| | |  Entertainment | Restaurants & Dining | December 2008 
Savor the Holidays with Tamales for Las Posadas
 Cristian Salazar - Associated Press
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| | Packages of sweet or savory corn dough stuffed with meats and vegetables, and wrapped in banana leaves or cornhusks, tamales are a memorable part of the holiday feast. (Michael Sobronski/EFE) | |
Some may have visions of sugarplums as the holidays begin, but the dreams of Mexican immigrants such as Margarita Larios likely will be filled with zestier foods as they prepare for las Posadas.
That's the nine-day celebration during which Mexican and Mexican-American Roman Catholics pay homage to the biblical journey of Mary and Joseph in search of shelter in a foreign land.
For each of the days, from Dec. 16 to 24, families and friends re-enact the nativity story with singing, candlelit processions and pinatas for children.
And the celebration doesn't end until a meal to sate even the hungriest traveler is served: Dark moles churned from chocolates and chilies. Hot punch made from tejocotes, an apple-like fruit, and piloncillo, blocks of unrefined cane sugar. And a selection of sweet or savory tamales served steaming hot from huge pots.
"You should always have punch and tamales," says Larios, 60, who teaches a tamale-making workshop for las Posadas through the New York-based cultural organization Mano a Mano.
Manuel A. Vasquez, a professor of Latin American religions at the University of Florida, says rich foods are served during las Posadas because they symbolize abundance.
He compared it to serving heavy meals during harvest festivals such as Thanksgiving.
"It is connected with the good news of the birth of Christ," Vasquez says. "So there's lots of sugar and lots of fat to show that the New Year is a prosperous year."
Las Posadas dates to the 1500s, when Christian evangelists seeking to convert the indigenous people of Mexico realized they could teach them their faith through the ritual reenactment of Biblical stories.
One of the most important stories they sought to dramatize was the nativity. Out of this emerged las Posadas.
"One of the deep meanings of the Posadas is the struggle of the immigrant," says Timothy Matovina, a theologian and professor at the University of Notre Dame. Mexican immigrants can see their own stories reflected in the two biblical pilgrims' journey, he says.
Indeed, las Posadas are celebrated throughout the Southwest and almost anywhere a large community of Mexican immigrants has formed roots in the U.S.
One such place is Chicago, where chef Rick Bayless has ascended to the highest ranks of Mexican gastronomy. He says tamales - steamed cornmeal dough and other fillings wrapped in cornhusks or bananas leaves - are perfect for such special occasions.
Bayless even suggests hosting a pre-party - or a tamalera - before the Posada celebration to make the tamales.
"Usually, you get a group of people together to make tamales. You make your batch together and you're filling and you're standing around together," Bayless says.
The ingredients for the corn-masa cakes are straightforward enough. If you are not near a grocer that sells Mexican foods, probably the most difficult to find ingredients are the specially prepared cornmeal and corn husks, though they can be purchased online. Banana leaves sometimes can be found in Asian grocery stores.
Savory tamales usually are filled with meats stewed with chilies; sweet ones are made with pureed pineapple and burst with raisins swollen from the steam. But there are seemingly countless riffs on the tradition, with fillings using everything from seafood to pumpkin.
Danny Mena, the chef at the Brooklyn-based Mexican hipster restaurant Hecho En Dumbo, suggests combining mole poblano with duck confit, instead of the traditional turkey commonly served.
"I find duck more succulent and tastier," Mena says.
The type of fat you use - and the amount - determine how fluffy, rich and flavorful the tamales are, Bayless says. His favorite is fresh pork lard from a Mexican or German butcher. "It has a good, clean flavor to it," he says.
Bayless and other chefs say store-bought lard could be used if fresh lard was unavailable. Failing that, vegetable shortening is an alternative; unsalted butter is appropriate for sweet tamales.
When the base is blended until it has the consistency of cake batter, and a ball of it floats in cold water, you can be sure your tamales will turn out fluffy.
As you can imagine, tamales are not low-fat. Bayless says any time he goes somewhere and someone says, "Oh, I'm making olive oil tamales," they have been a disaster.
"It's like saying you're going to do diet croissants," he quipped. |
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