Hot Tamales!

Oh, are these hot when they come out of the steamer!

I am loving harvest season this year.  It has been a summer and fall of enjoying local produce like never before.

I have probably eaten my weight in red and blue potatoes, am enjoying having oodles of apples at hand throughout the day for quick, healthy snacks, and have prepared pounds of fresh corn.

When I saw these ears for sale, I knew I wanted to turn them into tamales.

I roasted a Boston butt ahead of time in the oven for several hours with lots of flavorful seasonings to make the pork filling, and used Bob’s Red Mill Organic Corn Flour along with the fresh kernels and natural starch from the ears of corn to make the dough.  Then I served up the tamales with greens from the garden, sour cream, brown rice, and chicken cooked the way I make it for my enchiladas.

Speaking of enchiladas, these tamales would have been so much better with enchilada sauce, but I didn’t take the time to make it.

Ingredients:

1 c. cooked, pulled pork

12 – 15 wide corn husks

Dough:

2 c. corn flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. pink Himalayan salt

1 tsp. turbinado sugar

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 c. warm water

1 T extra virgin olive oil

1 c. fresh corn kernels cut, scraped from the ear, and coarsely chopped.  Around 1 ear of corn.

Method:

Peel the husks from a few ears of corn after cutting the stem end off.

Tear one of the corn husks into 3/4″ wide strips to use as ties for the tamales. I find that the lighter, thinner husk closest to the corn ear is more flexible and easier to tie.

Sift together the corn flour, spices, turbinado sugar, salt, and sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl.

Work in the oil with your fingers, then the water to make a dough.

Mix in the corn and its juices.  You can use the back of a knife to scrape the ear and remove the starchy bits, after cutting off the kernels.

Lay out two corn husks and spread between 1/4 and 1/2 c. of the dough across one section.  Leave one end clear for folding over the dough.

Lay 1 T. of pork in the center of the dough to make a strip.

Fold the sides of the corn husks over to form a little package.  Unfold the husks and press the dough edges where they meet around the pork to seal so that the pork is in the middle.

Fold the husk back over the filling.  Bring the empty end up and over the folded edges and tie the bundle closed with strips of husk.

Place a rack in the bottom of a large stock pot.

Fill the pot with water to just below the rack.

Line the pot with the wrapped tamales upright in the pot, closed side down.

Bring the water to a simmer.

Cover the pot and steam the tamales for 40 minutes, checking periodically to see that the water hasn’t evaporated.  Add water as needed.

Unwrap those hot tamales and eat them up!

Yield: 6 to 8

 

 

Comments