It’s the Christmas season. The smell of plumcakes and hot chocolate is ruling the streets. Along with baking sugary delicacies, Christmas also paves the way for roasting turkey and cooking ham. Adding flavours to the season, Padma Lakshmi relished cassava tamales in a BTS Instagram Reels from the first season of her culinary show. In the video, Lakshmi tutored food enthusiasts on how to make the perfect cassavas. All she wanted from us was to “Trust the process”. “Scenes from recipe testing these cassava tamales from season one of Taste the Nation. Drop a (food emoji) if you’re making tamales this weekend!” read her caption.
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What Is Cassava Tamale? How To Make Cassava Tamale?
Before delving into the recipe-making process, let’s first understand what tamales are. A tamale is a traditional Mesoamerican dish, prepared with masa — a dried corn dough. In the first step, Padma Lakshmi took a half-cut banana leaf and placed a golden-brown dough ball on it. The crumbly ball was a mixture of grated cassava, coconut milk, cornmeal, vegetable oil, and salt. The ingredient-infused batter was then spread out on the leaf. A curry item, presumably of shredded and juicy chicken was poured on top of the batter. Another dough spread was pasted atop the chicken filling and every corner was enclosed carefully.
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The following step was similar to wrapping Christmas presents. The tamale was wrapped with the banana leaf from all four corners and tied with a twine sheath. Further encasing similar banana-wrapped tamales in aluminum foil, Padma Lakshmi kept them inside a large cooking pot. Filling it with more banana leaves and hot water, she allowed the tamales to be cooked for a few minutes. Once she opened the lid, freshly steamed tamales were ready to be served. As Lakshmi sliced the dish with a fork, its melt-in-the-mouth texture left us craving for some.
Padma Lakshmi’s Insta feed is a treat for food lovers. Earlier, she showed users how to make the crunchiest and buttery dosa at home. Swirling the white batter in a circular motion with a spatula she wrote, “Dosa o’clock”.
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Padma Lakshmi’s culinary ventures are all lip-smacking.