Passport & Plate - Souffle de Chipilin
Guatemala | Thursday, February 12, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Chipilin Leaves - 15 leaves
Corn Flour - 5 cups
Corn or Tusa leaves - 15 leaves
Mozzarella & Cheddar Cheese
Sour Creme
Water - 3 cups
Vegetable Oil - 3 table spoons
Salt - 1 table spoon
How to prepare this recipeStart by preparing the "Tamalitos de Chipilin"
In a big bowl put the corn flour. Start by adding the water to create the dough. After, add the vegetable oil and salt. Once they're all mixed together add the chipilin leaves. This will become the dough to make the tamales. Grab a small amount of the dough and put it inside the corn leaf. This should make about 15 tamalitos de chipilin.
Place them in a steam cooker for about 20 min.
Preheat the oven 350F.
Once the tamalitos are ready, take them out of the corn leaf. Slice the tamalitos and place the first layer in an oven dish. Cover the layer with sour creme and cheese and repeat. Depending on the size of the dish the times it will be needed to repeat the process. That last layer should have enough cheese to cover the top of the dish.
Cover with aluminium paper, and bake for aprox. 15-20 mins. Once the cheese of the top is fully melted you can now take it out of the oven and ENJOY!
The story behind this recipeSouffle de Chipilin is the name that is given to the dish that welcomes any foreign guest in my home and the dish that marks another travel stamp in my passport.
For some years my Mom, Sandra (the lady that helps us) and I have been bonding over this recipe.
Chipilin is the leaf that is used to make the “tamales” for the soufflé. It’s an authentic Guatemalan recipe. You can find “tamalitos de chipilin” every Sunday in local markets as street food. Coming from a poor country is no surprise corn is one of the main ingredients in every family here in Guatemala and tamalitos de chipilin are just one of the many, many recipes you can find here in Guatemala resulting from the corn flour.
Almost sure “Souffle de Chipilin” is not a recipe registered by my mom (though I truly know it should have) but my mom’s recipe was the first I tasted and you know how this goes “my mom makes the best soufflé de chipilin in town”. It was for one of my farewells, so for me it represents the time my family said: until we meet again.
After coming back of one of my travels, I remember us three in the kitchen preparing everything for the night a friend of USA was coming to visit.
The leading role: Souffle de Chipilin. Besides having the delicious taste of this gorgeous land this dish is soaked in unmissable cheese.
I then learned how to make them, and it became the signature dish for the coming and going travelers.
Filled with not only exquisite tamalitos de chipilin, burned and melted cheese along with other ingredients. This dish comes with the love my family gives, the effort of the hands that made them, the care given to select every leaf, the happiness of welcoming a new guest and the nostalgia of leaving my family one more time.
Therefore, more than one of my favorite recipes; Souffle de Chipilin is one of the traditions I will carry until the time I stop coming and going. And there is no time to not leave again one more time and be welcomed in another country with another dish.
