Hallacas

Venezuela's Christmas parcel: annatto-stained corn dough round a long-cooked beef, pork and chicken guiso, dressed with olives, capers and raisins and boiled in plantain leaf

Origin: Caracas & Venezuela

From the journey of Corn.

Hallacas are made once a year and made in enormous numbers. A household assembles fifty or a hundred over a day or two in December, everyone takes a station along a table, and the finished parcels are boiled, cooled, and given away to relatives, neighbours, and anyone who calls. Trading hallacas between families, and quietly comparing them, is a fixed part of a Venezuelan Christmas. The construction has three parts. The guiso is a stew of beef, pork, and chicken cooked down with onion, pepper, tomato, capers, and wine until thick, and it is made the day before. The masa is corn dough coloured with annatto-infused fat until it is deep orange. The adorno is the decoration laid on top of the guiso before the parcel is closed: olives, capers, raisins, a strip of red pepper, a ring of onion, sometimes a slice of hard-boiled egg or a caper berry, arranged rather than scattered. The standard account calls the hallaca a dish of the colonial kitchen assembled by enslaved and servant households from what was left of the master's table, wrapped in a leaf in the indigenous manner. Like the parallel story told about Brazilian feijoada it is repeated everywhere and rests on very little; what the dish demonstrably is, is a genuine three-way construction, an indigenous leaf-wrapped maize parcel carrying a Spanish stew with Mediterranean olives and capers and, in the raisins, something that arrived by way of the Atlantic trade. Unlike a Mexican tamal or a Nicaraguan nacatamal, the hallaca is boiled rather than steamed, which is why the wrapping has to be genuinely watertight, and why the parcels are tied in a particular cross pattern that every Venezuelan family insists is theirs.

Ingredients

Guiso

500 g beef skirt, in 1cm dice
500 g pork shoulder, in 1cm dice
400 g chicken thigh, in 1cm dice
3 onions, finely chopped
6 spring onions, chopped
2 red peppers, finely chopped
10 garlic cloves, crushed
400 g tinned chopped tomatoes
200 ml dry white wine
3 tbsp capers
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp annatto oil
2 tsp salt, or to taste

Masa

1 kg masa harina
1.2 litres warm stock from the guiso or chicken stock
250 ml annatto oil
2 tsp salt

Adorno

60 green olives, stoned
4 tbsp capers
120 g raisins
2 red peppers, in long strips
2 onions, in rings

To wrap

24 plantain leaves, cut into large rectangles
1 kitchen string

Method

Make the guiso the day before. Soften the onions, spring onions, and peppers in the annatto oil for fifteen minutes, then add the garlic, cumin, and oregano.
Add all three meats and cook until they have lost their raw colour, then add the tomatoes, wine, capers, sugar, and salt.
Simmer for an hour and a half until thick, dark, and glossy, then cool it and refrigerate overnight.
The guiso must be genuinely thick and cold when it is used. A warm or wet guiso soaks the masa and the parcel falls apart in the water.
Pass the plantain leaves over a flame until they darken and go supple, and wipe them clean.
Make the masa: work the masa harina with the warm stock, annatto oil, and salt to a soft, deep orange dough that does not stick to the hands.
Lay a leaf shiny side up, brush it with annatto oil, and spread a ball of masa into a thin square in the middle with the back of an oiled spoon.
Spoon guiso into the centre and lay the adorno over it: two olives, a few capers, a few raisins, a strip of pepper, a ring of onion.
Fold the leaf over so the masa meets and encloses the filling, then fold the ends in to make a rectangular parcel.
Wrap in a second leaf the other way round and tie with string in a cross, tightly.
These are boiled, not steamed, so the wrapping has to be watertight; a loose parcel fills with water and is lost.
Boil the parcels in plenty of water for forty-five minutes to an hour, drain them, and cool them completely before opening. They keep for a week refrigerated and are reheated by boiling for fifteen minutes.

Notes

Make the guiso a day ahead and use it cold and thick. Soften the leaves over a flame or they crack. Annatto oil goes into both the masa and the leaf, and it is the colour of the whole dish. Two leaves per parcel, wrapped in opposite directions, tied firmly. They are boiled rather than steamed, which is the main structural difference from a tamal or a nacatamal. Cool them before opening, since a hot hallaca has not set and will fall apart. Venezuelan households make them by the dozen and freeze them.

The Gastrographer

Name: Hallacas
Prep time: 2 h
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Caracas & Venezuela
Ingredients: 500 g beef skirt, in 1cm dice; 500 g pork shoulder, in 1cm dice; 400 g chicken thigh, in 1cm dice; 3 onions, finely chopped; 6 spring onions, chopped; 2 red peppers, finely chopped; 10 garlic cloves, crushed; 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes; 200 ml dry white wine; 3 tbsp capers; 1 tbsp ground cumin; 2 tsp dried oregano; 2 tbsp brown sugar; 4 tbsp annatto oil; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 1 kg masa harina; 1.2 litres warm stock from the guiso or chicken stock; 250 ml annatto oil; 2 tsp salt; 60 green olives, stoned; 4 tbsp capers; 120 g raisins; 2 red peppers, in long strips; 2 onions, in rings; 24 plantain leaves, cut into large rectangles; 1 kitchen string

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control