‘Tis the Season for Variety of Tamales

For Latinos living in Southern California, Christmas is the time for reviving the gastronomical delights of their cultural heritage by cooking up traditional dishes reserved for this time of the year.

In many Latino communities, ‘tis the season for tamales. The tasty cornmeal dish will appear at holiday feasts in slightly different variations depending on where in Latin America the recipe originated.

Whether they are store-bought or specially prepared at home, tamales are a Christmas tradition, according to Yvonne Rofer, who grew up in East Los Angeles. “It’s just a special treat,” she said. The Fountain Valley resident prefers to buy the tamales she serves to her family every Christmas Eve, because “they’re so time-consuming to make. One gulp and they’re gone.”

Braced for the holiday rush of Latinos ordering tamales by the dozen or tamale masa (dough) are Mexican food landmarks, such as La Mascota in East Los Angeles, Carrillo’s Tortilleria in San Fernando and El Metate in Santa Ana.

Victor Salcedo begins preparing for the tamale rush weeks before Thanksgiving by advertising for more “Tamale Ladies” to meet the demand. His family has owned and operated La Mascota in East Los Angeles for four decades. Although tamales are sold year-round, Salcedo said, “Sales hit a crescendo around the 18th to the 24th of December.”

Tamale sales--at $10 to $12 a dozen--seem to be recession-proof for the most part, with sales rising steadily in recent years, according to experts. But observers said this is not because more Latinos are opting for the store-bought variety. In fact, sales of masa for homemade tamales have also increased.

“We sell about 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of masa a day during December, about four times more than on a normal basis,” said Willie Luna, who manages the family-owned Carrillo’s Tortilleria, which has been operating in San Fernando for nearly 50 years.

“We’re selling more (tamales) because there’s an increase in immigrants,” he said. In early November, Luna hired five more employees to add to his 13-member staff at the San Fernando store to make the 6,000 tamales sold daily between Dec. 15 and Jan. 1.

Nacho Varela, manager of El Metate in Santa Ana, said he prefers to give his tamale makers the chance for overtime to produce the 90,000 tamales that will be sold from Dec. 22 through Jan. 1. rather than hire new employees. “We just can’t take the chance of bringing in inexperienced people, so it’s better to have everyone work overtime, if they can.”

Tamale sales account for about one-third of the total revenue for the year at El Metate. A second generation of the Murietta family now runs El Metate, manufacturing and retailing a wide variety of Mexican bakery and food products. In addition to its pork, chicken and beef selections, El Metate makes a vegetarian tamale with celery, onion, cilantro and cheese. And all its tamales are made with vegetable oil instead of lard because, said Varela, “We like to eat more health consciously.”

Buying tamales does not beat making them at home for many Latinos. Lupe Reyes, a Pico Rivera bilingual instructional aide, said she cooks up her own Yuletide treats as an annual labor of love.

Her husband helps with the 80 pounds of masa needed to make the more than 400 tamales each year, Reyes said. “Oh, and my sons help spread the masa--and most of all eat them when they are finished,” she said laughing. “My tamales come out perfect every time because I have a special pot from Mexico--a vaporadora ,” said Reyes, who uses a traditional recipe from her native Mexican state of Zacatecas.

The outer shell of the tamale is basically a masa made of a mixture of white cornmeal, salt, broth and lard. The fillings vary, but either shredded beef, pork or chicken are most commonly used.

The filling for Mexican tamales is made with a piquant sauce, spices and chili; cheese is sometimes added. Sweet tamales are made by substituting such items as apples, pineapple, raisins and cinnamon for the spicy meat filling. Once enclosed in the cornmeal masa, the tamales are wrapped in corn husks. Then they are steamed, unwrapped and are ready to eat.

Latinos with roots stretching to Mexico have more than just tamales at their traditional Christmas spread. Specialty stores, supermarkets and restaurants also sell either already prepared or the ingredients for mole (a spicy turkey or pork sauce that usually includes unsweetened chocolate and can call for up to 100 ingredients by some recipes), Spanish rice, pinto beans or pozole (a soup of pork, chicken or beef, chiles, hominy and other ingredients).

Champurrado, a hot, thick chocolate beverage, is also brewed at this time of the year. The ingredients include fresh corn masa, spiced chocolate tablets, sugar, milk and cinnamon sticks.

For New Year’s Day, a steaming bowl of menudo is the traditional breakfast meal in many Mexican and Mexican-American families. Part of the reason for its popularity may be its widely touted reputation as a hangover cure. The main ingredients are hominy and tripe (a cow’s stomach lining).

Central Americans Like Different Tamales

Tamale recipes from countries south of Mexico require banana leaves for the outer wrapping. The banana leaves lend a distinctive flavor to tamales once they are steamed, very different from those wrapped in corn husks.

Augusto Rodriguez, who manages Guatemala Imports in the MacArthur Park area, estimates that his family-owned business sells about 20,000 pounds of banana leaves during the two weeks before Christmas, 10 times more than usual. “Guatemalan tamales are spicier and fatter than Mexican tamales,” Rodriguez explained. “They’re almost the size of four Mexican tamales, and they’re square-shaped. The filling is made of rice and pork or chicken.”

Also whoppers are banana leaf-wrapped Nicaraguan tamales, which weigh in at about a pound, according to Maria Elena Gonzalez, co-owner of Managua Restaurant in Los Angeles. They are called nacatamales and, in addition to pork and rice, Gonzalez said, the filling includes bell peppers, onions, tomatoes and olives.

Nicaraguans also enjoy a stuffed chicken dish made specially for this time. It is stuffed and served in a vegetable stew that includes raisins and plums. Gonzalez said her restaurant serves this dish only on Dec. 24 and 31 because it takes two days to prepare.

Panamanian Christmas tradition calls for the making and boiling of large, square tamales wrapped in banana leaves. The tamales are filled with stewed chicken and pork, olives and capers, prunes ad other condiments placed between two layers of cornmeal masa. Panamanians also enjoy stuffed, roasted turkey for the holiday.

Garden Grove resident Elgita Sandoval said nacatamales and turkey are traditional main dishes for the Christmas feast in her native Honduras. Dessert sweets include torrejas --a bread fried in eggs and served with honey and cinnamon.

The size of Salvadoran tamales is similar to Mexican tamales. Isabel Vega, owner of Restaurante Izalqueno in Los Angeles, said Salvadorans use shredded beef or chicken, green olives, capers and egg, but no piquant sauce or spices, in their tamales. Vega said that during Christmas week her restaurant sells more than 1,000 tamales, four times the normal amount.

In addition to the tamales, Salvadorans eat chumpe, which is turkey stuffed with a mustard sauce that includes peeled tomatoes, pumpkin and sesame seeds, french bread, capers and green olives, among other ingredients, according to Vega.

South Americans Also Serve Turkey and Pork

Ayacas, a variation on the tamale whose name has various spellings, are made for the holidays in Ecuadorean and Venezuelan communities. According to Fausto Alvarez, owner and chef of La Choza in Highland Park, the masa is made of wheat flour, instead of cornmeal, and sugar is added; the filling includes raisins, chicken and green olives.

Alvarez said that the Ecuadorean Christmas menu also may include turkey or roast pork (depending on the region), mote (a hominy stew similar to pozole ), yellow rice, quimbolitos (a spicy cake wrapped in banana leaves and topped with honey) and seco de gallina, a chicken stew.

The Peruvian holiday feast consists of tamales or turkey, white rice, papas doradas (a potato dish), ensalada rusa (a vegetable and potato mixture), according to Marina Alfaro, owner of El Chalan restaurant in North Hollywood. And for dessert there is paneton-- a bread made with nuts, fruit and raisins.

Chileans typically eat paneton for Christmas, which they call pan de Pascua . They also indulge in cola de mono , a coffee and milk mixture containing a hard liqueur called agua ardiente as its special ingredient. Cristina Flores, owner of Rincon Chileno in Los Angeles, said tamales are not Christmas fare. Instead turkey or duck and a variety of salads are eaten.

Colombians are fond of fritters called bunuelos and natilla pudding at this time of year. The Colombian bunuelos are the size of tennis balls and are made of cornmeal, egg yolks, milk and cheese. Natilla consists of cornstarch, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins.

A typical Argentine Christmas meal would begin with a salad or pasta and feature a meat entree, such as roasted chicken, turkey or suckling pig ( lechon ), washed down with wine. The meal is rounded out with cold cider ( sidra ), almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and pecans, a cold fruit salad, and a tall, semi-moist fruitcake called pan dulce. The meal can last up to four hours.

Caribbean Cooks Use Plantains and Coconuts

Cubans typically eat roast pork for Christmas, seasoned with olive oil, garlic and lemon, with rice and black beans, according to Cuban-born Barbara Reyes of Hawthorne. Yuc ca, a tuberous fruit akin to a potato, is boiled or steamed, then deep-fried and served with a mojo sauce of garlic and olive oil. “It’s crunchy on the outside and soft inside,” Reyes said, “way better than french fries.” Plantains are also served: from the sweet platanos maduros to the crunchy tostones, prepared by frying slices of green plantains. Borrowing from its Spanish roots, flan and turron candy are eaten for dessert.

The roast leg of pork--called pernil --that Puerto Ricans eat for the holidays is much like Mexican carnitas , according to Long Beach-resident Nydia Mendez, but the roast is cooked whole. On the side, they typically eat arroz con gandules (either yellow or Spanish rice with pigeon peas) and a green salad. Coquito , a sweet coconut drink (rum optional), is served as an aperitif and for dessert there is tembleque , a coconut pudding.

Born in Puerto Rico but raised in New York, Mendez relishes cooking traditional dishes of her native land and makes a point every Christmas of cooking the Puerto Rican version of a tamale called a pastel . The masa is made of grated yucca, yautia (a sour potato), green plantains and green bananas and mixed with seasonings. Pasteles are filled with stewed pork and beef; they are wrapped in banana leaves and boiled.