I made more tamales but I made 3 big changes:
1. I used parchment paper since I only have one banana leaf in which to boil tamales..
The onion salsa criolla is on the right and the tamale is on the bottom of the photo, wrapped in parchment paper to the best of my abilities (aka not well) and closed with rubber bands – not the most beautiful presentation, but it worked! It’s not as though we have a whole lot of banana leaves growing around these parts. But, then again, neither is parchment paper…well, I guess it sort of is – trees and all…
2. I used un-smoked fish (canned quality sardines instead of smoked haddock) You can also skip the fish altogether for a vegetarian version.
3. I made the traditional onion salsa this is actually supposed to be served with instead of a random hot sauce.
I’m usually scared of pickled onions because the taste of sort of raw onions sticks with me for the rest of the day and I hate myself, and specifically my breath, during that period of time. But this onion salsa was simple and delicious, and if you love almost raw onions (almost raw = pickled, since the onions aren’t heated but they are “denatured” according to “raw” foodists), you’ll be in heaven.
Onion Salsa Criollo
Ingredients:
- 2 onions, sliced as fine as possible
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 dried or fresh ají amarillo (yellow chili pepper), soaked in hot water 30 minutes if dried, seeded and finely diced (use gloves! Use a red hot, long chili pepper if you can’t find a yellow one – thanks Lufa Farms!!)
- Juice of 2 limes
- Salt
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 3 sprigs of cilantro or parsley, finely chopped
My way: Slice the onions and then toss them into a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove them to a colander and rinse under cold water. This blanching gets rid of a lot of the sharpness of the onion flavour and longevity of your onion breath. You can skip this step if you like crunchy, overly onion breath and have no date that night.
Season the sliced onion with a little salt for 5 minutes in the colander, then rinse in cold water and drain. Place the onion in a bowl and season again with salt, the lime juice and vinegar. Add the ají amarillo, olive oil and cilantro or parsley. Mix well.
Makes 1 ½ cups
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