Liliana’s Hallacas, Venezuela’s Holiday Tradition

Directions

• DAY 1 — Prep the Meat for the Guiso Stew
• Boil the pork for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool and refrigerate for Day 2.
• Boil the chicken in water to cover for about 1 hour or in a pressure cooker for about 40 minutes, until it is tender and falling off the bone, if using bone-in. Shred. Set aside to cool and refrigerate for Day 2.

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• Slice the skirt or flank steak into small, raw pieces. Store in your fridge for use on Day 2.
• DAY 1 — Prep the Vegetables for the Guiso or Stew
• In a large pot, add the oil and the annatto seeds over low heat.

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• Once the oil takes on a orangey-red color, remove the seeds and reserve for the next day. Do not let the seeds burn in the oil. To the annatto oil, add the chopped, raw bacon, stir and let it cook until it looks cooked and translucent, but not get crispy.

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• Add the chopped onions. Stir and let cook for 5 to 6 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and stir.

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• Once you can smell the garlic, stir in the leeks and chives. Stir.

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• Add the minced ají dulce or the habanero—your choice. Stir. Add the minced red bell pepper. Stir. Let the vegetables simmer about 6 minutes.

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• Add the raw chopped flank or skirt steak. Stir to mix in well. Turn up the heat to medium high, cover with a lid and let it cook for about 10 to 15 minutes.

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• Remove the lid, stir. Stir in the capers. Add the papelón (unrefined sugar cane) for a rich sweet flavor. It will melt as you stir it into your stew.

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• Add the wine, salt, and pepper. Stir and let it reduce for a few minutes.

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• Add the giardiniera, vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, paprika and tomatoes. Cover and let it cook on low heat for 10 minutes.

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• Add the cooked pork and shredded chicken from Day 1 to your mix. Stir together well.

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• Make a thickening sauce with the corn flour. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 to 1 cups of the precooked corn flour and with 1 to 2 cups of liquid from a combo of the stew you are making and chicken broth (Liliana uses half and half). Whisk the corn flour sauce into your stew and stir wel.

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• Cover your guiso and simmer on low heat for the last 15 minutes. When your stew is done, Liliana promises it will taste delicious! Turn off the heat, let the mixture cool, and place in your refrigerator—ready to use when building your hallacas on Day 2.

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• DAY 1 — Clean and Organize the Banana or Plantain Leaves
• Wash and dry all the banana leaves. Cut into three sizes, if they don’t come precut. You’ll need one of each of the three sizes for each of your hallacas.
• Cut 50 large outside leaves: These are large squares about 12 by 12 inches. (Or take 2 smaller leaves and layer them together to make a large size leaf.) These will be used as the outside leaf to hold and protect the hallaca from when being steamed.

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• Cut 50 medium leaves: These are about 8 inches tall and 8 inches wide. These will hold the masa and delicious filling and wrapped inside the larger leaf during steaming.

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• Cut 50 small, skinny and long strips that are about 2 to 3 inches wide and 12 inches long. They are called fajas or fajitas in Venezuela. (Fajas means girdle, so appropriate!) You will use these to tie each hallaca closed before steaming.

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• When all the banana or plantain leaves are washed, dried, cut and ready, store them in the refrigerator overnight for use on Day 2, when you stuff and wrap the hallacas.
• DAY 2 — Prep the Annatto-Garlic-Bacon Oil for the Masa
• In a large pot, melt the lard or shortening in a pan. Warm over low heat. Add the annatto seeds, stirring constantly over low heat for 1 minute or 2. Simmer for a few minutes. Stir. When the oil takes on a rust color, it is done. (Keep an eye on it so that you don’t burn the seeds or your oil will take on a bitter taste.) Remove the annatto seeds and reserve for reuse on Day 2.

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• Add the garlic, stirring constantly, for 1 minute or 2. When you begin to smell the garlic, add the raw bacon pieces. (You can skip adding bacon, if you are using flavorful pork lard.). Let the bacon cook over low heat, stirring regularly, until it starts to turn translucent and pink. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool.

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• DAY 2 — Make Your Masa
• Gather your ingredients: pork lard or shortening, precooked corn flour, chicken broth, cooked bacon, whole garlic, salt, pepper.

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• Always start making masa with the liquids, says Liliana. Pour the broth (reserved from Day 1, when boiling the poultry) into your largest mixing bowl.

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• Add the bacon-garlic-annatto oil mix to the broth. Stir. Add the salt and the precooked corn flour. Mix them together, well.

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• Fold in the cooked bacon into the masa, working it into the dough with your hands until it is fully incorporated. This will give your masa delicious, rich flavor, says Liliana.

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• Set the masa bowl aside, covered with a damp kitchen towel or plastic wrap, for at least 10 minutes.

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• DAY 2 — Make Your Annatto Oil to Brush on the Banana Leaves
• Mix 1 cup of vegetable or olive oil with the annatto seeds you used the day before. Let them steep in a small bowl or glass jar for 5 minutes. When ready, discard the seeds.

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• DAY 2 — Time to Build Your Hallacas
• Prepare your hallaca-building workspace. Lay out a series of 9 bowls or cups, each dedicated to one of the ingredients you’ll use to build each individual hallaca. These are: a) the masa, b) beef, pork and chicken guiso filling, c) onion thin rounds, d) red pepper thin slices, e) olives, f) raisins, g) capers, h) smoked turkey bacon strips, and i) the annatto oil you just made.

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• To make each hallaca, lay out a medium banana leaf on your flat work surface. Identify the brighter green side that has the more prominent leaf veins. This is the inside of your plantain “plate.” Brush it with about ½ tsp of the annatto oil.

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• Add about 3 Tbsp of masa (Liliana uses an ice cream scooper) to the center of the leaf. Brush the top of the masa with a small amount of annatto oil. Press the dough into a flat and thin circle about 5 inches wide, with your choice of one of the following, wrapped in plastic: a frying pan, dinner plate, cutting board, or large tortilla press.

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• Lay a medium leaf with the masa on top of a large leaf. Identify which way the veins run on the large leaf. Lay the medium leaf on top of it so that its veins run perpendicular to the large one’s pattern. (This will make your double-leaf wrapped hallacas stronger when you steam them.)

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• Add about 1/2 cup of the guiso or stew filling on top of the masa circle on the medium leaf. Smooth the filling with the back of your spoon so that it is flat—ready for the garnishes!

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• DAY 2 — Garnish Your Masa Filling
• Layer the following garnishes, in this order, on top of the masa and guiso stew: 2 onion rings, 2 to 3 red bell pepper thin strips, 2 olives, ½ tsp capers, 6 raisins, ½ tsp giardiniera, and—last—the 2 to 3 small strips of turkey bacon.

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• DAY 2 — Fold Your Hallacas
• Pick up the two top edges of your large banana leaf, which lies below the medium banana leaf.

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• Fold the large leaf carefully in half (as if you are closing a precious book with two hands), so that the tops of the masa circle’s halves come together edge to edge and the tops of the large banana leaf edges also match up.

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• Fold over the top edges of the now-joined large banana leaf (to where you feel the masa mound begin)—about 2 inches down. Then, fold them down again—another 2 inches. You will have a long, thin envelope-like masa-leaf package.

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• Now fold the two other sides. Take the large leaf’s unfolded wide edges and fold each one into the middle.

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• Time to put the small piece of banana leaf—the fajita—on the hallaca. Take the thin, long banana strip fajita and wrap it around and around the banana leaf-wrapped package, horizontally, as if you were wrapping a bandage. You will have a tidy rectangle package.

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• DAY 2 — Tie Your Hallaca with Kitchen Twine
• Cut a 4- to 5-foot-long piece of cooking twine. Wrap it around the top end, criss-crossing the string around the width of the hallaca: one, two, three times on the first side, each an inch apart.

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• Repeat three times on the second side, each an inch apart. Tie the end of the strings into a tight knot. Run the string strand the other way: around the top and bottom twice. Tie a double knot, cut, and you are done.

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• Repeat 50 more times, or however many hallacas you are making—and you are done!

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• DAY 2 — Boil Your Hallacas
• Gently place the hallacas, snugly fitting together, but not packed too tightly—or they won’t cook through. Add water to cover. Sprinkle 1 to 2 tsp or salt to the water. Layer one or two banana leaves at the top of the pot. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover with the lid and simmer for 1 hours.
  
  Or, if you wish—although this is not traditional to Venezeula— you can steam your hallacas, as Liliana learned to do when she and her family lived in Mexico for many years. If you choose to steam: Fill a deep and large steamer pot (what they call in Mexico a tamalera, says Liliana) with about 1 to 2 cups of water at the bottom, so that it is at least 1 to 2 inches high. Add 1 to 2 tsp salt to the water.
  

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• Place a metal colander, small steamer, or a tin pie plate punctured with holes (to let the steam rise) inside the pot. Above it, line up your hallacas, in rows.

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• Bring to a boil and immediately lower the heat to simmer.
• Whether you boil or steam, cover with the lid and let the pot gently steam for one hour. Check every so often to see if the water needs replenishing. After 1 hour, remove the hallacas from the pot. Lay them on a sheet tray or large pan where they can drain and rest for 1 hour, still wrapped and tied, before serving that day, or even better, on Day 3. (Meaning, start making your hallacas them 2 days before, Dec. 22 to serve Dec. 24).

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• Everybody wants to eat them immediately, says Liliana, but it’s worth the wait—at least an hour and even better, overnight for serving the next day. The masa texture gets firmer and the filling settles into its depth of flavors. ”It is better to eat them after they rested for at least 1 hour, although they will be at their very best the next day, reheated, because the dough texture is completely done,” says Liliana.
• To reheat cold hallacas that have been refrigerated, fill a pot with enough water to cover the amount of hallacas you want to warm. Bring the water to a boil. Add the hallacas. Cover with the lid. Lower the heat and simmer, lid on, for 20 minutes.
•  Serve Your Hallacas! (P.S. Happy Holidays)
• When ready to serve, the cook first cuts and removes the hallacas’ string, called pabilo in Venezuela, revealing the stuffed-masa deliciousness within.

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• Serve to guests on a pretty plate with a small, decorative leaf under it or no leaf at all. ¡Buen provecho and feliz navidad!

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• Fresh hallacas will keep in your refrigerator for about 5 days. They also freeze beautifully and will keep up to 6 to 8 months. Liliana recommends always cooking hallacas before freezing