Friday, September 27, 2013

Spicy Tamales- MoFo Post Twenty

Post #20 for Vegan MoFo 2013. 

Welcome to post 20! I have made my goal by posting 20 times in one month. This might be my last post for the month and for MoFo. My goal was to post 20 times during the month and I have met that goal. I am considering one more post before the month ends sharing more Puerto Rico pictures. The trip was a little over a month ago and I have not yet had the time to sort through all of the pictures. This month has found me busy and a bit too distracted to do that.


Here are the tamales all wrapped up
I have not decided if I will have any more posts for the month, so I wanted to leave you with one of my favorite meals- spicy tamales. This meal was a lot of work and took longer than I would have liked, but the end result was delicious! It was great at dinner and just as great the next day warmed up for lunch at work. I unwrapped them the evening before and placed them in my glass lunch containers for lunch the next day. I normally add hot sauce to my lunch foods, but I had no need because the spice was inside! 


It had been years since I have had a tamale because they generally contain dairy. I have been thinking for a while about recreating this dish. As a child, I have a memory of making them with my mother. I do not remember eating these more than once, but I wish we had. There are so many fillings that could be used inside the tamale, but I decided to go with vegan cheese and a green chili and chipotle and adobo pepper mixture. I wanted to keep it relatively simple, but spicy. It had been a while since I purchased canned chipotle and adobo, but had been craving the smoky flavor of the pepper. The tamale was a perfect vessel for that craving. 

Left: filling, Right: Guacamole
The tamales take quite a while and can be labor intensive, but I feel that with practice the process will go faster. I have not tried it, but I wonder if the corn mixture can be made in advance by a day or two. The recipe makes about 12 tamales, but it is best to soak more than 12 husks in case any break and for the ties. I soaked about five more than I needed and ended up having to double up several because of rips in the husks. 


I hope you enjoy these tamales as much as we did! I expect to try these beauties again with plenty of other fillings. Along side the tamales, I served a homemade guacamole.

Spicy Tamales 
  • One package of dried corn husks
  • 1 c vegan cheese
  • 1 can chipotle and adobo
  • 8 oz chilies, any spice level
  • 16 oz frozen corn, thawed
  • 1 c cornmeal
  • 1/2 c masarepa (I used this bc I had it leftover, but you could use masaharina)
  • 1 tbsp vegan butter
Soak the corn husks in water according to package directions (should be about an hour or two). When finished soaking, take one of the husks and tear off strips to use to tie the tamales.

While soaking, make the cornmeal filling. In the food processor process the thawed corn until it forms a thick paste. Add in the cornmeal and masarepa and process until a dough forms. Set aside. 

Remove four peppers from the can and chop. In a bowl combine the chipotle and adobo and the chilies. Mix until incorporated.  Add in some of the sauce in the can and mix again. Taste for spice level and add more, as desired.

Remove the corn husks from the water and dry them off so that they are not dripping wet. Place a flattened husk on a work surface and place several tablespoons of the corn filling on the husk. Flatten out the cornmeal with your hands to make a square in the center of the husk. Place some of the cheese and pepper mixture in the tamale. Fold the sides of the husks to enclose the filling. Then fold the bottom of the husk over the tamale and use the torn husk pieces to tie the tamale together. I used two ties per tamale. 

Place a steamer basket in a large saucepan. When the water comes to a boil, add in the steamer basket and place the tamales on top of each other in the basked. Place on the lid, turn down the heat to medium low and steam for 45 minutes. When finished, unwrap the tamales and serve!

9 comments:

Dawn said...

mmmm... maybe we should update the plan to an empanada AND tamale party. I haven't tried to make those yet. Was hoping to for MoFo and didn't get to them so I'm glad you did :)

Unknown said...

Oh WOW! Looks and sounds amazing! Talented, you are!

affectioknit said...

I haven't made tamales in ages...thanks for the reminder!

~Have a lovely day!

GiGi said...

Congrats on making your goal! Looks like the labor was worth it. The end result is great!

Richa said...

yay made it to post 20! those tamales look great

Unknown said...

Hope to see more posts even tho MoFo is over for this year :) LOVED 'meeting' you!!!!

aldpam said...

Don't know if you're aware but the Embasa brand of Chipotle in Adobe sauce contains wheat flour, I mistakenly added some to a chili recipe and didn't realize till after I had 2 servings.

VeggieAmanda said...

Thanks for the tip! I check when I buy anything and that brand didn't have wheat flour in it. And I would have known, bc I would have gotten sick! :-( I'll definitely look again when I buy it though. Thanks for stopping by!

Unknown said...

Miss you! Hope you post again!!!!