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Hallacas with Alicia

What are hallacas you might ask? They are kind of like tamales but wrapped in plantain leaves, not corn husks. Are they plantain leaves or banana leaves? Whatever they were, they are freaking massive!

As we were chopping and prepping, we got a history lesson on hallacas.

As Alicia and her mom told it, the slaves got the leftovers from their masters and since they didn’t have any plates, they used the corn dough as the base, added the leftover meat from their owners’ meals (that the slaves cooked for them of course), and then added other goodies before wrapping in plantain leaves. The little packets were boiled or steamed before being eaten. Or put under the coals in fires.

This is a Venezuelan Christmas tradition and we were honored to be included with Alicia and her mom.

Alicia’s mom prepared the corn dough and added the seed-infused oil to the dough. That was the stuff that stains like nobody’s business — I actually borrowed a shirt to avoid staining my own.

Apparently the seed oil can stain so we were told to wear something that we didn’t mind ruining. Ha! I got there before I read what you wrote!

Alicia provided Rei with an oversized shirt to wear as they prepped the plantain leaves. Alicia special ordered the leaves and cut them before we arrived. Good gracious, now this is getting annoying and repetitive. (Well, if you didn’t repeat everything I said it wouldn’t be repetitive.~Terri)

Anyways, it was fun to cook the leaves a bit to soften them — I got the hang of it after a little while, and only ruined one leaf in the process!

Rei and I were put to work chopping veggies and opening jars of capers and olives, cans of chickpeas and a bag of raisins. I got to do the fancy chopping with the bell peppers while Mom was stuck with the onions — muahahahahahah!

Alicia has prepared the ‘meat’ filling the night before. Since Alicia is a vegetarian, the typical chicken, pork and beef were replaced with vegetarian versions. Once this was warmed up, we lined up the fillings and Alicia showed us what to do.

Alicia took a leaf, wiped the leaf with the seed infused oil, and added a scoop of the corn dough. Alicia used her fingers to spread it out into a thin pancake.

She then added a scoop of the ‘meat’ mixture.

Then it was a few slices of onion, bell peppers and…

…then a few olives, chickpeas, and raisins.

Then it was time to wrap up like a package and…

…tie up like a package. Hey, that’s me!

After we made some hallacas, Alicia added some meat and the goodies to the corn dough and I oiled up the leaves and put glops of the goop on the leaves. Then Rei wrapped up like the hallacas but with an extra loop so we could tell the difference. It was a lot of fun to wrap up all the hallacas — I got the hang of it about half way through, and then it went smoothly with only a few massive fuck-ups :)

I wrapped one so Alicia had us pose with its packaged perfection.

Rei was pretty proud of themselves and should have been. That was one of the first ones I did, I think, so yeah I was proud!

Alicia has quite the garden. I’m deadass pretty jealous. Look at all that green! (I am sure that Alicia would love to have you tend it when she travels.Terri)

Despite the fact it is the middle of December, there were tomatoes on Alicia’s bushes. They were pretty good. Again, very jealous. We didn’t have a very big harvest this year (or last D:).

Her artichokes are coming along nicely.

It was lovely to be out in the garden and be inspired to put something together in our own yard this spring. Alicia said she would help Rei out if they want it.

I almost forgot the group photo before we got started with the assembly. Alicia and her mom said that some families make several hundred of them as they get together to celebrate the holidays. It’s not unusual for families to swap and share with the others to enjoy the different recipes. Some families protect their recipes and only hand down through the family, guarding them with their lives — sounds like a party — (well, not really, but it sounds better that way).

Alicia sent a few home with us and we steamed them for an hour last night so we could taste the fruits of our labor.

Here’s the final product. Super tasty and it was quite fun to experience Alicia’s family tradition. We don’t have a lot of traditions in our family but are considering starting a holiday tradition of camping burritos to share with others. That story is for another day.

Rei? Anything to add?

This was a very informative and honestly super fun experience! We learned about the history of this food, how to make all the individual parts and then assembly (that was the most fun part)! Plus, we got a nice tour of the garden I really want to steal!

Okay, until next time, ciao, and have a spiulanckangerous day!

Rei and Terri

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