Cooking Diva

The Corn-Quest Tales, & a Delicious Recipe to Prepare "Tropical Golden Gingerbread"

Never a "tamal" (tamale) tasted so good! After getting over a few episodes of "corn-attacks", the question was: "what to do with 1,300 freshly cut ears of corn?". How about making tamales?, the traditional Panamanian delicacy which secret recipes and techniques have been carried by families generation after generation. If you haven't read my previous post, I invite you to take a look so you can see the motivation behind this project. It was not as simple as you might think.

On the 24th we cleaned all the corn ears and removed them from the husk. When it comes to knives and working with my hands I am really fast, BUT, let me tell you about this kuna lady that helps me in the house..., oh well she is something else. She is a 4 feet tall lady with tiny hands that offered to help me when she saw the pile of corn that was waiting for me. For every ear of corn I had cleaned, she did 3 or 4. I was in total shock. She mentioned later that when she lived in her island in San Blas, they used to eat corn every day and she knows how to do this process in just a few seconds. Amazing.

Since it was Christmas eve I let all the help go early, then around 9 PM I began grinding the corn kernels. Wow! It was and endless work. I finished the last batch at 3 AM the next day. Of course I was taking breaks once in a while to check if the blog was still there, but it was a lot of work.

Around 9 AM I packed everything in my car and went to "La Chorrera", a city 30 minutes from Panama City where my mom lives. There,...all my ants, a few cousins, and my brother JM were waiting for me to start preparing the tamales. We finished cooking at 4 PM, and after giving each family an equal quantity of tamales I came back to the city. I had plans to attend a Christmas Party at the house of "La Reina" (The Queen), a very good friend famous for hosting the best parties in Panama City. 

Believe me I tried, I wanted to go!!! Once at home, I took a shower thinking about what to wear for the party...., and suddenly I woke up 3 hours later. Very sad! I was exhausted. I HOPE to have the chance to tell you a different story about New Years Eve. Because last year's was....take a look here to learn what happened.

Next time I'll post the recipe to prepare the tamales with step by step, really colorful photos. You will love them.

Now, you will learn how to prepare: "Tropical Golden Gingerbread", a beautiful, different, and sure to be one that you will remember for a long, long time!