Tamales for the New Year
The idea of making tamales came to me just before Christmas as I was reading Too Many Tamales, by Gary Soto, to my son. I was hit with an overwhelming and insatiable craving for the little corn husk and masa wrapped delights. I began scanning different recipes on-line to see whether or not I could undertake this, and when I found a site that said, “You will notice that your life will instantly be different” as a way of describing the tamale making process, I knew I had to make them. The following photos were taken on New Year’s Eve 2007, and may represent a new tradition for our family–tamales for the new year.
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We began our evening with one of the finest tequilas around, Don Julio, and that in itself made our new-found tradition one worth keeping.
Meat! And a lot of it. The recipe called for 1 (6 to 8 LB) Pork Roast cut into fist size pieces and a 5 LB Chicken. We cooked each separately in water for approximately 2 hours and drank our Don Julio margaritas with a splash of Cointreau while we waited for the meat to achieve a tender, melt-in-your mouth consistency.
Once the meat was underway the corn husks were submerged in a tub full of warm water to soak for two hours.
Next we mixed the masa–finely ground corn that has been boiled with lime in order to give the ‘flour’ a fuller texture–with seasonings: cumin, paprika, chili powder, garlic, salt and corn oil.
We then worked in assembly-line formation. Ian spread the seasoned masa onto the soft, water-soaked corn husks while I placed a tablespoon full of equally seasoned meat into the center of the masa and rolled the husks into that familiar tamale shape.
Once each tamale was wrapped, I placed them quite snugly into a colander that would serve as our tamale steamer. Just as we had to wait two hours for the meat to become tender and another two hours for the husks to soften, we waited an additional two hours for our tamales to be steamed to perfection.
Wa-la! Happy New Year! We now have four dozen tamales to enjoy throughout 2008.
That is my kind of meal! A bit intricate, time-consuming, and in the end totally worth it. An inspirational post for a pseudo chef like me.
The best part about cooking is actually taking the time required to do it right. This is what our fast food culture has strayed from, and it’s reflected in so many societal ills (obesity, fractured families, poor diets, etc.)
Enjoyed your post Rachel and for me, it was instantly familiar. I work at a restaurant where we serve Wild Mushroom Tamales with Yucatan Tomato Salsa and although the menu is quite eclectic, this dish is one the house specialties. Briefly, after having made the foundation (which is the salsa using either a habanero or jalapeno chile) you fill a swiss chard leaf with a combination of creamy grits, mushrooms (fresh porcinis, chanterelles & hen-of-the-woods work best), garlic, onion, Monterey Jack and Parmesan cheese, toasted almonds and golden raisins. You then steam the filled chard leaf in a corn husk and complete the dish by adding more sauteed mushrooms as a garnish. This recipe can be found in a cookbook authored by Cindy Pawlcyn, my employer. The cookbook “Big Small Plates” was released in 2006 by Ten Speed Press.
Oh man! Wild Mushroom tamales wrapped in swiss chard?! Is there any way you can fed-ex me some of those right now? I checked out “Big Small Plates” on-line and may have to go pick up a copy of that book today.
Y’all are definitely better men than I! As much as I love a tamale, these days I settle for cleaning out Trader Joe’s green chile and cheese ones in the freezer case every time I go. I would no more attempt the actual assembly of them from scratch than I would volunteer for astronaut duty.
I would volunteer to be an astro, fer sure. Susan, you actually have a Trader Joe’s?
No - as much as I might like to subscribe to the 100-mile locavore concept, I head to the Triangle to stock up every couple of months. It’s a lot better than when I had to go to DC, before the Cary store opened in 2006!
We need to buy a Grove Project van, schedule regular trips, and buy in (even greater) bulk. Trader Joe’s is great! Wish we had one here. I think Rachel wrote a letter to them suggesting it.
See my profile for my comment.
;-]