Hallaca

Hallaca is a traditional dish of South American origin recognized as a national dish of Venezuela, combining indigenous corn dough traditions with influence from Iberian settlers. Its name derives from an Arawak word meaning to mix or blend, and tradition holds that enslaved cooks who prepared the Christmas Eve meal for landowners made hallacas for themselves from the leftover meat. It consists of corn dough, colored with annatto and made with broth and lard, flattened onto plantain leaves and stuffed with a meat stew of beef, pork or chicken along with raisins, capers, olives, onion and bell pepper, sometimes topped with hard boiled egg, then the leaf is folded, tied and boiled, and the dish is traditionally served during the Christmas season.