Hallacas from the Sanchezes
Who makes the best hallacas? Your mother, your aunt, your abuela… and probably Jessica, Jennifer and Barbara Sanchez, who for the past nine years have been making this Venezuelan dish for friends, family and expats longing for a taste of home.
This holiday season, sisters Jessica and Jennifer and cousin Barbara expect to make more than 1,600 banana-leaf-wrapped packets, working every weekend into December. It’s an all-day affair, accompanied by cheerful chat on the assembly line, done in multiple stages. First, they make guiso, or stew, using pork, beef and chicken simmered for three hours with sofrito, onion, raisins and olives. Then, they mix up a large batch of corn meal dough, flavored with rich broth and colored with annatto. The adornos – in this case, sliced onion, red pepper, olives, raisins and chicken – are set out, along with stacks of square banana leaves, smoked to make them pliable for folding, and lengths of string.
To assemble the hallacas, Jessica first rubs a banana leaf with annatto-colored oil, then rolls out a circle of masa. Barbara tops the thin disk with the guiso and adornos, and folds up the banana leaf to completely encase the filling in the dough. Jennifer efficiently wraps each packet in two more pieces of banana leaf, and ties it up. The hallacas go into a vat of boiling water for an hour. They’re then ready to sell fresh or freeze. To eat, diners unwrap the grassy banana leaf to reveal the delicate corn dough and savory filling, studded with tart green olives and sweet raisins. The dish is traditionally served with ensalada de gallina, chicken salad made with chicken, peas, carrots, potato and crunchy apple; and pan de jamón, a slightly sweet dough filled with ham, olives and raisins. The Sanchezes make other hallaca flavors, including a vegan version using vegetable broth, mushrooms and garbanzos.
Order hallacas, pan de jamón and ensalada de gallina from Jessica Sanchez at 786-339-5345.
