That's my son at almost 1 year old with the big tamale steamer pan.
Tamales
This recipe makes about 40-50 tamales; scale up if necessary. Sometimes I make batches of 200-250.
A tamale is like a dumpling with some kind of filling. I've tried all kinds of variations in the filling (pork, beef, vegan chili, pumpkin filling, mixed fruit, etc) and the masa.
This is a "basic" recipe.
--Ingredients--
One red or white onion, finely chopped
About 4 pounds of meat (beef, pork, weasel, lemur, whatever)
3/8 cup chili powder (yes, you read that right)
4 bay leaves
2 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp cumin
3 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp salt (or less, to taste)
1 tsp baking powder
6 cups masa flour
4 tbsp ground black pepper
16oz tomato sauce
20oz enchilada sauce (one can about this size)
4 cups Earth Balance vegan butter (or use lard, up to you)
1 cup chicken broth
1 can small pitted black olives
lots of dried corn husks
--The Filling--
Chop the meat into quarter to half inch cubes. Lightly brown, adding onion, garlic, and oregano. Remove the meat from whatever drippings remain, and place in the slow cooker. I sometimes add chopped jalepeno or serrano peppers to the meat.
To the drippings, add the tomato and enchilada sauce. Mix in chili powder, cumin, salt, and bay leaves. Simmer a bit, and pour on top of the meat in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours. Getting burned while making tamales is no fun, so allow this to cool a bit before continuing.
--The Masa--
In a mixer, combine the masa flour, butter, baking powder, broth, and pepper until smooth. It should look almost fluffy, and spread easily.
--Tamales--
It is critically important that you can identify the smooth side of the corn husk. Spreading the masa on the ridged side means your tamale will fall apart when you unwrap it.
Soak the corn husks in warm water to soften them. Pick out any "hair" from the husks. Nobody likes hair in their food.
On the smooth side of the husk, spread the masa from the widest part up about halfway to the point (husks are roughly triangular). The masa should be 1/8" in or so thick. It's very subjective, but you don't want too much masa (it doesn't taste that good by itself) or too little (the tamale will fall apart). Spoon in a few chunks of meat and a couple spoonfuls of the sauce from the meat, and add an olive. The sauce will add much needed flavor to the masa, but too much will make the masa too soupy. Fold the tamale into thirds, then in half, so that you make a pocket for the meat with the masa.
Put the tamales in a steamer, with the opening facing up. Steam for 2.5 to 3 hours. If you don't have a deep steamer, you might need to add water from time to time. Don't let the tamales sit in the water though. The masa is done when it falls off the smooth side of the husk. Give them a chance to cool a little.
When eating, you don't eat the corn husk. This should go without saying, but it has some up several times (mostly with people in Iowa, who should know better about which parts of the corn plant are edible). The tamale should unwrap easily, and there should be an extra bit of masa from the part that comes in contact with the rough side of the husk after it's folded. We call that secret masa.
--Disclaimer--
I've found that people get better results when they've made tamales with me at least once, rather than just starting from this recipe. The written one I started from was far less detailed than this! There are subjective parts to this, like the thickness of the meat sauce or the masa, how much chili powder to use if you're using fresh peppers, etc. Finding the smooth side of the husk is important, and I've banned people from helping me make these because they can't figure that part out.
Wonderful, looks like a great family activity. Of course, will I be able to find "masa flour" in Norwich, England? No, I won't (but that saves me complaining about things like "about 4 pounds of meat" or "Steam for 2.5 to 3 hours."). Thanks for writing this out (with such humor, as well) and posting it, Rob! Great pic, by the way, lovely colors and perfect expression on your son's face.
This is going to my favorites so I can preserve the great recipe and, more importantly, the experienced tips. That helper will be outdoing you soon. Does he deliver?
That is really a marvelous picture. Purple has a good idea to add it to favorites to keep track of the recipe. I think you will get a lot of favs on this.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
