Hallaca recipe

A Christmas parcel of annatto-orange precooked corn masa around a guiso cooked the day before, dressed with olives, capers and raisins and tied shut in plantain leaves.

16 hourshard12 ingredients

Ingredients

• 1000 g precooked corn flour
• 2 tbsp annatto seeds
• 300 g beef
• 300 g pork
• 300 g chicken
• 2 onions
• 2 red bell pepper
• 100 g green olives
• 50 g capers
• 50 g raisins
• 10 plantain leaves
• 1 kitchen string

How to make Hallaca

1. The day before, simmer 300 g of beef, 300 g of pork and 300 g of chicken with 2 chopped onions, 2 chopped bell peppers and 500 ml of stock for 1 hour until the guiso is thick and nearly dry, then chill it overnight; a warm or runny guiso soaks the masa and ruins the hallaca.
2. Warm 250 ml of oil with 2 tbsp of annatto seeds until it turns deep orange, then strain out the seeds; this onoto oil colours everything that follows.
3. Knead 1 kg of precooked corn flour with 1.2 L of warm stock and 150 ml of onoto oil into a soft, bright orange dough and rest it 20 minutes.
4. Pass the plantain leaves briefly over a flame until they turn supple and glossy, wipe them and cut 30 cm rectangles.
5. Brush a leaf with onoto oil and flatten 100 g of masa on it into a 20 cm disc, then spoon 3 tbsp of cold guiso into the middle.
6. Lay the adornos on top one by one: 2 olives, a few capers, 5 raisins, a strip of red pepper.
7. Fold the leaf into a flat parcel, wrap it crosswise in a second leaf and tie it tight with kitchen string in a cross; untied hallacas burst open in the pot.
8. Boil them submerged in salted water for 45 to 60 minutes, then drain them standing on edge and let them cool before opening.

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