- [Edna] Tamales mean warmth.
- [Erwin] We were together as a family.
- [Iván] This delicious treat, that we all made it together.
- [Julissa] I think of family.
- Hi, I'm Edna and today I'm making tamales from Mexico.
When you are making tamales, you want to
soak the corn husks until they're pliable.
My mom just fills up the sink and throws them in overnight
or throws them in in the morning before work.
Comes home, they're ready to go.
Before I went to culinary school, I was like,
"Oh I know Mexican food. Mexican food is this,
and this type of ceviche and these type of tamales."
But then, I saw the variety, like so many other families
make tamales so many different ways, and just Mexico alone,
I couldn't imagine learning every single different culture
and the type of tamales they have.
Tamales mean warmth, I mean we use them for every
big occasion, holidays, birthdays.
Every once in awhile, my mom just randomly feels like
making tamales and those are the best days.
So the meat, you want to cook until it's pretty brown
and the fat is all dried up, for the most part.
You want the sauce to do the re-hydrating and softening.
You want it to be fork-tender.
Growing up, my mom used to save me a couple of the dry bits
of pork before adding the sauce, but this was obviously
after I had snuck a couple of them myself.
I think what makes Mexico really, really beautiful is that
each state has such a variety.
Honestly, the fillings are endless.
You can go from savory to sweet.
It's really up to you and the family or country.
You want to prepare the masa itself by adding the lard,
baking soda, baking powder, and a little bit of water.
Mix it all by hand, because that's the best way to do it.
It's all about the feel with the masa.
Masa is smooth, but firm and soft.
As a chef, I think it's very important to keep traditions
alive and I love sharing my family's recipes
because it keeps them going on forever.
I think what makes my family's tamales is really my mom.
I feel like making tamales makes me just
that much closer her.
She is such a strong figure in my family.
A strong and powerful, and the cook, the everything, really.
I hope to be like my mom one day.
I had her send me recipes and she made little clips of her
making it, little tutorials for me from far.
So, I hope to make her proud of these.
(lively music)
- Hey there. I'm Iván, and today I'm making the
Puerto Rican pastel de yuca.
Pasteles de yuca are little pockets of yuca dough
filled with pork, wrapped in banana leaves.
So what makes Puerto Rican pasteles de yuca so special
is that we cook the pork with so much flavor and seasoning.
And also the way we use yuca as our dough, just flavor
and seasoning, that's kind of like the key
of a delicious Puerto Rican meal.
The very first time I had a pastel de yuca was when
my grandma made it for the family at a Christmas Eve dinner.
It was the most delicious thing I've ever had.
But definitely this recipe is made by my mom, but I feel
like my dad usually always tries to take over
and then he's the one that says "Oh, look what I made."
But yeah, I feel like it's a combination of both working
together in the kitchen and I feel like that's so lovely,
because it makes it even more special.
One of the best memories that I have making pasteles de yuca
with my parents are getting messy when I was a child.
I really didn't know how to cook, so I would try to help,
but instead I would just start playing with the dough,
and that was pretty much my help.
So now it's finally time to assemble our delicious
pasteles de yuca, but first we have to heat up
the banana leaves so that they're pliable.
So some families add raisins and capors to their
pasteles de yuca and some even add garbanzo beans,
which I've never had a pastel with garbanzo beans,
but I guess that's a thing.
My family never adds any of those things.
We like to just let the meat speak for itself.
So whenever I bite into a pastel de yuca, the flavor
immediately hits and it's just like a tangy, salty,
but also a little bit sweet from the yuca flavor,
and it's just so delicious.
And then you bite even more into the meat and then it's like
a burst of flavor with the seasoning and all the spices
and it's just -- so I would add ketchup to my pasteles
and my dad, especially, would get so mad because he
would say, "I spend so much time giving this pastel flavor
and then your gonna spread ketchup all over it.
That's so disrespectful," and I would just laugh,
because I was like, "Well I like it with ketchup,
so I'm gonna eat it with ketchup.
I love pasteles de yuca so much I feel like it's that
tiny piece of home that I get to keep, even if I live
miles and miles away from home, so it definitely brings
all my family together and I feel like that's something
very important for Puerto Ricans, in general.
Oh my God. My mom will be so proud.
- Hey. I'm Erwin, and today I'm gonna show you how to make
Guatemalan paches.
Paches are Guatemalan tamales, these are made with tomatoes.
Wait, not tomatoes. Potatoes.
(laughs)
The paches are the best tamales in Latin America.
What I remember, I was around six years old the first time
when I try paches and they were really good.
You never can forget this taste, because when you're eating
a pache, the taste is like the most beautiful thing
in the world and it's so delicious.
So the paches are really important for me
because remember me when I was little.
All the family was together and we always ate paches
on Saturdays, which is something like masa
with family doughs in Gatamala.
It's really special.
It's something cultural that we always do.
So I live in Los Angeles.
My wife and my kids live so far away from here,
they live in Guatemala.
And I'm real excited because I'm gonna see then soon.
And I know the are excited, as well.
We make a lot of tamales.
We make like more than 100 tamales.
We are giving to the neighbors, so it's really special,
because when you're taking tamales to your neighbors
they now so much spirit into your family.
One thing I love about my mom is when she's cooking
you know it's always delicious, and she doesn't take
the compliment when you say, "Oh it's really delicious."
And she's always, "Oh, I forgot to put something on it."
She never takes the compliment of the delicious food
that she makes.
All the time I'm always asking my mom to make me some paches
and she's always like, "Oh yeah, I can do it for you,
but you guys need to help me because it's a lot to do."
And I'm always like, "Of course, Mom. I'll help you."
And it's really funny when we're really packing all
the paches, because I don't have practice
when I'm making the paches.
One, it's too big and the other one is too small,
and she's always like, "Do the right size, do the right
size," and she's always made at me because of that.
When she's packing them she's always like, "Oh, I forgot
if I put meat in that one. I don't remember."
So she'll start all over again and it's funny
because it happens, when you're doing paches you're like,
"Oh I don't know if I forgot the meat,"
which is really important in the paches.
It was really fun making all the tamales together
because it was always something for somebody to do.
That way you can make the tamales faster, that way you can
not get too tired doing it by yourself.
Now because we were working all together making the tamales
that's why it's a really special moment for me to remember.
Mmmm.
Mm-hmm.
- Hi. I'm Julissa, and today I'm making
Dominican pastel en hojas.
I feel like when I bite into a pastel and I get that
first bite, it's like a hint of savory, but then you get
that little, little sweetness in the back of your pallette.
Dominican food is so flavorful.
We don't like spicy, contrary to the belief of everyone
thinking, "Latinos enjoy spicy food."
We don't. Our spices come from just flavor.
You know, all around Latin America everybody has a lot of
the same dishes, but everyone also puts their own twist
on it, and for us we use platanos, which is like
life in Dominican Republic, that's all we eat.
So we just wrap this plantain up in some delicious
ground beef and that's it.
It's your snack, it's your dinner, it's your side.
It's whatever you want to have.
Whenever it's made, you know it's because of the holidays
and you know that it just brings warmth and happiness to
the family and to me.
That's usually what I think of.
You know, I never get tired of saying why I'm proud
of being Domican.
As many times as people ask me, I love talking about it.
Just our culture of being such happy and proud people,
and being proud Latinos and embracing every part
of that journey.
The laughter that we always bring, the humor.
What's really interesting is I didn't like
pastel en hojas when I was younger.
(laughs)
I was like, "Ew, that's gross," without trying it.
And as I got older, I remember it was one Christmas
at my Tia Petra's house, and I loved it.
We put ketchup on it after.
For me, ketchup on it was like the cherry on top.
Now I can't go a Christmas without having it, which is
so funny because I did a complete 360.
Mmm.
Mm-mm-mm!
This is good.
- [Edna] They just always remind me of my mom.
- [Erwin] They're delicious. You really have to try them.
- [Iván] It was the most delicious thing I've ever had.
- [Julissa] This is gonna ake me extremely happy.
[Man] Oh yes.
(lively music)