly mixed with black gram paste and need not be removed.
United States
Tamales have been eaten in the United States since at least 1893, when they featured at the World's Columbian Exposition.[6] A tradition of roving tamal sellers was documented in early 20th century blues music.[6] They are the subject of the well-known 1937 blues/ragtime song "They're Red Hot" by Robert Johnson.
While Mexican-style and other Latin American-style tamales feature at ethnic restaurants throughout the United States, there are also some distinctly regional, indigenous American styles.
Cherokee tamales, also known as bean bread or "broadswords," were made with nixtamal (in the case of the Cherokee, the masa was made from corn boiled in wood ashes instead of lime) and beans, and wrapped in green corn leaves or large tree leaves and boiled, similar to the meatless Pre-Columbian bean and masa tamales still prepared in Chiapas, central Mexico and Guatemala.
Semi-sweet tamales, wrapped in banana leaves and called guanimes, are found in Puerto Rico.
In the Mississippi Delta, African-Americans developed a spicy tamal made from cornmeal (rather than masa), which is boiled in corn husks.[6][7][8]
In Chicago, unique tamales made from machine-extruded cornmeal wrapped in paper are sold at Chicago-style hot dog stands.[6]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Hoyer, Daniel and Snortum, Marty Tamales , page 8. Gibbs Smith, 2008. ISBN 1423603192
- ^ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.2001.103.4.935/abstract
- ^ Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. "Barbadian Americans."
- ^ BetumiBlog. "Ghana-style Kenkey."
- ^ Official Site of Barbados. "Recipe for Conkies."
- ^ a b c d Zeldes, Leah A. (Dec. 18, 2009). "The unique Chicago tamal, a tuneful mystery". Dining Chicago. Chicago's Restaurant & Entertainment Guide, Inc.. http://blog.diningchicago.com/2009/12/18/the-unique-chicago-tamale-a-tuneful-mystery/. Retrieved Dec. 18, 2009.
- ^ Hot Tamale Trail - Tamales in the Mississippi Delta
- ^ Tamales, Another Treat from the Delta
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