It has been some time since are last update, however we finally have food from our next country, Nicaragua. For that country, we made two items; fried plantains and nacatamales.  The fried plantains were delicious, and simple to make. We have had them before, on occasion, just as a snack or appetizer, which is what we used them for here. There are numerous ways of doing it, however we just cut them into circles and fried them with salt in a pan full of olive oil until they are golden yellow and just starting to brown. Simple and delicious.

The nacatamales were our entree for the course. They are basically large tamales, except they are wrapped with banana leaves instead of corn husks. This gives it a very distinctive flavor that is pretty good. There were two main issues with the nacatamales. First off, it took us hours to make them. The process is long and time consuming. The other issue is that wrapping them in the banana leaves was not an easy thing to do. Many of our tamales fell apart during the boiling process, or had water seep into the mixture, making them runny. We also recommend taking the tamales out and letting them dry for a few hours; the ones we had the next day for leftovers were for the most part were drier and stayed together better. They do taste really good though, but there was just too much work involved in making them.

Plantains are very easy to make, and very delicious.  If you have not had fried plantains, I highly suggest running out to your nearest store and buying them this minute.  Don’t even finish reading this sentence.  Go.  Now.

A lot of recipes say to use garlic, but we both prefer them to just be fried in oil and salted.  One of the few things we don’t like putting spices on.

First, cut the plantains up into circles.  They should not be too thick, or too thin.  The thinner they are, the more crisp they will be obviously.  The size we are cutting plantain into in the picture is honestly a bit to small.  Move the knife over a bit for the perfect size.

Pour vegetable or canola oil into a pan, just enough to cover it.  Heat up the oil, and plop your plantains into the hot oil.  They only need to be cooked for a half  a minute or less on each side.  You will know when they are done when they look like this:

Bright yellow.  They can be a little bit brown as well too.  Once they are bright yellow on the other side, flip them over again for a little bit to finish cooking, then put them onto a paper towel covered plate to dry off.  Sprinkle a tiny bit of salt over them and let them cool down (only takes a minute).  Then pop them into your mouth.  Delicious.

This should be the finished product.  The smaller ones as you can see look quite burnt, but don’t be fooled!  They are still very good and have a different texture than the rest of their larger brethren, so it is a nice mix to have both small and large cuts of plantains.

Now for the main course, the nacatamales. Keep in mind, this will take you some time to do, especially if you make the full recipe. I would highly recommend only making a few if you are using them for your main course.

First, the easy part. Mix in the cornmeal with some water, and stir until it forms a paste. Mix in the butter and salt, and then remove from the heat. Stir in the eggs, and set aside.

Next, for the meat. Mix beef, pork, and chicken with some garlic, chick peas, and garlic. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the meat is cooked all of the way through. Drain well.

Now, in a large skillet (preferably with a cover, but you can always use a round baking tray as well) throw in tomatoes, green bell pepper, onion, cayenne, parsley, salt, vinegar, sugar, and the meat you just cooked. Put on low heat, cover, and cook for 15 minutes (stir once or twice). Then you can add the rest of the stuff.

Delicious bacon, what don’t you go good with? Crush up bacon and throw it in the skillet. Also add corn and peas. Optionally, you can also add capers, raisins, olives, and/or pimentos. We did without those things, though and it still turned out delicious.

These, as the picture would suggest, are banana leaves. You can find them in your local Asian store, usually in the frozen section. They normally come in one big sheet or multiple large sheets, so you will need to cut them with scissors. You will want to cut them into 6×6 inch squares. If you do not have any twine, you will need to cut long thin strips to use as string.

Blanch the leaves you just cut.

Spread a bit of your cornmeal onto a leaf. You do not need a lot, just a very thin layer.

Add some of your meat to the banana leaf. Put a little bit on one side, then roll the dough around the meat, making it as airtight as possible. Again, do not put a lot. The leaves will easily rip if you have too much. The goal here is to get enough to add substance to the nacatamale, but you are going to be wrapping the banana leaf around the meat and it needs to be as airtight as possible.

Fold the banana leaf in half, then fold the sides in. Tie the leaf together securely with twine or your banana leaf string. You should have a little bundle of meat and vegetables in a little green package.

Once you have ALL of your tamales done, boil a pot of salted water, and put them in. Boil them for about an hour. Then take them out, rinse them off, and let them cool for a bit.

If you didn’t get everything quite airtight, you will end up with something like the above. It is messy looking, and will be somewhat watery, but that is okay! By this point you are probably dying of starvation and would eat your neighbor’s cat if it happened to slink in your vicinity. It will still taste very good (the nacatamale, not the cat).

This is what it is supposed to look like. Ones that are cooked air tight will come out like this. Also, ones you do not eat and refrigerate will solidify somewhat overnight, making this one meal where the leftovers might actually be better than the original course (depending on your general tamale making skills).

If you are like us, you will likely have too much nacatamale mixture. Since it is just basically meat and vegetables, it goes well with a lot of other things. We made quesadillas and pot pie with the remaining mixture (yes, we had enough for two giant meals and a regular sized meal) and it went very well with both.

Overall, the food was very good. The problem was that it took us so long to make, we were starving by the end of it. It was also very difficult to make and tie the individual tamales, and a lot of ours ended up being a little watery or falling apart in the pot.

Here is the recipe for the nacatamale (the plantains are fairly simple and don’t really need a recipe):

http://www.1worldrecipes.com/recipe.asp?r=1010

Our next country will be Russia, which should be very tasty indeed.

-Cory