For Panama, I decided to make their version of a tamale, tamal de olla, which literally just means "tamale of the pot." It's basically all of the ingredients of a tamale cooked in a casserole dish instead of a corn husk or banana leaf.
It all starts with a sofrito, peppers and onions sauteed in oil. Some people put everything in a food processor so it makes more of a sauce but the recipe I used just had me chop everything up. I think I prefer the larger chunks of vegetables anyway.
Tomato puree is added and simmered into a thick sauce.
Once the sauce is thickened, chopped green olives and capers are added for a salty note.
Most of the sauce gets spooned into a baking dish.
But a few spoonfuls are left in the skillet to be mixed in with some masa. The recipe I used said to add a few cups of water in with the masa harina until it reaches mashed potato consistency. However, I like my mashed potatoes more lumpy and thick, which was probably not how it was supposed to be.
The masa mixture simmers a bit before being mixed in with the rest of the sauce in the casserole dish.
Luckily the filling fit exactly into the casserole dish I chose.
The dish then goes in the oven for about 20 minutes to bake. The masa thickens and becomes a little firm on the top, bottom, and sides, while the center remains more loose. I topped mine with some cilantro for a fresher flavor.
Overall, I think this dish is probably better when made by someone who knows exactly how it's supposed to be cooked and what the consistency is supposed to be like. I couldn't find the most in depth recipes and there were so many different methods so it was kind of difficult to figure out the best way to do it, especially since every recipe I found used chicken, which I obviously did not use, so I had to figure out how to compensate when it came to adding liquid.
I don't think the masa cooked long enough, so it was still a bit grainy still. I ended up taking the leftovers and steaming them in parchment paper packets like regular tamales, and it turned out pretty good after that!
Recipes Used: Tamal de Olla (and several others)
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