Becca and Nick
Tamales
Phil and Sarah
Secret: remember that trip to Casa Lucas we took for Mole? We multi tasked and also picked up some essentials like corn husks, lard, tomatillos, and chiles for our Tamales there.
The Spread
Of course some of it came from other sources as well…
This is the recipe we used as a guideline:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/green-chile-chicken-tamales-108055
I mean, we actually followed the part about making the tamales, but the sauce was just a guideline. We knew we wanted to do a green chili sauce but decided to do pork instead and make in the crock pot because crock pots are awesome.
The Sauce
Roasting Tomatillos
All the sauce ingredients go in the food processor
Process!
The Filling
Pork goes into the Crock Pot
Add Chicken Broth and the Sauce
And then you let that just sit for a while and get nice and soft. And super spicy apparently. I wish I had used half the peppers. It has really good flavor but it’s definitely on the Lowell Fitch side of the spice world. Becca would love it.
At the same time we put the husks in water to soak. “Hojas de maiz enconchadas para tamales.
The Dough (wow does this ever have a lot of calories in it!)
Preparing to whip the lard
Hope this is what whipped is supposed to look like
Hope this is what “tender” dough looks like
The Tamales
Here goes nothin’!
Square of dough
Plus filling
Equals Tamales!
Lined pot for steaming
Time to steam!
Served with beans and sour cream
They totally taste like tamales! Yay! As I said before, would have like to make the filling not quite as spicy. The sour cream balanced it well though.
Galen and Chloe
Tamales
Albin and Jocie
Back in Palo Alto, I remember walking into Albin’s grandmother Mimi’s house on several occasions to find the kitchen busy with a few of her friends making tamales. These women would be at it all day, enjoying their conversations together as they made a very large batch of tamales. Its a labor intensive process, easier with done with many hands and only every once in a while like so. It always looked difficult, but we were up for the challenge!
We actually wanted to make the tamales for Saturday night, but when we went to start the process at 4pm, we realized there was an overnight step: soaking the corn husks. Since we knew we would be going on a hike the next day with my sister Alyssa, Charlie, little Joe, Tinki, and Bob, we decided to prepare the green sauce and chicken filling as well.
Soaked the corn husks. (Hey, our plates kind of look like your plates, Sarah and Phil!)
Broiled the tomatillos.
Blended them with the onion, garlic, and Serrano peppers.
Braised the chicken and shredded it.
Chopped the cilantro.
Mixed it all together and put it in the fridge for the next day.
We wanted to make chicken tamales, but we have run into texture and flavor issues with making shredded chicken in the past. Previously, we boiled the chicken, but this time I wanted to try a new method. We braised the chicken instead, which basically required cooking the chicken in a covered, glass pan in the oven with onion, garlic, and spices. This worked light-years better! The chicken pretty much fell apart, it did not taste rubbery, and it had good flavor.
After getting back from our hike the next day, we completed the last steps of the process. We were in somewhat of a rush to get dinner on the table because my sister and the kids needed to back to Craftsbury so the kids could get to bed, and therefore, I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked. Albin whipped up the masa filling (this is the part I didn’t get any pictures of) while I put some snacks out on the table. I didn’t get to see how it was done exactly, but it seemed tricky to get the right masa consistency. When the masa was ready, we setup a mini assembly line. Albin would lay out two corn husks together, form the masa into a square across the two husks, and then slide it over to me. I would place a tablespoon or so of the green sauce and chicken filling down the center, carefully roll the husks up, tie the tamale together with a small strip of corn husk, and place them in the steamer. Repeat. We had to lay the tamales somewhat on their sides in order to fit the lid on the steamer.
Assembly line!
Unrolled Tamale
Placed them all in the steamer to cook for 40 minutes.
We served the tamales with a side of black beans and a salad featuring lots of avocado. Everyone enjoyed the tamales, even Charlie, who I thought would have disliked the spiciness. I look forward to the next time we make these so I can see how they taste after storing them in the freezer. Homemade tamales could be a great easy, mid-week meal if freezing them works.
“Dinner is ready!”
“I’m stuffed!”
The Weekly Cook-Off 
Freezing definitely works!
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