Happy Solstice / Vegan Guatemalan Tamale Day

In our house we celebrate the solstice but we love to incorporate influences from different cultures and holiday. My mother is from Guatemala and one custom they have over there for christmas is to have ponche and tamales rojos or red tamales. ponche is essentially punch drank hot and perfect along side tamales .I firsts tried these on a trip to Guatemala to visit all of our family. I watched my grandmother stir the masa over an open fire in the back yard, the pot was enormous. It had to be to feed all the family members coming to see us. the flavor and experience was unforgettable and I cherish the memory to this day. If you've never had a guatemalan tamale especially these, I highly recommend you do. they are amazing, far better then the Mexican style ones ( of corse guatemalans make something similar called chuchitos ) tender , flavorful, complex, moist, truly a main corse,  now of corse the ones we're making our vegan and so their is a level of compensation for the lack of animal fat and the flavor that adds, but none the less these are delicious, my excellent mother actually developed this recipe opting for asparagus in stead of seitan like we're using which was supremely delicious  and probably healthier but well got to splurge sometimes

 Here I am stewing the tomatoes, tomatios,onion, garlic and red bell pepper together for the sauce and of corse jacob behind the camera multitasking as usual. 

toasted pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and three types of dried chilies. These will be blended and stewed together with the tomatoes to make the sauce for our tamales. 

                                  A fresh batch of Jacobs famous seitan made just this morning.

He also passed by the asian food market to pick up the banana leaves to wrap our tamales and brought home a surprise young coconuts and durian for this really yummy raw pudding

                       Here is Amelie inspecting the fruit for our ponche, I think she approves :)

In here are dried prunes, rasins, plantains, fresh apples, cinnamon sticks, and these palm sugar cones. Some other ingredients you can add that are perfectly traditional are papaya, melon, pineapple, and a little brandy at least in our family.

Heres our masa. Guatemalan red tamale masa is a lot more involved then say mexican tamale masa it has to be cooked slowly over a stove and is much softer and more flavorful because the higher fat and water ratios

                                                    Our shredded seitan already

                                                           still cooking....................

Aaahhhh........and here is our first tamale complete with one green olive and 4 capers (we love capers)

                                          Don't forget a slice of red or green bell pepper

                                                  Look at Amelie's face, to cute for words

Now it's Eli's turn to try, first the masa. It much thicker then it should be here. we thin it out later.

                                                          Now the seitan  yummy!

                                                     Don't forget the red pepper

                                                                 
                                                        now sauce and the olive

                                                          and finally the capers

                                                                       Hello

                         Time to wrap in our banana leaf, careful now and tie with a thin strip of banana leaf

                               

                                          Maybe wrap this one in parchment to avoid leaks

                                              look at our ponche just simmering away

                                               Another one wrapped, keep going, don't give up.

                                                    and thats less then half of the whole leaf

                        Time to eat! Sparkling apple cider, coconut nog and plenty of bread to accompany our ponche and tamales

                                                      Don't forget the new board games

Heres your plate, Happy holidays from our family to yours

                                                     All pictures curtsey of Jacob Jolley