Kakanin 101: Tamales

It is commonly known that the Filipino Tamales is a relative or even a derivative of the Mexican Tamal (pl. Tamales). Tamal has as main ingredient the Mexican’s staple corn while Filipino tamales has as base our staple rice. Theirs are wrapped in corn husk, ours are wrapped in banana leaves. Both have been taken as baon (portable food) in the past. Those who have enjoyed these delicacies outside the home included the Aztecs, Mayans and Incans; and Filipino revolutionaries during the Spanish regime, respectively. Given these and several other comparisons, seemingly, the Philippine Tamales makes a good subject for discussions on indigenization (please refer to Culture Ingested: On the Indigenization of Philippine Food for a nice explanation by no less than Doreen G. Fernandez).

Our version of tamales in Pampanga is on the soft and savory yet mild side. And they say, for it to be surely a good one, the tamales must come from the town of Cabalantian. (Note: Since the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, most Cabalantian folks resettled in Bulaon, San Fernando). Tamales from Cabalantian has a chlorophyll tainted, off-white gelatinous square tapong (wet milled rice) base. Melded to its top are annatto-laced tapong, hard cooked eggs and boiled chicken strips.

Levinia Fajardo Gonzales, Darang Lebing (Aunt Lebing) to me, has a slightly different recipe she earlier gleaned from her meticulous mother-in-law, Marcosa Aguilar Roque. I’m glad she agreed to prepare it for us so we can document it.

Like several old and unwritten recipes, Darang Lebing’s recipe is not standardized. But old folks do have their provisions to make sure they’ll end up with their desired product. For instance, notice the use of the nth extraction of coconut milk as back-up for thinning tamales batter.

Darang Lebing used the following ingredients (with their approximate amounts):

5 kilos grated mature coconut (niyog)
1/2c annatto seeds (atchuete)
1c water 500ml cooking oil
3 bulbs of garlic, crushed
1-/2 to 3/4c fish sauce (patis)
1 kilo non-glutinous rice (soaked overnight then milled into medium thick
consistency)
Salt and pepper to taste
½ kilo chicken breast, boiled and cut into strips
1 cup of peanuts fried with garlic 1/2 kilo of honey cured ham

The pictures below will give you a rough idea on how it was done. It's always best to watch and participate in its preparation. (Click the pictures for larger view)


1. Simmering cooking oil and atchuete extract. The same cooking oil was earlier used for browning garlic for flavoring crushed peanut toppings.
2. Blending in the tapong, coconut milk, patis, salt and pepper.
3. to 4. Stirring the mixture continuously until it thickened. Sides had to be scraped to prevent scorching.

5. Adding some more coconut milk (fourth extraction). This step was done as the initial mixture got too heavy.
6. Final mixing of the batter prior to assembly and wrapping.
7. to 8. Scooping tamales batter onto prepared banana leaves, topping them with crushed peanuts, boiled chicken strips and ham; and then wrapping them.
9. Steaming the tamales using a kawa lined with layers of banana leaves. The leaves were submerged in water. This was covered with a bilao.
10. The tamales unwrapped.

Serious Relationship with Food: An Introduction

I think about food a lot. I get excited with thoughts of food fairs and festivals inside and outside my classes, with food gifts and food books! In trips, I would rather take shots of food than friends and local scenery. In streets, in the restaurants, malls or in conferences, I get starstruck with the sight and sounds of local and international food personalities. Though of course I do try to keep myself refined and pretend not to be nervous.

Years back, a cousin told me I'm so crazy about food. I don't agree. I think I'm more serious than crazy. Good thing my teaching job at the university supports this love of mine. I teach food courses and get to work on food researches and extension work.

At long last, I figured, I should not go on and send my food memories to the waste bins of my brain (good thing if I do have a good recycle bin built in). Through this blog, I plan to share more stuff that I can hardly discuss in our classes given limited lecture/laboratory periods. Indirectly, I'm hoping I could spill my passion to my readers (specifically to my students) so they can try to learn more about, appreciate and enjoy food- food beyond being just yummy or tummy filling morsels.

Incidentally, this blog will help me update people how I have been and how I will be. It may be apparent now that food is a measure of how happy or miserable my life is. Hopefully I'll be blessed with more time management skills this year to document several of my adventures and learnings.

Read and be nourished. Buen provecho!