Tamales Juacane

Chipilín (Crotalaria longirostrata) is endemic to southern Mexico and Guatemala; tamales bound with it are the everyday wrapper of central Chiapas, especially Tuxtla Gutiérrez and the Grijalva valley. Juacané is a Zoque dish of central Chiapas (Cintalapa, Jiquipilas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez), its bean-and-dried-shrimp paste bound with ground squash seed; it is a customary Day of the Dead altar offering and a Lenten (meatless) tamal. Pre-Hispanic in form (masa + leaf wrap), Spanish-era in seasoning (lard, salt).

Chipilín (Crotalaria longirostrata) is endemic to southern Mexico and Guatemala — Tuxtla Gutiérrez street stalls wrap it with black bean and Tonalá dried shrimp into a Tzotzil-influenced tamale. The leaf releases water in the steam, so the masa runs drier than a plain version.

Open the corn husk and the hoja santa inside hits first — anise-scented and herbal. The masa is the colour of jade from chipilín, dotted black with bean and pink-orange with shrimp. Each bite layers savoury masa, smoky shrimp, earthy bean. Eaten by hand, leaf as plate. Standard street stall fare in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

Juacané is wrapped in hoja santa, whose anise-like aromatics perfume the masa during steaming, with an outer corn husk to hold its shape and moisture; the dried shrimp heads are toasted then ground to release their savor, and the ground squash seed both adds nuttiness and lends fat that enriches the bean paste. Lard worked into the masa gives the body.