Boom Shaka-hallaca

One of the tremendous blessings of living and serving internationally is learning about the traditions and customs of your host culture and, sometimes, being invited to share in them. One of the tremendous blessings of living and serving in a city that's home to a regional seminary is learning about traditions and customs from across Latin America and, sometimes, being invited to share in them!

Yesterday, I joined Venezuelan seminary student Rafael (our jefe), his wife Jamielynn, and a whole slew of other missionaries, missionary kids, seminary families, and even a Venezuelan family from one of the Dominican Republic Lutheran Mission's church plants in an hallaca-making marathon that began around 9 am. I'd be remiss in not mentioning the skeleton crew that had even begun prepping the night before. 

The tamale-like (but don't say that to a Venezuelan) hallaca (eye-YOCK [rhymes with "lock"]-uh) is part of the traditional Venezuelan Christmas dinner, enjoyed after midnight on Christmas Eve. Making them is, as you may have guessed, a lengthy family affair, so it's with good reason that they're typically made in bulk. 

My first hallaca.

My favorite job was rolling balls of corn masa, which is then patted into a thin disk atop two plantain leaves, filled, folded, and tied. Each region and, let's be honest, family, has its own recipe; we followed Rafael's family's:

1. guiso (a thick stew of beef, pork, chicken, onions, garlic, and peas)
2. sliced onion
3. exactly 2 strips of red pepper
4. exactly 2 green olives
5. a few wine-soaked raisins
6. shredded chicken

MK Tías (orange T-shirt) and I had a good system going for awhile with me patting and him stuffing.

Back to masa ball rolling when Victor and Arelis (pictured), along with daughters Victoria and Valeria, arrived to pinch hit late in the afternoon. Valeria (5) was just baptized last Sunday!

Steam them in batches in the biggest pot you've ever seen, and voilà. They can also be frozen and steamed straight from the freezer. All in all, we made 180 + 50 bollitos (dumpling-like patties made of leftover filling ingredients blitzed in the food processor and mixed with the corn flour used to make the masa, then wrapped, tied, and steamed). YES, I got to try one after all six hours of sweat equity.

Until next time, Christmas blessings!