Tamales?

[chris629]

Does anyone have a good recipe for tamales?
I have been craving and wanting to make them myself but can't find anything to help me on that.
Thanks!

[Alix]

I have a friend who is Latin. I will get in touch with her as soon as she gets back from her holidays and get a recipe for you. I know she will have a good one.

[chris629]

OMG! Thanks so much!

[AllenOK]

You'll probably need to go to a grocery store and get some Masa Harina. Masa is the leftover dough from making corn tortillas, dried, then ground. It's essential to making the "breading" for the Tamales.

I don't really have a recipe for the meat filling, but, once you get that made, there's a recipe on the bag of Masa for the "breading" dough. Make that, soak and lay flat some corn husks, spread the dough onto the husks, add a little of the meat mixture, then roll them up, secure them, and steam them. I believe they are traditionally served with either a red sauce, or a variety of mole sauces.

[Lugaru]

As for the "masa harina" if you can get Maseca or Nixtamal this is the real stuff. If you are in the southwest Im willing to bet you can find it at the local grocery store.

Corn husts are a must, and some people in the south of mexico and south america make tamales in banana husks, although I have no experience doing this myself.

Best place for your utensils and ingredients if you are in a northern town like me is this website http://www.mexgrocer.com/ as it is all 100% authentic stuff I grew up with. This stuff should also serve you for making the drier, more cornbready "western" tamales.


This recipy is stolen from their website:

Mexican Recipe Ingredients:

6 cups Maseca Corn Masa Mix for Tamales
6 cups Chicken broth
1 cup corn oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 large rotisserie chicken
2 cans salsa verde or tomatillo sauce
1 bag corn husks
Mexican Recipe Instructions:

Soak the corn husks in warm water until soft.
Blend with an electric mixer Maseca corn masa mix for tamales, corn oil, salt, baking powder and the chicken broth to obtain a consistent mixture.
Shred the chicken and marinate in the green salsa or tomatillo sauce.
Spread masa evenly over corn husks, and spread a spoonful of marinated chicken on top of the masa.
Fold the sides of the corn husk to center over the masa so that they overlap to make along package.
Fold the empty part of the husk under so that it rest against the side of the tamale with a seam.
Place the tamales in a steamer and cook tamales for 35-40 minutes. Check every 20 minutes.The tamales are cooked when they separate easily from the corn husk.

Enjoy this delicious chicken tamales Mexican food recipe!

Para recetas de comida Mexicana en Espanol visita MissionFoods.com

Get 20% discount on your first order using coupon code: "MEXRECIPE".
Type of recipe: Breakfast
Preparation Time (min): 60
Cook Time (min): 60
Prep Tool: Tamale Steamer

It's late right now but tomorrow I'll do some cleaning and dig up my "Los Mochis ciento aniversario" cook book dedicated to my home town's 100th birthday, if there's an authentic, bad for you tamal recipy it's in there.

[Lugaru]

Translated from my Los Mochis cook book:


Tamales de elote (corn tamales)

2 dozen ears of corn.
200 grams of vegetable butter
100 grams of margarine
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda


Use a knife to shuck the corn and then grind the kernels (I think a food processor would help here). Heat the butter, add the margerine, sugar and salt. Drop in the ground corn with the baking soda and integrate all the ingredients very well. Put about a “frying spoon� (those large shallow spoons you use when cooking) of this mix in the corn husk. Put these in the steamer with water and cook for an hour.

[Alix]

Chris, these are from my wonderful friend Dina. I am going to try them out myself in a few days. Just need to assemble some of the other ingredients. She also sent me one for Salvadoran tamales that require plantain leaves and are filled with chicken. Hope this is what you are looking for.

Tamale dough:

6 cups Maseca Corn Masa Mix for Tamales (or the corn flour you already have)

3 cups beef broth

3 cups warm water

1 cup beef or pork lard

2 tablespoons Chili powder

2 teaspoons of each: salt, ground cumin, garlic powder

1 or 2 bags of corn husks


Ground meat mixture:

1 pound (85-90% lean) ground beef (need a bit of fat in the meat)

1 pound ground pork

2 tablespoons Chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 large clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup beef broth

salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan with lid, brown ground beef and ground pork until no longer pink. On a separate sautee pan caramelize onions, add garlic and blend in blender with all the spices and half of the beef broth to make a sauce. Add this sauce to meat, add the rest of the beef broth, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, or until most of the juices are evaporated.









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Instructions:

Soak the corn husks in warm water until soft. Rinse and drain the corn husks before use. Cut each husk about 5 inches wide, or double them if they're too narrow to make them 5 inches wide for each tamale.


Blend with an electric mixer (I usually blend all ingredients with my hands) Maseca corn masa mix for tamales, lard, all the spices, water, and the beef broth to obtain a consistent mixture.

Spread masa evenly on half of each corn husk, 1/8 inch thick, until all the dough is spread on the all the corn husks.

Spread a spoonful of the ground meat mixture on the top, center of the masa.

Fold the sides of the corn husk to center over the masa so that they overlap to make a long package.


Fold the empty part of the husk under so that it rest against the side of the tamale with a seam.


Place the tamales in a steamer, with about 1 cup water, or according to the steamer's instructions, and cook tamales for 40-50 minutes. Check every 20 minutes.The tamales are cooked when they separate easily from the corn husk.


The leftovers may be frozen for up to 3 weeks, warmed up in the microwave or in a steamer.

[DampCharcoal]

One of my dudes brought in watermelon and coconut tamales, they were great! Any ideas? :D

[Lugaru]

Originally Posted by DampCharcoal

One of my dudes brought in watermelon and coconut tamales, they were great! Any ideas? :D

Can you give me some context on these? Where did they bring them from? It's something completely unheard of for me (the "frutiest" I've eaten was piaple and sharp cheese in mexico) so Im assuming it belongs to a south american country or some one is doing some pretty cool fusion cooking that I havent heard of.

Either way they sound nice (especially if it's fresh coconut).

[DampCharcoal]

Well, they were wrapped in corn husks and there was really no filling but were pink and tasted spectacular even though they were hot, which is a bit unusual for Midwestern tastes but good nonetheless. My buddy is originally from Michoucan (sp?) and his wife made them. Not much info but I hope it helps! :D