Colombian Tamales

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1. 1Step 1: For the marinade process the onion, spring onions, herbs, and water in a food processor until you have a juice. Divide pork ribs and pork belly into 14 equally-sized pieces each and divide the chicken wings in half. Either place the meat with the marinade in a large zip-lock bag or a big container and mix well. Chill in fridge overnight tightly covered.
2. 2Step 2: Cut the banana leaves in rectangles of about 50cm. I used three leaves per tamal, a larger one as the basis, a medium one and a small one on the top. Using a damp towel, clean both sides of the leaves. After that, spray each leaf with water and 'burn' on medium low on both sides. You will notice that this will help for the leaves to be more elastic and that they break less when you bend them. I did this via our crepe maker, you may do this in a large frying pan or the stovetop. Once prepared like this, you can keep the banana leaves covered overnight. It is also possible to freeze the banana leaves if covered tightly.
3. 3Step 3: For the guiso sauce cut the chopped onion and garlic and fry in olive oil in a frying pan until translucent. Then add cut pepper and tomato and fry for another few minutes. You can also prepare the sauce a day in advance. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. Set aside.
4. 4Step 4: Peel potatoes and carrots and cut in thick slices. Place in a bowl. Boil and peel the eggs and cut in half.
5. 5Step 5: For the corn mash place water and all ingredients except for the corn meal, peas and lard in a large pot and heat up, make sure not to boil. Once it is close to boiling, add the corn meal while stirring, reduce the heat to low. It will appear lumpy, try to reduce the lumps while stirring. Once you have a mash, add the peas and lard. Set aside.
6. 6Step 6: The next day fry all the meat with a bit of oil in a frying pan for a few minutes on each side. I used two frying pans and did this in two rounds. The idea is for the meat to get some more flavor this way. It also helps to reduce the steaming time of the tamales.
7. 7Step 7: Stack 3-4 banana leaves per tamal on top of each other creating a rectangle. Place two to three tablespoons of the corn mash in the middle of the rectangle. Then press one slice of carrot and two slices of potato for each tamal around the corn mash (see pictures). Place the three pieces of meat, half a boiled egg and one spoon of guiso sauce on the top. Top it all off with about one tablespoon of corn mash. Fold all four sides to the center until you have a parcel. Wrap tightly with some yarn. See this as an exercise of wrapping gifts just with yarn. It is important that the filling does not touch any water. Creating the parcels works best with two people. Repeat procedure with all fourteen tamales.
8. 8Step 8: In one or two large pots get about 4cm of hot water to a boil. Since the tamales are steamed, not cooked, I use a strainer. Put tamales inside once the water is boiling and cover with a lid (see picture). Steam for about an hour, adding further water as need be. Once done, place a tamal on a plate and let sit for a few minutes. Then cut open and enjoy.