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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 180 Minutes |
Ready In: 180 Minutes Servings: 8 |
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These were the side for my Dinner Around the World dinner party. They made a beautiful presentation with the mole. They are a little time consuming and I learned a lot making them. My plan was to have these nice little blue tamale packages, filled with poblano, corn and creamy pieces of cheese. Read more . The reality was, after 3 hours of cooking, the cheese had melted entirely into the masa. Wasn't planned, but it ended up adding an unexpected creaminess to the tamale and was very good. Ingredients:
1/2 package dried corn husks |
2/3 cup lard or vegetable shortening (i used lard. it adds flavor. it's not that bad once in a while, it's a saturated fat yes, but vegetable shortening is a trans fat, and i think that's worse for you. you can render your own lard using the cut off fat from pork roast and pork chops. do not use salt pork or bacon - ask your butcher for about 1 1/2 pounds of pork fat) |
1 teaspoon baking powder |
1 3/4 cup blue corn meal (blue corn meal is coarser than yellow, but if you want to make yellow tamales, get masa harina for tamales) |
1 cup hot water |
3/4 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade |
salt |
for the filling |
2 poblano chilies, seeded and cut into a small dice |
1 cup fresh or frozen corn (thawed if frozen) |
4 ounces monterey jack cheese, cut into a small dice |
Directions:
1. Place the corn husks, separated as best you can, into a deep baking dish. Cover with boiling water and put a plate on the top to keep them submerged. Let sit for at least 30 minutes. After they have softened, rinse them under running water and remove and corn silk that clings to them. Set them upright in a deep bowl and cover with a damp cloth.
2. While the corn husks are soaking, make the tamale dough. Pour the hot water into the masa and mix well; allow to cool. With a mixer (or by hand) whip the lard until it is fluffy, add the baking powder and combine well.
3. Add the masa in 3 or 4 additions, beating well before adding more. Add the chicken stock a little at a time until you have a soft dough. Add the salt. Test the dough, put a small amount into a glass of cold water, it should float; if it doesn't beat a little bit longer. Allow to set while you make the filling.
4. In a small bowl mix together the poblano pepper, corn and jack cheese. (When I made them, I sauteed the poblano in some oil and butter first, but found that it was an unnecessary step, 3 hours of steaming took care of any cooking that needed to be done :-) )
5. Now make your tamales: ( I used the double tie method, there are a number of them you can use, but this one made a nice little package and I was able to lay them down in my steamer) Lay the softened husk on the counter, you may need to use more than one if they are small, overlap them. Take a couple of tablespoons of the masa and plop it onto the husk keeping it about 1 inch from the top ( the wide part) and at least as far from the bottom. Spread it out leaving an edge. Put a tablespoon of filling in the center. Now, fold side A over to side B and pull back to the center, put side B over as far as you can, you should have a nice package with the masa nicely folded over your filling. Tear a husk into strips and use these to tie both ends, rolling them slightly so the masa and filling are tied nicely in the middle. Continue until you have used up all your masa and filling.
6. Now, take the leftover husks and line a steamer with them; place the tamales, criss cross stacked, on the husks, cover with additional husks (this keeps the water from the steam off the tamales as they cook); put the steamer over simmering water; cover and let them cook until they are firm, adding hot water to the steamer as needed. (Trick - put marbles into the pot when you start out, if the water gets low, the marbles will make noise and let you know that you need to add water).
7. I'm not a tamale expert, this is only my second time making them; so every recipe I read said to steam them from 1 1/2 to 2 hours. And they were talking about full sized tamales, and these were just little ones, and so on hour 2 I was getting a little worried as they weren't firm. So I did some research and found that most all of the people who commented said that it almost always took 3 hours to cook them. I shut mine off at hour 3 and let them sit and cool in the pot for about a half an hour, and then they were firm. So LindySez - patience.
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