At night in San Cristóbal de las Casas, many houses have red lights outside their house, and not for the reason you might first guess. The lights signal the ready sale of tamales. Hot, fresh, mouth-watering tamales.
Every region of Mexico has its own spin on the tamale and they're filled with depends on locally available ingredients. Presented here is just one of the possibilities for tamales, but you can easily add anything you wish to the dough to make these tamales specific to your area: local peppers, cheeses, fruits, meats, anything.
Keep in mind that this is not a fast process. You’ll probably want to invite a good friend over and make double or triple batches and then freeze them for a quick snack or to wow guests at future parties and events.
Recipe for Tamales
Dough:
- 2 lbs of masa flour
- 3 Tbls of paprika
- 3 Tbls of chili power
- 3 Tbls of garlic power
- 1 Tbls of cumin seeds
- 3 Tbls of salt
- 2 cups of corn oil
- 2 quarts of chicken/ pork broth
(For a sweet dough use cinnamon, and nutmeg instead of paprika, chili, and garlic. Substitute plain water or watered down fruit juice for broth. Sweeten dough with 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup maple syrup.)
Method
- Mix together dry ingredients (masa and spicies) in a large bowl.
- Add oil and mix thoroughly.
- Add broth one cup at a time until the dough is the consistency of peanut butter.
Filling (This is traditional chicken and pork filling, but corn nibblets and green chilies are also common fillings):
- 2 lbs carne machaca - slow cooked shredded beef
- 2 lbs shredded pork (Click for recipe)
- 2 lbs shredded chicken
- 8 Tbls of chili powder
- 2 Tbls of garlic powder
- 2 Tbls of ground cumin
- 1 Tbls of pepper
- 2 Tbls of salt
- 1 cup of corn oil
Method:
- Heat corn oil on stove with spices just a bit to bring out the smell of the spices and to evenly distribute them.
- Combine with shredded meat and mix thoroughly.
Construction:
24 (or so) Corn husks
- Soak corn husks in warm water for 2 hours to soften.
- Shake excess water off corn husk and lay flat on a table. (There are three traditional methods of rolling and securing tamales. This is the easiest and most common.)
- Smear about a 1/2 cup of dough on 2/3 of corn husk going lengthwise.
- Add a spoonful of sauce such as mole or salsa verde or even the black bean sauce from this tlayuda recipe.
- Add a Tbs. of meat filling. For extra heat add some sliced jalapeños or chipotle peppers. If using a sweet dough, add raisins, or fruit pieces. Some tamales are even made with bits of Mexican cheese.
- Roll tamale starting with the filled side towards the empty side of the corn husk.
- Repeat until you have used up all your dough.
Cooking:
- Steam tamales for two hours in a large steamer taking care the tamales do not touch the water.
Serve with crema and some chopped cilantro.
