Tamalitos de Elote

Tía Rosa was gracious enough to have Kyra and I back over to her mother’s house two weekends ago, and it was just as great as the first time. That day, we were going to make tamalitos de elote (typical around Christmas time) with her mom, Angelita. I had to laugh when Tía Rosa disappeared to clean her house after a few minutes, leaving us to chill with her mom and the rest of her family. I’m glad she felt comfortable enough with us to do that! We jumped right into the cooking and got busy cutting corn off the cob. I thought it was awesome and so generous of Tía Rosa’s family that we were using corn from her father’s farm.

GET BUSY, KYRA!

The bountiful harvest.

The next part of the process was to grind the corn up. Traditionally, you would do this with two stones and slave over them for hours. Luckily, we live in the age of modern technology and just had to walk one street over and pay a few quetzales to use a grinding machine that did all the hard work for us. I’m all about efficiency! Also, I just had to include this picture of the power switch. This type of building/living standard is pretty typical of Guatemala, and sometimes it strikes me as hilarious because it’s so ridiculous. This kind of stuff would absolutely not fly in the States, but here it’s no big deal.

Technology. Gotta love it.

Casual hazardous exposed wires? CLASSIC Guatemala.

Once we got back to the house, Angelita added a few more ingredients to the creamed corn. These tamalitos are supposed to be sweet, and I was very happy to see the copious amounts of sugar being poured into the bowl. When she finished, it looked pretty much just like a normal cake batter. Using the leaves from the corn ears we cut that morning, we scooped the batter into them and folded them up. They were like little packages of yumminess! We ran out of corn leaves for the last of the batter and used aluminum foil instead, whch allowed Tía Rosa’s brother, Nelson, to crack a good joke about having tamales from both the city and the town. After we ran out of batter, we loaded the tamale bombs into a large pot and stuck it over the fire in the outdoor kitchen. It’s crazy to me that it’s normal to cook in this manner!

scoop scoop scoop!

Done and ready to cook the city/town tamales! :)

We had about 45 minutes to kill while the tamales cooked, and we went with Nelson into town to run a few errands. It was fun exploring San Andres a bit more, especially since he bought Kyra and I delicious iceys. I’m pretty sure they must have been using real fruit nectar because it was the most delicious one I’ve ever had in my life.

Out on the streets, baby.

DELICIOUS.

When we got back to the house, we had a yummy lunch with Tía Rosa and her family and then got to dig into the tamales for dessert. Everyone was really complimentary of them, and I thought they were great as well. Well done, team.

How do you like them tamales, hot?!

Just lunchin' with the fam!

There was still more fun to be had that afternoon. Kyra and I were overjoyed when we found out we would be making tortillas as well. In theory, it was pretty straightforward task but it was so much harder than I expected! There’s definitely a technique if you want to tortillar like an authentic Guatemalan, and I did not have it. My hands were awkward and clumsy with the dough, and I’m embarrassed to admit I dropped more than one ball of dough on the floor trying to get it right. The Guatemalans are speedy quick with their hands! Pat, pat, pat, pat like lightening aaaand look, there's a tortilla! I had a great time practicing though and I can wait to do it again to up my tortilla game! No surprises here, but the tortillas were also delicious.

Knead the dough for a bit while looking out at volcanoes...

Bake them in the open-air kitchen over the fire...

Enjoy! My tortilla was tiny and misshapen but I still loved it :)

After a quick visit to Tía Rosa’s house in the afternoon to say hi to her animals again, Kyra and I caught the bus back to NPH. Once again, I couldn't help but be deeply touched and grateful for the hospitality of Tía Rosa and her family. I love how welcoming Guatemalans are as a people!

Thank you for being so nice!!!

Oh gosh, it's still tiny and cute.