How to make Tamales: filling, wrapping & steaming
3 FILLING VARIETIES (Red Pork, Green Chicken, or Vegetarian)
Red Pork:
Into a crockpot, add Pork shoulder/butt to salt, garlic, onion and ancho chili or guajillo chili peppers. Cook for 3-6 hours (1 lb meat to 3ish peppers).
If using dehydrated chilies, the peppers can be sautéed in oil or butter till soft. You can also grind peppers in coffee grinder but it will ruin chances of using it again for coffee.
Verde Green Chicken:
3-4 tomatillos
3 hatch or poblano peppers (use less if dried) remove seeds
Add garlic, cumin & onion to taste
1 lb. chicken
Take off tomatillo husks & cut off stems. Rinse, then cut Tomatillos into quarters. Next add about 3 or so de-seeded peppers (less if using dried) along with garlic, cumin, onion & about 1 lb. shredded chicken. Slow cook for hours (crock pot preferred)
Vegetarian:
2 sweet potatoes (cut into half inch cubes) tossed with salt & pepper, baked till slightly carmelized. Next Sautee a medium diced onion till golden, then add a couple pieces of chilled bacon cut into small ribbons (bacon is OPTIONAL). after bacon is almost done add to sauté 2 granny smith apples (cut into half inch cubes & tossed with salt & pepper). Mix baked sweet potatoes to apple sautee mixture.
Optional added ingredients could be anything from black beans & queso fresco to roasted pumpkin seeds for crunch
TAMALE DOUGH
Ratio is 2 oz lard per 1 cup of masa per 1 cup of water or broth (you can optionally add baking powder for a cakier tamale)
Optional adds include dried spices like paprika, cumin, chili or fresh herbs. Bacon bits can also be used if you want to try creating different flavors of masa dough.
Mix together till creamed into a mashed potato consistency (thicker than paste, thinner than clay). Make sure there are no lumps at all and the dough is worked until totally smooth.
WRAPS (Banana Leaves vs. Corn Husks)
Banana leaves (Vera Cruz style)
Roast fresh leaves on grill till wilted (oven should work maybe) -or- thaw frozen leaves. Cut off edges & remove stem & large vein. Cut into squares a little larger than your hand with scissors
Corn Husks (Norteños style)
Soak husks in cool water for 20 minutes till soft enough to roll.
BUILDING the TAMALE
Either wrapper can be used. The difference in preparing the wraps are listed above and the banana leaves require a longer cooking time than the corn husks. Both varieties are filled & wrapped the same basic way.
Put a heavy dollop of masa (about 2 tablespoons, less for smaller tamales) placed on one end, touching the edge (with a empty border) around a 3/4 of the way down.
Make a "bathtub" shape of masa by pressing down a trench shape with your fingers. Then add line of filling (heavy tablespoon). The picture above gives you an idea of of the dough placement on the triangular shaped corn husk, but it has already been filled so you may not see the bathtub shaped indention under the filling.
Rolling the tamales up in the wrap, begin by trying to make a sort of U-shape of the masa with its filling in the center (the u doesn’t have to meet to create a circle around the filling because the dough will expand as it cooks). It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Starting at the bottom, fold the border edge of the wrap over the tamale, roll it a bit back & forth a bit to get the cylinder shape started (working against the table seems to help shape them, instead of holding the tamale in your hand in the air). After tucking the bottom horizontal border over the tamale, start to roll it over, next fold the vertical excess over (the “tail”) to seal the unopened end of the tamale. Now finish horizontally rolling the tamale into a cylinder shape.
Pack tamales vertically in a drop down colander steamer. Steam tamales for roughly 45 minutes (or 55 minutes if banana leaves are used)
Test for doneness by pulling the edge of the husk from the end of one with a fork. Cook until u can tug edge of husk away from tamale CLEANLY & the wrap doesn't stick to a gooey tamale that needs to cook longer. Similar to the concept for testing a cake with a toothpick
Serve with or without sauce.
Appreciation to our patient & creative teachers, Darin (Norteno style) and Regina (Vera Cruz style) for taking time to show us how to create this wonderful dish for those we love.
Photos above were shot with the talented eye of Sheri Hall, whose Opulent Pixel work can be seen at http://sherihall.smugmug.com/ (all photos are credited to her except the plain shot of the steamer)