Typical Costa Rican Tamales for Christmas

Ingredients:

2 ½ kg of banana leaves
1 kg of corn flour
½ kg pork post Tamales Típicos de Costa Rica para Navidad
½ kg of green beans, cooked
4 cups mashed potatoes
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup lard
1 cup rice, cooked to taste with achiote
6 chicken broth envelopes
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 sweet peppers, cut into strips
1 cilantro roll
1 chicken breast
1 celery stalk
1 thyme sprig
1 hot pepper
1 carrot, cooked and sliced
1 can petit pois
1 wick roll
Salt and ground cumin to taste

Preparing:

Cook pork with garlic, thyme, celery, hot peppers and salt.
Remove meat from broth and crumbled.
Reserve the broth and strain.

Cook chicken in a little oil with achiote, hot peppers, cilantro and broth.

Separately, mix well in a pot corn flour with the mashed potatoes, oil, lard, chicken broth, salt, a little chicken and meat broth and any other condiment of your choice.

Trim the leaves and wash them well.

Place a big tablespoon of dough on two banana leaves.
Add a spoonful of rice, a piece of meat, a piece of chicken, 2 carrots slices, 1 strip of pepper, 2 green beans, petit pois, a sprig of cilantro and any other ingredients you want.

Wrap each tamale well, leaving no or too tight or too loose.
Join 2 tamales and wrap them well.
Cook in boiling water for 45 minutes.

* Reserve a bit of pork and chicken broth to the end, if the mass that gives very dry.
* The dough should be well mixed and wet, if it becomes too dry the tamal can be hard.

Pilaf Rice

Ingredients:

1 l beef broth
1 1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 chopped onion
1/2 butter stick
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground cumin
Salt and pepper

Preparing:

Fry onion in the butter.
Add rice, nutmeg, cumin, sugar, salt and pepper.
Pour the beef broth, cover and cook until the liquid is consumed entirely.

Stuffed Sardines for Easter

Ingredients:

12 fresh sardines, cleaned and scaled
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground cumin
Salt and pepper

Preparing:

Mix the garlic and parsley together.
Spoon the herb mixture into the fish cavities and all over.
Sprinkle with lemon juice, cover with plastic wrap and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the grill.

Mix the flour, ground cumin, salt and pepper.
Roll the sardines in the flor to coat.
Brush them with olive oil and cook for 4 minutes on each side.