Today is the opening day of the feria for Santa Catarina, a festival celebrating the town, it's protector Cofradia, an association of the town fathers, and the protector saints. It is a fair complete with lots of food vendors, huge marimba band, lots of stuff being sold, kids, rides etc., etc., etc. I stole the girls and we headed over the mountain in the back of a pick-up
truck. We took a turn down by the lake to see the view and again how high the water is. We had thought there would be more happening this morning, tomorrow is the big day, but it was nice to see town preparations without the chaotic crowd factor.During the time of the feria the tradition is for local families to present one another with a vat of their own pulic and tamalitos. Pulic is a rich ca
ldo or stew and each cook has their own twist on it. Miguel's mother is famous for her recado, the base of the caldo. She specially reques
ted a photo of herself stirring the giant vat of recado that she made. As you can see already half of it is gone, they receive many visitors and exchange Pulic. We carried a huge portion home for Miguel and the family to lunch on. This soup is a many layered broth made with onion, tomato, achiote, cilantro,mashed and run through a sieve for smoothness and thickened with masa. The traditional vegetables are potato & guiskil, the meats are beef and chicken. It is served with lots of tamalitos that in this case are made from the corn grown by the family made into masa and steamed in wrappers of green corn leaves that are from their field.
I need to revise the recipe a bit to make it make sense and so I will post it another day.
Not tomorrow as I will be cooking for a gringo thanksgiving in Guatemala! I couldn't resist this photo of the boats lined up at the edge of the lake, a classic tourist shot.
2 comments:
Hi, El. Your description of the pulic reminds me of cholent, a jewish dish, also a ritual stew that is meant to be shared and exhibits the individual makers skills. Do men make this stew as well, or do they contribute to the process in another way?
The men are responsible for the corn,they shell the corn with the help of the children. They do all the field work and the day of pulic preparation they go to the fields for the green leaves used to wrap the tamalitos. The woman of the family starts preparation the day before by slaughtering and preparing the chicken, a "gallo" (rooster) is the preferred bird!
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