A nacatamal is a Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

n dish similar to the tamal and yet unlike the tamales typical of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and elsewhere in Latin America, the nacatamal is unique to Nicaragua both in its name and its culinary combination. The nacatamal is perhaps the largest production within the traditional Nicaraguan kitchen and it is an event often reserved for Sundays at mid-morning, it is usually eaten together with fresh bread and Nicaraguan style coffee. It is common to enjoy nacatamales (plural) during special occasions and to invite extended family and neighbors to partake.

Ingredients

A nacatamal is made up of mostly corn

Corn

Corn is the name used in the United States, Canada, and Australia for the grain maize.In much of the English-speaking world, the term "corn" is a generic term for cereal crops, such as* Barley* Oats* Wheat* Rye- Places :...

 masa (a kind of dough

Dough

Dough is a paste made out of any cereals or leguminous crops by mixing flour with a small amount of water and/or other liquid. This process is a precursor to making a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly breads and bread-based items , flatbreads, noodles, pastry, and similar items)...

 traditionally made from a process called nizquezar) and lard

Lard

Lard is pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a spread similar to butter. Its use in contemporary cuisine has diminished because of health concerns posed by its saturated-fat content and its often negative...

 but includes seasonings such as salt and achiote. This combination is traditionally cooked in a large batch over a wood fire. The result becomes the base for the nacatamal and it is also referred to as "masa". The masa gets ladled onto plantain leaves utilized for wrapping into large individual portions. These plantain leaves have undergone their own preparation process separately. Before a nacatamal can be wrapped and brought to the last stage of the cooking process, it must be given a filling. Generally this filling consists of seasoned pork meat, rice, a slice of potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

, Bell pepper

Bell pepper

Bell pepper, also known as sweet pepper or a pepper and capsicum , is a cultivar group of the species Capsicum annuum . Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, orange and green. Bell peppers are sometimes grouped with less pungent pepper varieties as...

, tomato

Tomato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...

, onion

Onion

The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...

, olive

Olive

The olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...

s, cilantro and/or spearmint springs and on occasion, though less commonly, capers, raisins or fresh chile. The masa and filling are then wrapped in the plantain

Plantain

Plantain is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa. The fruit they produce is generally used for cooking, in contrast to the soft, sweet banana...

 leaves, tied with string, and made into the pillow-shaped bundles that bare the name of nacatamales. They are then steamed or pressure cooked

Pressure cooking

Pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure. Because the boiling point of water increases as the pressure increases, the pressure built up inside the cooker allows the liquid in the pot to rise to a higher...

 for several hours. The entire process is very labor intensive and it often requires preparation over the course of two days and it may be necessary to involve the whole family to complete it.

Vegetarian option

Traditionally there are no vegetarian nacatamales, as the dish features lard in the masa, but as vegetarianism becomes more popular it is certainly possible to make a vegetarian nacatamal. The process for vegetarian nacatamales would be the same, except the meat would be left out or it could be substituted for another protein source such as tofu

Tofu

is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...

, seitan, chickpeas, or cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

. Vegetable oil can be substituted for the lard

Lard

Lard is pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a spread similar to butter. Its use in contemporary cuisine has diminished because of health concerns posed by its saturated-fat content and its often negative...

.