Hot tamales

So I made a batch of tamales today and thought I would share the recipe + px. It was nice to do some cooking, have a beer, some music. Plus hello I know of no one who does not like tamales and if you don't, do not tell me b/c we may have to step down our friendship. Serious.

The filling recipe will make enough for three dozen or so good-sized tamales. The masa recipe I'll give you here will make a dozen tamales. I decided to only make 12ish b/c I ran out of cheese (hello w/o cheese is there a point? answer = no) and the first batch of masa. I decided to not to make another batch of dough so I froze the leftover filling for another time. You can also freeze your tamales if you want to make a whole dang big batch, just undercook them a tad.

I went to the store to pick up the following ingredients:

1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
2 jalopeno peppers
1 white onion
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 bag of Maseca (easy to make masa)
1 box of chicken stock
1 package of corn husks
1 six pack of Blue Moon Honeymoon summer ale

See below:



First thing I did was separate and soak the dried corn husks in warm water so they'd be all soft and pliable (like I like 'em) when I was ready. About 30 mins or so. I then diced up the peppers and onions and two cloves of garlic and sauted them in oil until it was all tender. It smelled like a carnival where the street venders cook up the peppers and onions for sandwiches or whatever. I did this all in my beloved cast iron skillet (which I will marry in California now that it is legal). See below:



Then I added the corn and black beans and tomatoes and spiced it with cumin and cayenne and chili powder and black pepper. I let that all simmer until everything was soft and gooey and good. In the meantime, I made up a batch of masa according to these directions:

4 cups of Maseca flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup oil (olive or veg)
2 1/2 cups of chicken stock

Put all the dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix it up a bit. Then add the oil and mix with your hands. It will be still a bit dry and crumbly. Then add 1/2 cup of chicken stock at a time, mixing with your hands all the way. In the end, it will all be a solid mass sorta like cookie dough.

Now you're ready to assemble. Take a corn husk and pull strips of it length-wise so you'll have ties, keep all the husks soaking or covered with a wet paper towel to keep them moist. Heh. Moist. 12 years old. Carry on. Take a corn husk and unfold it and grab a mid-sized handful of masa. You'll just have to experiment with quantity. I used a spatula to spread it out in the corn husk, leaving the pointed bottom half uncovered so I could fold it up. Put the filling in, I added some chicken I had already cooked up and said cheese. See below:



FYI: during this entire process, you should be consuming beer. Now what you'll want to do is fold the husk over so that the edges of the masa come together and the filling stays inside. Trial and error here, you'll get it. Then you'll have a sorta roll of corn husk. Take a strip of the corn husk you pulled apart and, after folding up the bottom pointed edge of the husk, tie it to the roll. I'll trust you generally know what a tamale is supposed to look like rather than trying to get any more descriptive. Rinse and repeat. Soon you'll have a bunch like this:



You'll have to rig a steaming device or use one you already have. I ended up putting them all in a metal strainer I had and putting that inside a large double broiler type thing with a small amt of water at the bottom and the strainer resting on the lip of the pan (not touching the water). I covered it and am letting it steam cook for about an hour or so. This is kinda the tricky part b/c I have read different times. My friend J said she does it by touch or 30-45mins, some recipes I've seen say 1.5 hours. So who knows. I'm going to do the trial and error method again and check on them and the water every 15 mins after the first 30 mins. Go crazy and live dangerously! Follow no man's limits! Cook your tamales by your own rules, I say.

(ETA: 1 hour and 15 minutes is the right amt of time)

They're cooking now and I'll probably post a pix of the final product, but you know, it will generally look like this pix I took in Houston. Actually, I'll just take a pix if it doesn't look like what a tamale is supposed to look like. That might be more fun.

ETA: Nah, had to take a picture of perfection so here it is, they are yummy:




Anyway, there you go, your own private tamale. Kinda like your own private Idaho. But not. At all, actually.