Can’t beat taste of homemade
Of course you can go to a Mexican market and buy a dozen or two tamales to fill your plate. But it’s much more fun to get a few friends together to mix masa and tie up the tamales yourselves. This recipe from Sam Arnold, food historian and founder of The Fort restaurant in Morrison, gives you a point of beginning, but as the man himself suggests, it’s perfectly OK to experiment with additions to the dough and fillings that just sound good.
We made two types with this recipe. First, a vegetarian version with chopped green chiles in the dough and spiced black beans for filling, and the plain dough filled with meat sauced with Arnold’s red chile puree. In past tamale expeditions, we moistened the dough with coconut milk instead of stock and filled them with spiced raisins and pineapple to make a dessert. – Dana Coffield
Recipe for Tamales
Make a tasty mixture of meat and chile, adding perhaps 1/2 cup cooked pinto beans. The fillings can be as widely varied as your imagination allows. Kernel corn and toasted pinon nuts with a little red chile makes an excellent vegetarian filling. Minced cooked pork with toasted walnut pieces, raisins and onions is a delicious variation. Fresh, green corn kernels and grated cheese worked into the masa is also wonderful with just a smear of red chile puree.
Ingredients
Tamales
- 1/3 cup lard or other solid shortening
- 2 cups masa harina
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 48 or more dried corn husks, soaked in hot water for a half hour or more.
Filling
- 4 cups chopped meat (cooked pork, beef, chicken, goat or lamb)
- 1 cup minced onion
- 1 cup red chile puree (recipe below)
- Pinch of oregano
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt, or fresh garlic to taste
- 1/2 cup cooked pinto beans (optional)
Directions
Prepare the filling by frying the meat with onion, garlic and chile puree. Set aside to cool.
To make the tamale batter, beat the shortening into the dry ingredients, then add the chicken stock. The batter should feel like very dense cake batter. Because Colorado is so dry, it may take a bit more stock to make the batter gather together. Mix well and cool in the refrigerator.
Spread about three tablespoons of the dough and evenly – about 5 inches long by 4 inches wide – in the middle of a pre-soaked corn husk. If your husks are narrow, use two and overlap the edges. Next, drop a heaping tablespoon or more of the meat filling in the center of the dough and spread evenly over the masa. Roll the corn husk lengthwise into a cylinder. The traditionalist folds the ends over, then ties off the tamale’s two ends with a “string” pulled from a spare corn husk. Trim the husk ends neatly to make an attractive bundle. Stand the tamales up in a large colander and steam for one hour. Serve hot, still in the husks, which are not edible. Makes about 24 tamales.
Basic Red Chile Puree
From Sam Arnold’s book “Eating Up the Santa Fe Trail,” this basic red chile puree perks up roasted meats and tastes great drizzled over scrambled eggs. Pick a dried chile that suits your hotness tolerance. Poblano and ancho are fine dark chiles with a full flavor that’s not too searing
Ingredients
- 6-8 dried red chile pods
- 3/4 cup hot water
- 1 clove garlic (if you like)
- Dash of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon leaf oregano
Directions
Roast the chile pods in a 400- degree oven for 5 minutes. Rinse the toasted chiles and break off the stems. As you clean the chiles, run your finger inside the pod to check for moldy areas and loosen seeds, although some New Mexicans leave some seeds, claiming they give life to the sauce. Put the seeded pods into a blender with the hot water, garlic, salt and oregano. Blend at high speed for about one minute to make a puree.
