Tamales de Yuca Afromestizos

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting
• •Box grater or food processor for the yuca
• •High-powered blender
• •Tall steamer or stockpot with a rack (tamalera)
• •Heavy cazuela or skillet for frying the salsa

Instructions

1. 1

   Ready the banana leaves

   Cut the banana leaves into rectangles about 10 by 12 inches, plus a handful of thinner strips for tying. Pass each piece over an open flame or a hot comal for a few seconds a side. The leaf turns from stiff and matte to glossy and deep green, and it smells green and faintly sweet. That heat makes the leaf pliable so it folds without cracking, and it wakes up the aroma that goes into the masa. Wipe each piece with a damp cloth and stack them. Save the torn scraps to line the steamer.

   Banana leaf, not corn husk. The steam off this leaf is the recipe. A corn husk gives you a fine tamal from somewhere else, not this one.
2. 2

   Peel and grate the yuca

   Yuca has a thick bark you cannot eat. Cut each root into 3-inch lengths, stand a piece on its end, and run your knife down between the woody bark and the white flesh, peeling away both the brown skin and the pink layer beneath. Cut out any tough fiber down the center. Grate the white flesh on the fine side of a box grater or pulse it in a food processor until it looks like wet, coarse snow. This is your masa. There is no corn in this tamal and there never was.

   Yuca is never eaten raw. It has to cook all the way through, which is exactly what the long steam does. Grate it just before you build the tamales so it does not brown.
3. 3

   Settle and mix the masa

   Let the grated yuca sit for ten minutes. A thin, cloudy liquid rises to the top. Pour off and discard that watery liquid, but stop when you reach the dense white starch settled at the bottom. That starch is what holds the tamal together, so keep it. Work the softened manteca de cerdo and the salt into the yuca with your hands until the fat disappears and the mass feels rich and holds its shape when you press it. La manteca es el sabor. Taste it. It should read seasoned, a little sweet from the root, and clean.

4. 4

   Toast and soak the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the costeño, guajillo, and pasilla oaxaqueño separately, pressing them flat a few seconds a side until they soften, blister, and give up their smell. The pasilla oaxaqueño is already a smoked chile and it will perfume the whole kitchen. Do not let any of them blacken. Burned chile is bitter and there is no fixing it later. Move them to a bowl, cover with hot water, not boiling, and soak twenty minutes.

   Chile costeño is the chile of this coast and it carries real heat. Want it milder, pull the seeds and use six instead of eight. Cannot find it, more guajillo plus a couple of chile de árbol gets you close, but it is a compromise, not a match.
5. 5

   Toast the peanut and sesame

   On the same comal, toast the peanuts with their skins on, shaking the pan, until they smell roasted and the skins darken, about five minutes. Tip them out. Toast the sesame next, stirring constantly, until it turns gold and starts to hop in the pan. Watch it. Sesame goes from gold to burnt in seconds. This peanut and sesame is what thickens the salsa. Encacahuatado is ground peanut, not peanut butter. No me vengas con atajos.

6. 6

   Blend the salsa costeña

   Char the unpeeled garlic and the onion on the comal until soft and spotted black in places, then peel the garlic. Drain the chiles, keeping the soaking water. Put the chiles, garlic, onion, toasted peanuts, and two tablespoons of the sesame in a blender with one cup of the chile soaking water. Blend to a thick, brick-red paste. If the blender labors, add soaking water a splash at a time. You want a paste, not a soup.

7. 7

   Fry the salsa

   Melt two tablespoons of manteca de cerdo in a cazuela or heavy skillet over medium heat. When it shimmers, pour in the chile-peanut paste. It will sputter, so stand back. Fry it, stirring almost constantly, for eight to ten minutes, until it darkens, pulls away from the bottom of the pan in a mass, and the fat shines at the edges. That frying turns raw chile into salsa. Season with salt and let it cool. It should hold its shape on a spoon.

8. 8

   Fry the plátano macho

   The plantain has to be black-ripe, soft, almost too far gone. Green plantain is wrong here. Fry the slices in a little manteca over medium heat until the edges caramelize to deep gold and the centers go soft and sweet. Set them on a plate. Sweet plantain against smoky chile is the whole argument of this coast, and you want both in the same bite.

9. 9

   Build the tamales

   Lay a banana leaf piece shiny side up, grain running left to right so it folds clean. Spread about a quarter cup of yuca masa in the center into a rectangle the size of your palm. Lay a hoja santa leaf on top. Spoon on a tablespoon of the chile-peanut salsa and press in a slice or two of plantain. Fold the two long sides of the leaf over so the masa closes around the filling, then fold the top and bottom under into a sealed packet. Tie each one with a strip of leaf or string. The masa is loose, so the leaf holds the shape. The banana leaf is not a wrapper. It is the recipe.

   Wrap one test tamal and steam it forty minutes before you build the rest. Holds together and the masa sets, your fold is right. Leaks, fold tighter. That is how you save a whole batch.
10. 10

    Steam the tamales

    Line the bottom of a steamer or tall pot fitted with a rack with the leftover banana leaf scraps. Stand the tamales upright or lay them in snug layers, seam side down. Pour boiling water below the rack and cover the tamales with more leaves and a lid. Steam over medium heat for one hour to one hour and fifteen minutes, checking the water and adding more boiling water so it never runs dry. They are done when a tamal unwraps clean from the leaf and the masa has turned from chalky white to set, translucent, and firm. Yuca needs that full hour to cook through. Underdone, it is starchy and raw. Give it the time.

11. 11

    Rest and serve

    Pull the pot off the heat and let the tamales rest, still wrapped, for fifteen minutes. They firm up as they cool. This is not optional. A tamal opened straight from the steam falls apart and tastes unfinished. Serve them in the leaf, on enamelware or brown clay, and let each person open their own. La tercera raíz no es nota al pie. Es plato principal. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy yuca with no soft spots and no gray streaks in the flesh. If they let you, cut one open at the market. The flesh should be bright white and firm. Gray or dark-veined yuca has turned, and turned yuca is bitter and not worth cooking. For the chiles, chile costeño and pasilla oaxaqueño both come from Oaxaca, so a serious chile vendor or a Oaxacan grocer will have them. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •This tamal carries no meat. The body is yuca and the flavor is chile, peanut, and hoja santa, so the only thing standing between it and a vegan table is the lard. The Costa Chica answer is not vegetable shortening. It is coco. The coast cooks in coconut, and coconut oil in place of the manteca gives you a real version, not a sad one. That is the one swap I will hand you without an argument.
• •Tamales were built to be made ahead. The masa and the salsa can both be made a day before. Assembled, uncooked tamales freeze well for a month, and you steam them straight from frozen, adding fifteen minutes. Steamed leftovers reheat in the steamer or on a dry comal, still in the leaf, until hot through. This is holiday food and party food because it is meant to be made in quantity, by more than one pair of hands.
• •The Costa Chica also makes tamales de yuca dulces, sweet ones, with piloncillo, raisins, and grated coco instead of the chile and plantain. Same masa, same leaf, different soul. Feeding a crowd, make a batch of each. That is how they do it on the coast for a fiesta. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Advance Preparation

• •The yuca masa can be mixed one day ahead and refrigerated, covered tight against the surface so it does not brown. Bring it back to room temperature before you wrap.
• •The chile-peanut salsa keeps three days refrigerated and the flavor only deepens. Make it ahead and assembly day goes faster.
• •Assembled, uncooked tamales freeze for up to a month. Steam from frozen, adding fifteen minutes to the time. Do not thaw first, they get waterlogged.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 340g)