Healthy Tamales

HEALTHY TAMALES
WITH CHIPOTLE - VEGETABLE FILLING OR
REFRIED BEAN AND CHEESE FILLING

Time :  1 hour 25 minutes for assembling and steaming
Serves: 6 to 8

These are just two examples of tamale fillings.  We have tried a chicken breast filling with homemade or canned green tomatillo sauce (We used Herdez brand.)  Delicioso!!!

Let me know what your favorites are!!!

Ingredients and Supplies

2- six ounce packages of corn husks

Utensil used for spreading-  Spreader/ Spoon/ Paint spatula  that is used for cooking purposes
Large steamer basket

Tamale Masa (Dough):

4 cups of Masa Harina corn flour (for tamales)

4 cups vegetable broth or equivalent prepared vegetable bouillon, warmed

2 teaspoons baking powder

CHIPOTLE-VEGETABLE FILLING

2   tablespoons olive oil

1   large onion, diced small

1   clove garlic, minced

1   red bell pepper seeded and diced

1   small carrot, peeled and diced

1   (15 ounce) can of pinto or black beans, drained and rinsed

1    cup frozen corn kernels

1/4  cup vegetable broth

2    chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced, plus 2 tablespoons of adobo sauce

      (use 7 ounce can chipotles in adobo sauce for this)

3    tablespoons tomato paste

1    teaspoon ground cumin

1/2  teaspoon salt, or to taste

-OR-

BEAN AND CHEESE FILLING:
5    Cups beans refried in olive oil
       Salt, chile, and garlic to taste
1     Long Mozzarella cheese per tamale

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  Corn husks are placed in a large pot.  Allow to soak in warm water and cover husks completely to allow them to become pliable.  They should stay in water until ready to add masa.  

2.  Prepare the Masa : in a large bowl, combine the masa harina, broth, salt, baking powder, and oil.

Beat with an electric mix, until a moist, fluffy dough forms.  The bowl must be covered with damp towel and set aside.

3.  Prepare the chipotle filling: 
In a large heavy skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat.  Saute the onions and garlic for 5 minutes, until softened.  Add the pepper and carrot and saute for 3 minutes. The beans, corn, broth, and chipotles and sauce, tomato paste, and cumin are added.  Saute and simmer until until most of the liquid evaporates (5 to 7 minutes).  Salt to taste and allow to cool before

assembling tamales.

TO ASSEMBLE:
1.  Take a husk and lay it flat;  spread about 2 tablespoons of dough off center, leaving about 3 to 4 inch
margin from the top of the husk.  The Masa was spread with the back of a tablespoon when I was a child.  Then, about two years ago, the plastic spreader was sold at local grocery stores.  I also googled tamales and found some folks had not found the plastic spreader with handle and improvised with a spackle spreader from a local paint shop and used it for cooking.  My favorite?  The plastic spreader invented by a fellow Texan Tamalera gets most of masa spread in one "swoop".  It's important when you are making ten dozen tamales!

Make a "row " in the center of the  layer of  masa from top to bottom with a heaping tablespoon of filling, and carefully start rolling the husk from left to right to prevent the "filling from a spilling". 


We do not "tie" the ends.  If you leave enough space at the top of the husk, you can fold over and the filling will not spill out.

Pack the tamales into a large steamer basket upside down with the open husk bottom pointing upwards.
Make sure the husk is securely folded.  Lean them towards the middle. We add foil over the "standing" tamales so that the will stay in place and have a better steaming effect.  Cover the pot.  Steam for 35 to 40 minutes.   The cooked tamale will feel firm and come off the husk without sticking.
Serve with salsa.  


Tamales may be frozen either cooked or uncooked in foil and freezer bags.


Links:
http://www.tamalespreader.com/

Sources:
Tamales, Comadres, and the Meaning of Civilization 
by Ellen Riojas Clark, Ph.D. and Carmen Tafolla, Ph.d

Veganomicon   by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

  

Ahhhh Nostalgia... The Tamale Ritual

 

 

Ahhh Nostalgia ! The Holidays start my mind’s eye to wander to decades past.

Come with me!

 It’s the mid sixties, in my Mama Prieta (grandmother)
and Papa Lupe’s (grandfather’s) farm. 

The early morning Sounds I remember are turkeys gobbling, chickens  clucking, roosters crowing, and dogs barking. But, I was snuggled under three or four warm blankets that had been made by a quilting group.

The Visions are of a small decorated tree in the living room; no theme for her!  String up the multicolored lights!  Watching her black and white television but not for long, there was no watching cartoons on a Saturday morning! Do you remember the lamps that rotated around?   Well,
they had an aquarium scene where the fish would swim endlessly.

Sounds, visions, smells in the kitchen area are starting
to come alive.  The hojas were soaked in an aluminum tub (used only for making tamales)
had a distinct smell.  My grandmother would soak the corn in lime to remove the outer seed coat – pericarp.  It was called niztamal.

Then, it was ground up to make the masa- corn dough.  Chile rojos were boiled, and magically
became the ingredient in the meat filling and the masa.  I wasn't very observant, because I
don’t remember the process!  Did we have blenders back then?  I’ve got to ask Mom or Tia Nina.

Slaughtering the pig is a topic that needs to be covered on another day.  Mom and Dad kept this
tradition going well into the eighties.  The pork meat was cut up and ground in Tio Johnny’s meat grinder.  He was the butcher in the family.  The rich spices, the chiles, the meat  cooking, the corn masa…. MMMMMMM!

The laughing, the chatter, the spoons clacking against the wooden drawer as tools for the task before us were being prepared. Life was good.  Life was simple.

The “Rookies” or younger set were in charge of filling the tamales.  We were not allowed to spread
the masa on the hojas; you would think that we had to attend a Culinary Institute before being allowed to spread the corn dough on the smooth side of a corn husk!!!  We did not “tie the tamales”.  We were taught early on to fold and have open tip point upwards. You don’t want the filling drip out during cooking process!

Tamales were cooked in a large  paela- black cauldron over fire outdoors.  Couldn’t find correct spelling for this term!  They were smoked and wonderful!!

I’m going to look for pictures of Mama Prieta checking the cooking process.

Now this was life in the Sixties through Eighties Tamale Process.

Now the “NEW AND IMPROVED Shortcut Method "is coming in the next few days!!!

 

I confess that I have never spearheaded this tradition;  I have only been a team member!

This year is the year I master this!!!

Fun Facts:

Corn grows from kernels. A kernel has
four parts. The pericarp (seed coat) is the outer covering for
protection. The endosperm is the largest section and stores food for the
seed. The germ (embryo) is the only living part of the kernel. The tip
cap attaches the kernel to the cob.

Source:  Corn in the Classroom