Friday, August 12, 2005

chuchitos


vegan adaptation of Guatemalan tamales, stuffed with potatoes and sesame salsa

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

omg how did you make these?

im guatemalan and isuffer because i cant eat my chuchitos :P wheres the recipe?

josh said...

I made these in a language school in Xela, with instruction from my Spanish teacher. Here's what I have written down of the recipe.

Ingredients:
2 pounds maiz (salpor - white grain)
1 pound potatoes, chayote, and/or carrot
1/2 pound tomatoes
2 ounces sesame seeds
2 ounces pumpkin seeds
1 pasa chili
1 guaque chili
(I'm not sure how available these chilis are outside of Guatemala, but I think ancho chilis are fairly similar)
3 pimientas de castilla (or black peppercorns)
1 bar of margarine
1 small bottle of oil
salt
corn husks

Preparation:
1) Toast the pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and chilis.
2) Roast the tomatoes.
3) Prepare the dough by mixing the maiz, margarine, and salt to taste.
4) Blend the pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and chilis in a food processor until smooth.
5) Take a small handful of dough, and stuff it with the vegetables and a bit of the blended sauce.
6) Wrap each chuchito in corn husks.
7) Steam for 15 minutes in large pot with blanked of corn husks on bottom, with the chuchitos in a circle with a column of air in the middle.

Sorry, this recipe isn't the most professional - it's just courtesy of a language teacher. I'm not sure where the oil came in, but I think some of it is added to the spice blend to help it liquify.
If you make these and they turn out let me know - they were really good when I made them.

Anonymous said...

omg thank you soo much.. i just told my mom about them and she's going to help me out tommorow :D :D :D

i'll tell you how they ened up coming out ..
thank you again !!

Anonymous said...

p.s my moms from a small town in xela.. (salcaja)

where in xela did u travel to?

josh said...

I was in the city for a month, at a language school. Great place. Traveled around to some of the surrounding towns, but I don't think salcaja.

oh, and I think the roasted tomato was blended into the spice mixture too - the recipe forgot about that. You might want to look online for other recipes too, just to double check and compare notes - I wouldn't be surprised if my language teacher left off something important.