About Hallacas
This is the most emblematic dish of the Venezuelan Christmas dinner.
Hallacas Description
Christmas are not Christmas without hallacas!
This is the most emblematic dish of the Venezuelan Christmas dinner.
It consists of a cornmeal-dough pocket filled with a rich stew made out of different ingredients, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled.
The dough is flavoured with chicken stock, beautifully coloured with a seed called annatto. The stew is a mix of beef, pork and chicken that compliments its flavour with olives, capers, raisins and many other ingredients.
Some historians say that the hallacas were originated from the tradition of the plantation owners giving the leftovers from their Christmas feasts to the slaves, who would use them to give flavour to the boiled cornmeal dough that was basically their daily meal.
This might explain why the hallacas are stuffed with such an odd range of ingredients!