A Hungry Bear

I normally don’t look for shortcut type of recipes - the challenge of trying to make something in an “authentic” way is more rewarding and interesting. But the idea of tamales, a Mexican dish where you steam a packet of corn dough and fillings in a corn husk, is so foreign to me, just making a dumbed-down version of one seemed like a good place to start. I found this recipe on the Food & Wine website, and made a few minor modifications. This recipe is a good one if corn husks or special bamboo tamale steamers are intimidating.

Ingredients: 2 cups masa harina (a special type of corn flour - available at almost any grocery store), 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, 1 1/4 cups water, 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening (room temperature), 1/2 cup chicken stock, 2 1/2 cups shredded chicken (from a cooked rotisserie chicken), 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, 1/4 of a red onion finely chopped.

Put the masa harina, baking powder and salt into a food processor, and pulse for a few seconds to combine.

Pour in the water, then pulse for another few seconds, so you have a moist but crumbly dough.

Cut the shortening into little cubes, and add those to the flour mixture. Drizzle the chicken stock over top. Process until the dough is blended (stop and scrape down the sides once or twice so everything gets mixed in).

Scrape the dough into a large bowl.

Add the cheese, chicken, red onion and cilantro to the bowl.

Stir to combine, until all the filling ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Next, you have to form the tamales and wrap them in something so they can steam. Traditional tamales are wrapped in corn husks, and this recipe replaced corn husks with squares of plastic wrap. I don’t like the idea of cooking my food in plastic (it just seems like some sort of toxins from the plastic would inevitably transfer to the food), so a quick Google search turned up another, more common substitution for corn husks - parchment paper. Form a small rectangle of dough with your hands, about the size of a deck of cards, and wrap in paper, tucking the ends under one side. Repeat with all the remaining dough - I had exactly enough for 10 tamales.

If you don’t have a steamer, you can make one using a large pot with a lid and a colander. Put a couple inches of water in the bottom of the pot, then set a colander down inside - make sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the colander, or your tamales will boil instead of steam. Set the tamales in a single layer inside the colander, seam side down, and set the lid on top. Steam them for 25-30 minutes (check the water level occasionally and add more if necessary).

You might want to open up one packet and test it to be sure - I ended up adding 10 more minutes of cooking time since my lid didn’t fit snugly on top (steam was escaping so the tamales cooked slower). I served these with sour cream and two types of salsa on the side.