Corn Masa for Tamales using dry Corn

Monday is the day I share a little about food storage and since I'm teaching a tamale class tomorrow at Honeyville Farms in Chandler, Arizona, (10 AM and FREE) I thought I'd share how to use  Whole Kernel White Corn, or Whole Kernel Yellow Corn or Whole Kernel Blue Corn to make masa. Masa is the dough used to make homemade tamales and tortillas. 

While working with this corn. I've learned a few corny facts. Lend me your ear. Oh bad pun. Did you know there are more than 400 kinds of corn?! Oh my gosh. I for one have been a little lax in my use of the golden nuggets. How about you? I also was interested to know that I needed something to help digest the corn. To make the masa you will need to purchase something traditionally called "slaked lime", but chemically called Calcium hydroxide. 

It's available for 5$ a lb here.  When corn is not treated with the lime, it has an outer husk-fiber-type stuff that makes it very difficult to digest. The dough will also not hold together at all. It must come off.  Place 8 cups of corn in a 3 gallon pot with warm water and 3/4 cup of lime. Cover with 3 inches of water over the corn.

 Simmer at least 45 minutes.   It will bubble and foam quite a bit.

 What really surprised me was how bright orange the corn got at first.

After 45 minutes it will start to split and the outer skin will start to slip off rather easily. Almost slippery. Run the corn under a forceful stream of water. Rubbing between your hands.

This is how you wash the corn...(I did a short video)

As you rinse you will see a lot of this clear film left in your colander . It is the inedible portion of the corn.
Separate the edible corn from the outer fibers.

 Run the edible portion through a meat grinder fit with the finest setting.

 I ran it through once...

It looked pretty course at this point so I ran it through again with a little water.

 It should hold together like this.

The dough will look like this.

Now you are ready to go to the tutorial for Homemade Tamales. Use this masa in place of the dough recipe in the tutorial. It's amazing!

There you go. Oh. Masa doesn't keep very well so if you don't plan on using it within a day or so, put the unused dough in the freezer and use within a month.


Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Apple Cranberry Sweet Tamales

Homemade Tamales have been going on this week...among a few other things. The final dessert one (that I will be sharing anyway...) is today. Tart apple with sweet cranberry and some hints of nutmeg, ginger in a sweet tamale dough. It's like a steamed pudding but a tamale. You can use pretty much any fruit. Blueberry is amazing as well as the ever evil blackberry. Use a little orange or lemon zest in your masa if you use berries. You'll be glad you did.

Chef Tess' Apple Cranberry sweet tamales (yield 6-8 medium tamales)

For my tamale dough:

1 cup of Maseca for tamales

1 cup warm apple juice concentrate

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup butter, slightly softened

1/3 cup softened cream cheese

1/2tsp ground Wise Woman of The East Spice Blend (pumpkin pie spice will work)

1 tsp hazelnut oil (or 1/2 tsp brandy extract)

1 tsp lemon or orange zest (optional)

To make the dough:Combine Maseca, baking powder, salt, zest and spice in a bowl. Add apple juice concentrate and flavor to the dry ingredients. Add pieces of the butter and whip well. Continue adding butter until it is all combined and smooth. Add the cream cheese as well and whip until creamy smooth.

Filling:
1 Granny smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced
1/2 cup prepared whole berry cranberry sauce
1 tsp Wise Woman of The East Spice Blend
1 T honey

Combine all ingredients and simmer in a small sauce pan 3-5 minutes until apple is tender (or microwave 3 minutes).

You will need 8 pieces of parchment paper (8 inch squares) or 8 corn husks for tamales that have been soaked for 30 minutes. Parchment doesn't need to be soaked. Place a scoop of sweet masa dough in the middle of the parchment and spread out into a 2 inch circle. In the middle place 2 T of apple filling.

Cover the filling with dough.

Roll up the filling tightly in the parchment and fold the paper under.

Place in a steamer insert, cover with a clean damp kitchen towel and then cover with a tight lid. Steam 1 hour.

Serve warm drizzled with honey. Doesn't that honey look evil dripping off the tamale like that? I make extra filling and top with filling. In this case...we used some extra cranberry sauce. Enjoy.

There you go.

Sweet Pumpkin Spice Tamales

Homemade Tamales are a tradition around my little casa bonita. One thing that never fails to amaze me is the fact that people will almost unanimously cheer for regular savory tamales, but are a little stand off-ish at the mention of a sweet tamale. Honestly...it's an amazing little dessert, breakfast, or brunch. Such a sweet change. I make them almost identical in preparation and cooking. The only exception is the masa is sweet and the filling is sweet. There are many variations. Pumpkin is my personal favorite. You will need 6-8 clean dried corn husks, soaked in hot water. I do this soaking step well in advance. If you don't have corn husks, you can use an 8 inch square of parchment paper! It will work just as well. Parchment doesn't need to be tied, just rolled tightly, allowing the seam of the roll to be on the bottom and the edges to be folded under, again with the seams on the bottom.

Chef Tess' Pumpkin sweet tamales (yield 6-8 medium tamales)
For my tamale dough:
1 cup of Maseca for tamales
1 cup warm pumpkin puree (fresh or canned, I prefer fresh)
1/3 cup apple juice
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter, slightly softened
1/2tsp ground Wise Woman of The East Spice Blend (pumpkin pie spice will work)
1 tsp vanilla
To make the dough:
Combine Maseca, baking powder, salt, and spice in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, apple juice and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients. Add pieces of the butter and whip well. Continue adding butter until it is all combined and smooth.

It should be spongy. Not soupy.
Take out the corn husks from the water, lay flat. Put about 1/2 cup masa dough in the middle of the corn husk and spread it out in a 2 inch circle.
Filling:
6-8 3 inch by 1/2 inch chunks of high quality chocolate (I prefer Guitard)
Fill and roll the same way as we did with the Homemade Tamales. Steam under a clean damp washcloth in a covered tamale steamer or steam insert. It takes about an hour.

Once tamales have cooked, remove from the corn husk, place on a plate and drizzle with chocolate sauce, carmel sauce, or maple syrup. Tara's filling for pumpkin whoopie pies warmed a few seconds and then drizzled over the top might make you cry. In a good way.

There you go. Enjoy.

Homemade Tamales

Suddenly it's December. Now it's time to make the tamales for Christmas. Yes, officially it's Navidad time in the Southwestern USA and I am in a very Arizona boarder town. So every market and grocery store has case lots of Masa mix and wheelbarrows brimming with Corn Husks for Tamales by El Guapo - Hojas para Tamal . Bags and bags of dried chile, pasilla-ancho-o-heaven in billowing piles of joy. Yes. It's tamale time my lovelies. It is also Tuesday. So we're having our weekly tutorial (and I do try to make it every week, though sometimes mommy stuff gets in the way). If you don't happen to live in the Southwest and have these items on hand, I know there are a lot of online places to order these things. Maseca Corn Masa Flour for Tamales is what I use most often. I like how it turns out...and here it's not nearly as expensive as online. Right around 3$ for the 4.4lb bag. That makes a freakin' huge amount of tamales too. The recipe on the bag is a good starter.
EASY STEPS TO MAKE TAMALES RECIPE which is really similar to what I use for my turkey tamales. The best way to have left over turkey I have ever encountered is nestled in a warm tamale with some savory herbs and spices. Dear land. Here we go. Oh...you will need either a tamale steamer or a large pot with a steam insert and a tight fitting lid. I happen to have one I use for vegetables that also works for tamales. If you don't have one, the Aluminum Tamale Steamer is available on line. Get this...I don't even work for Maseca. So there's the free add for them.

For my tamale dough:
2 cups of Maseca for tamales
2 cups lukewarm broth
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup organic vegetable shortening (spectrum brand)
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 T lime juice

Turkey Tamales

1 lb lean cooked turkey, shredded

1 1/2 ounce pasilla-ancho, ground

1 tsp each whole: cumin seed, coriander seed, black peppercorn

2 tsp minced garlic

2T lime juice

2T olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

16 dry corn husks

2 1/2 lb prepared masa (tamale dough above)

First, I cover then corn husks in hot water. Then I start grinding the whole spices. If you don't have a coffee grinder or spice grinder, you can used the preground spices. They won't have as fresh a flavor, but they will work. Ironically, this coffee grinder I have has never once been used for coffee...only spices. It is also the same one I use for my Chef Tess Fajita Seasoning, if I can add a shameless plug for my spice blend. It's really crazy good.

Whirl them once or twice and then add the Pasilla - Ancho Dried Chile Peppers. Also available on most online sources. Again, this is the kind I prefer. It has a bit of smokiness to it and I love that. Remove the stems and most of the seeds. I don't make my tamales super hot...but the more seeds you keep, the hotter the tamale.

The smell is most amazing! I promise.

Combine the fresh ground spices,garlic, lime juice, oil and salt. Marinate covered in the fridge while you make the masa dough.

Masa dough is cool.

Combine Maseca, baking powder, garlic powder, salt, coriander and cumin in a bowl. Add the broth, lime juice and shortening, beating vigorously.

It should be spongy. Not soupy. Sponge masa square pants...oye! Yikes.

Take out the corn husks from the water, lay flat. Put about 1/2 cup masa dough in the middle of the corn husk and spread it out in a 2 inch circle.

Put a tablespoon of the seasoned turkey in. Do the hokey poky.

Random vegetarian note:

If you don't want to use meat, you can use corn with green chiles. 1 lb corn, 1/2 cup green chiles, 1/2 cup onion...and the same seasoning as above. You will also need cheese if you eat it. about 6 ounces of sharp cheddar.

See, I didn't forget the vegetarians. Ace was so happy.

Now you need to roll up the corn husk, being careful to keep the masa dough surrounding the meat or cheese. One roll, then fold the bottom "pointed end" of the corn husk toward the middle of the tamale.

Hold the fold down with your thumb and roll again.

The rolled corn husk will cover the fold.

Lay flat, roll side down.

I like to bundle the open end and tie it with a strip of corn husk. Husk can be torn when wet. Who knew? At any rate, I bunch...then tie tight. Some people fold them over and tie the whole thing. Some people don't tie them at all. Do what you want. I think they cook better when they are a little contained.

Tie.

Nestle them in the steamer and cover with a clean wet wash cloth. Cover with a tight fitting lid. Heat is low, but water is boiling. Approximately 1 hour. I always stick to one hour at least.

1 hour. I know you can't even wait...but you'll have to. Time warp on my blog goes really quickly anyway. Woooosh. See?

So this is the moment of truth. Is it a good tamale...or not?
Moist, savory, spicy, full of well rounded flavor, and all for me (especially the "all for me" part). Yup. That's a good tamale right there folks. (click on that picture... go on.)

I will now break forth into singing like Julie Andrews, "...Brown paper packages tied up with string..." Laaa laaa laaa laa...
Feel honored you got to hear that (or not). Brown paper packages...or something similar.
Happy?

There you go. Savory tamales. Oooo la la.