I took an all day tamale cooking class a couple of years ago. That experience truly made me appreciate the laborious effort these little pockets of joy require. Although I did venture to replicate the steps at home, I knew none of my friends or family would be interested in that particularly painful joy of cooking.
Ah ha! I worked out a delicious, simplified solution by tweaking a couple of steps. By using my secret ingredient of Italian polenta in lieu of the lard ridden traditional masa, these rich, delicious tamales are easier to make and healthier! As an additional bonus, you will master cooking polenta you can serve in a traditional Milano Italian dish slathered with meat ragu and cheese. That’s Amore!
By preparing the polenta and pork filling (or bean, chicken, or cheese) a day or two ahead, you can still invite grandchildren or friends to assemble the tamales and FIESTA. This social experience is steeped in traditional Mexican families especially at Christmas. My version of this recipe, by using all precooked ingredients, reduces the assembled steamed-cooked time from 1 hour to only 30 minutes pot to plate!
Ingredients for 24 Tamales
Prepare Polenta this makes 16 cups, 1.5 hours cooking time plus cooling. Best to do a day ahead.
2 cups whole coarse ground polenta / corn meal the best is Bob’s Red Mill
11 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
Method
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Add all of these 3 ingredients in oven ready pot and bring to a boil by stirring regularly. When this begins to vapor but not boil remove from heat and cover with lid.
Place in oven and cook undisturbed one hour. Then remove from oven and whisk quite vigorously. Cool to room temp for tamale prep. (If serving as a dish, add grated cheese after whisking and serve in a bowl topped with favorite ragu and more cheese!)
Pork Filling for 24 Tamales
3 pound boneless pork roast cut into 2 inch chuncks.
Sprinkle with 1Tablespoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper cover and bake in covered pot 2 hours at 350 degrees. The fat in the meat will create its own juice. Remove from oven and from juice. Retain 1/4 cup of juice for adding back to meat. Shred meat with 2 forks, as it should be very tender. Add the small 1/4 cup juice. You can add more spices to taste but avoid adding liquid to the meat you want it pretty dry to place inside the tamale. Refrigerate until ready to assemble tamales.
Assembling Tamales
Remove 25 corn husks from bag and soften by placing them in a bowl then cover with boiling water for 30 minutes. Sometimes they tear so I added one for good measure.
The husks are triangle shaped place the narrowest point at the top of your work space shiny side down. Place cooled polenta in a square shape in the middle of husk as shown in photo. Take a heaping amount of cool pork in the middle. Taking one side of the husk fold the polenta to the middle like an envelope. Repeat on the other side by overlapping the first side to create the tamale. Last take the short end of the point and fold it over. This fold will keep the contents dry during steaming. You leave the top open. Stand up the tamale in an empty pot while assembling the rest as shown in photo.
The last step is to steam the straight up tamales in s basket steamer pot covered for 30 minutes.
Tamales can be served or frozen for later consumption.
To cook from frozen wrap in a wet paper towel and microwave for one minute.
What a perfect melding of a Mexican tradition with a delicious Italian twist!
Fiesta Amore!!!
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| One pound bag corn husks ~ $7. Makes ~ 50-75. |
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| Soaked husks. Square of polenta. Pork filling. Ready to roll one side of husk to other. |
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| After rolling sides take tip end and fold up. Top of husk will remain open and pointing up for steaming. |
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| Standing up proud ready to steam for 30 minutes! |
