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Southern Veracruz tamalitos folded in banana leaf, with fresh nixtamal masa, chipilin leaves, and manteca de cerdo. Small enough for the hand, serious enough for Candelaria.
Veracruz, especially the humid south around Los Tuxtlas and the Sotavento, knows chipilin because the plant likes heat, rain, and loose soil. This is not a northern flour-tortilla country dish. This is Gulf cooking, banana leaf, corn masa, herbs from the patio, and a table that understands the Tercera Raiz without turning it into a slogan.
The chipilin is the point. Its leaves perfume the masa with a green, bean-like scent that sits somewhere between tender greens and fresh legumes. You do not drown it in cheese or make it hot just to prove something. Not all Mexican food is chile first. Here the chile de arbol belongs in the salsa on the side, sharp and red, not inside the tamalito where it would bully the herb.
I learned this style from women who made hundreds for Dia de la Candelaria, small tamales wrapped in banana leaf so they stay supple and fragrant. The masa must be beaten with manteca de cerdo until it floats in water. La manteca es el sabor, yes, but it is also structure. If the masa is heavy, the tamalito is heavy. If the leaf is not softened over the comal, it cracks. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.
Serve them in a clay cazuela or piled on a Veracruz terracotta plate, with the leaf opened at the table and the salsa passed in a molcajete. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Tamalitos de chipilin are part of the humid Gulf and southern Mexican tamal family, especially visible in Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas, and neighboring Central America, where chipilin grows easily in tropical home gardens. In Veracruz, banana-leaf tamales reflect indigenous corn technique, Afro-Mexican coastal foodways, and Spanish-introduced pork fat, the three roots often called Mexico's Tercera Raiz when discussing African presence. Dia de la Candelaria, celebrated on February 2, became one of the strongest annual tamal occasions after colonial Catholic ritual attached itself to older communal corn foods.
Quantity
2 pounds
Quantity
1 cup
room temperature
Quantity
1 to 1 1/4 cups
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
2 packed cups
tough stems removed, rinsed and dried
Quantity
2
cut into 10-inch squares and softened over a comal
Quantity
as needed
for tying
Quantity
4
Quantity
3
stemmed
Quantity
1 small
Quantity
1/4 small
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh nixtamal masa for tamales | 2 pounds |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo)room temperature | 1 cup |
| warm pork broth or chicken broth | 1 to 1 1/4 cups |
| kosher salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| baking powder | 1 teaspoon |
| fresh chipilin leavestough stems removed, rinsed and dried | 2 packed cups |
| large banana leavescut into 10-inch squares and softened over a comal | 2 |
| kitchen twine or thin strips of banana leaffor tying | as needed |
| ripe Roma tomatoes | 4 |
| dried chile de arbolstemmed | 3 |
| garlic clove | 1 small |
| white onion | 1/4 small |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo), for frying the salsa | 1 tablespoon |
| kosher salt, for salsa | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| crumbled queso fresco (optional) | for serving |
Wipe the banana leaves clean with a damp cloth. Cut away the center rib and divide the leaves into 10-inch squares. Pass each square over a hot comal for a few seconds per side until the color deepens and the leaf becomes flexible. If you skip this, the leaf cracks when you fold it. The women who make tamales by the hundred know this before they know the recipe.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the manteca de cerdo with the salt and baking powder until pale and airy, 4 to 5 minutes by machine or 8 minutes by hand. This is where light tamales begin. No me vengas con atajos. If the fat is not beaten, the masa will sit heavy in the leaf.
Add the fresh masa in handfuls, beating after each addition. Pour in 1 cup warm broth a little at a time until the masa is soft, spreadable, and holds its shape on a spoon. Drop a pea-sized bit into a glass of cold water. If it floats, it is ready. If it sinks, beat 2 more minutes and test again. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only if you test the masa.
Chop the chipilin leaves roughly and fold them through the masa by hand. Do not pulverize them in a blender. You want green flecks all through the dough and the clean scent of the leaf to release as the tamalito cooks. Taste the masa for salt. It should taste slightly more seasoned than you think because the leaf and masa soften the salt during cooking.
Lay one softened banana leaf square glossy side up. Place 2 generous tablespoons of masa in the center and shape it into a short rectangle. Fold the sides over the masa, then fold the top and bottom down to make a tight packet. Tie with kitchen twine or a thin strip of banana leaf if the packet wants to open. These are tamalitos, small enough to eat by hand, not big festival bricks.
Set a steamer pot with water below the rack and line the rack with banana leaf scraps. Stand or stack the tamalitos loosely so the air can move around them. Cover with more leaf scraps, then the lid. Cook over medium heat for 55 to 65 minutes, checking the water level halfway through. They are done when the masa pulls cleanly from the leaf and feels tender but set.
While the tamalitos cook, roast the tomatoes, garlic, and onion on a comal until blistered and softened. Toast the chile de arbol for a few seconds per side, just until fragrant. Do not blacken it. Burned chile turns bitter, and then you have made punishment, not salsa.
Blend the roasted tomatoes, garlic, onion, toasted chile de arbol, and salt until mostly smooth. Melt 1 tablespoon manteca in a small clay cazuela or skillet, add the salsa, and fry it for 6 to 8 minutes until the color deepens and the surface looks glossy. Frying the salsa is not decoration. It takes the raw edge off the tomato and lets the chile settle into the sauce.
Turn off the heat and let the tamalitos rest in the covered pot for 10 minutes. Open the leaves at the table and spoon a little warm salsa over each one. Add queso fresco if you want the market version, but do not bury the chipilin. The herb is why you came here.
1 serving (about 75g)
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