Hallacas - Santander Tamales from aunt Belén

We don't know where the hallacas really come from, but I can remember my aunt "Tia Belén" doing them in Bogotá when I was about 7 years old...loooong time ago! My aunt and their family arrived from Spain in Caracas, Venezuela before going to Colombia. And yes they have a lot of my personal twist and other additions. They differ from tamales in that hallacas have capers, raisins and olives and tamales do not. The addition from Tia Belén to her hallacas are prunes. These are sumptuous, try them!
Oh... and if you are going to dive into this endeavour prepare yourself to invest a day and a half and best to do a lot (85 to 95!) at once.....and enjoy! This recipe can also be divided by half.

Ingredients

For the masa

2 cups hot pork lard, not salted, from bacon is ok but decrease all salt additions throughout the recipe
1/2 cup achiote seeds or 1 tbs achiote powder or paste
2.2 kilograms corn masa flour like Maseca
20 cups chicken and beef stock; 10 of each
1 tablespoon salt
1 pound toasted pork cracklings
2 bottles green pepper tabasco, 5 oz each

For the meats

8 pounds chicken tighs cut into bite size pieces
8 pounds pork shoulder cut into bite size pieces
1 pound green onions cut in small pieces
3 pounds tomatoes, canned or fresh, cut in very small pieces
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

For assembling the hallacas

6 bags frozen banana leaves, one pound each
8 carrots peeled and sliced in 1/2 inch wide each, sprinkled with lime and a little sugar, set in a bowl
90 medium pitted olives in a bowl
45 pitted prunes cut in half in a bowl
360 small capers (4 for each hallaca) about 300 grams in a bowl
360 raisins (4 for each, hydrated in water the day before) in a bowl
kitchen twine, with 85 to 90 pre-cut 12-inch strips or strands of banana leaves as shown:

Instructions

For the masa

In bowl blend the hot liquid pork lard with the achiote seeds for an about an hour until they release all their red color into the hot lard, strain and discard de seeds. If using achiote powder or paste blend it to the hot pork lard oil mix and set aside.
In the blender blend 2 cups of stock with the pork cracklings, the salt, the green Tabasco and the warm red tinted pork lard oil. Blend until the pork cracklings have disappeared and everything is liquid, about 5 minutes or more.
Mix this red tinted lard and pork mixture with the remaining stocks.
Place the corn masa powder into a very large bowl, about 9 liters capacity.
Slowly add the tinted/stock/pork mixture into the corn powder mixing it all the time with a very large wooden spoon. Taste in case a little more salt is needed.
The consistency of the dough should be not liquid not dry but spreadable. If more liquid is needed add stock or water.
Cover the masa bowl with plastic film and refrigerate the day before you assemble the hallacas.

For the meats

Place each meat; pork and chicken in a separate bowl
Heat a big pan to medium high, add the olive oil, the onions and the garlic, stir until they release their fragrance and then add the tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes are a little soft. Let this mixture cool. Liquefy it in your blender until totally liquid. Add half the tomato-onion mixture to the pork and half to the chicken, stir each bowl very well, cover and refrigerate the day before you assemble the hallacas.

Assembling the hallacas

Having all the ingredients ready in bowls in front of you will make the assembly of the hallacas much easier.

Cut each banana leave in 8x8 inch pieces, you will notice that there will be left over pieces and they will be of great use when covering a hole in a leave, or for making the bed in the cooking process. Some banana leaves will not be as wide as 8 inches, it is ok if they are 7 inches wide; the hallaca will be a little smaller. Also, the banana leaves have a very thick core which should be removed.

Make an assembly line having all the ingredients in front of you. From left to right have first the stack of pre-cut banana leaves, then the corn masa bowl (keeping it covered with a wet clean towel between batches), then the two meat bowls, then the carrot bowl, the olive bowl, capers bowl, prune bowl, raisins bowl and lastly the twines.
Place as many pre-cut banana leaves side by side in the counter in front of the ingresient bowls.
Assemble 6 to 8 hallacas or more per batch if possible.

Spread over each pre-cut banana leave half cup of the prepared corn masa, spreading it to a 4.5 inch circle.
Then place on the center of each of the spread corn masa square:
2 pieces each of chicken meat and pork meat
1 slice of carrot
1 olive
4 capers
1/2 prune
4 raisins
Using the pre-cut banana leaves'sides cover the filling with your fingers until all the filling is covered and you are left with a raw masa hallaca all around. Finish "packing" the hallaca with the banana leaves until the hallaca is totally wrapped.
Secure the now the raw hallaca with the pre-cut twine, or bananaleave "twine" being careful to go across the lines of the leave or not breaking them.

Cooking the Hallacas

Have a very big pot filled with the remainings of the leaves making a bed for cooking the hallacas and then cover the leaves with hot water. Another option is to get the tamales-cooking pots. The hallacas are all placed at the same time when ready to be cooked, let them simmer covered for about 2 hours