Into that hole she carefully placed a piece of chicken that she had cooked earlier, along with a potato cooked in the same sauce as the chicken. She then folded the banana leaf over, and then tucked the sides in before finishing the fold and putting in the bucket next to her. She even took extra care to put extra chile sauce in mine, and wrap it in a blue string when it was folded, so I would be able to find it later.
When all the chicken was wrapped neatly in masa and banana leaves, it was time to cook the tamales over the fire. My host mom took a big pot and placed two large leaves at the bottom to prevent any burning of tamales. Then she carefully laid all the tamales on top of each other in the pot and we carried it over to the fire. The tamales stayed cooking over the fire for hours without a timer! My host mom just knew when they were done, and let me say, they were cooked to perfection. After finally letting them cool, we all sat down to eat tamales for dinner.
All of the food, except for the spices, came directly from my host parents' garden, or from their neighbors' gardens. The corn used in the masa is bought as kernels from a woman in the village. The chicken for the tamales are chickens that are raised here in Belize. My family only eats their own chickens on special occasions. The banana leaves used for wrapping the tamales came from the front yard, and the other vegetables came from the garden. All the food that was used is food that is locally grown and/or sourced in Belize, meaning that all the ingredients used were as fresh as can be!
