Tamales de mole amarillo

Mole amarillo is one of the most popular fillings for tamales, the best late-night treats available on the streets of Oaxaca, Mexico. This is my version created from the many different ones that I was shown and read about how to make. I use costeno amarillo chiles but unless you’ve got a stash that you picked up while in Oaxaca, you won’t have them. Substitute guajillos instead. The sauce will be a little more red/orange than yellowish in that case. There’s also some alternate vegetarian filling suggestions at the end.

These tamales are wrapped in banana leaves, which are available frozen in many Latin, Asian, and Indian grocery stores. I also use shortening rather than lard but if you are all about the lard, go ahead and use that for your masa. And if you don’t have comal, you can dry roast everything in a non-stick frying pan.

Makes 20-24 tamales

Ingredients:

Mole

4 chiles costeno amarillo
2 large plum tomatoes
½ small white onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves
2 med or 4 small tomatillos
2 cloves
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Pinch of cumin
1 ball of allspice
6 peppercorns
1 tsp oregano (preferably Mexican)
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup masa harina
2 cups chicken stock (use the water you poached your chicken in)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

Chicken for filling

8-10 chicken thighs
Handful of fresh parsley
1 clove of garlic
8 peppercorns
1 tsp salt

Masa for tamales

1 cup shortening
2 cups masa for tamales (store bought, dried)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1.5 cups warm chicken stock

1 pkg frozen banana leaves (defrosted)

Method:

1. Poach the chicken: Put chicken into a pot with parsley, garlic, salt, and peppercorns. Cover with water and poach chicken until done. Save stock to use in making mole. Set chicken aside to cool.
2. Remove stem and seeds from the chiles. Gently soften the chiles on the comal. Remove and place in a glass bowl and cover with boiling water. Let soak for at least 20 minutes.
3. Dry roast onion slices, garlic in the skin, tomatoes, tomatillos on the comal.
   
   Once ready put them all in the blender (remember to cool and remove the skin from the garlic). Add the cilantro, oregano, and chiles with some of their soaking liquid. Waz until smooth, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Grind the cloves, cumin, allspice, and pepper.
5. Heat oil in a small pot and quickly fry spices, including cinnamon, when hot. Add chile mixture and sear.  Bring to the boil and stir for about 5 minutes. Add masa harina as well as ½ a cup or so of chicken stock. Let boil for about 10 minutes. Add more stock if it’s too thick and let boil for a total of 15-20 minutes. Add salt to taste.
6. Shred the cooked chicken. Mix the shredded chicken and most of the mole together to make the tamale filling. It should be wet but not too runny. Add a little more of the mole and/or chicken broth until it is a good consistency.
7. The package of masa you have should have instructions on how to make the dough, so it’s best to follow those.  Basically mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add the chicken stock and incorporate. It should create quite a damp (but not at all runny) dough. Beat the shortening in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until it is quite fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Then add the masa to the shortening and beat until mixed together, about another 2-3 minutes. You can test to see if it’s fluffy enough by putting a small ball into a glass of water. If it floats, you’re good to go!
8. Put a layer of water about 5 cm/2” deep into a steamer pot or the largest pot you have in the house with a veg steamer tray in the bottom. The great thing about banana leaf tamales is you can just pile them one on top of another, unlike corn husk ones that need to be standing upright.
9. Wipe down the leaves and trim them with a scissors: cut off the stem and make squares approx. 20 cm/8” (they don’t need to be perfect). You should also cut them with the grain of the leaf rather than against it. Either cut some thin strings from the banana leaf or use cooking twine for wrapping up the parcels. 
10. Once your leaves are all prepared, pass them over a flame or grill, moving them constantly, until they soften and become pliable. The banana leaves have a white film on them. The heat should burn off the white film and make the leaves shinier. 
    
11. Place ¼ cup of masa onto each banana leaf and flatten (this works best with a rubber spatula). Put about 2 tbsp of filling on to the top half of the masa (not in the middle). Fold the leaf so the lower part masa covers the filling.
    
    You may have to roll or fold it again to close the packet up tightish. Then fold the sides of the banana leaf one at a time to form a package. Tie with string and place folded side down into the pot on the steamer tray. Pile them up neatly around the pot as you go.
    
    Once you have all them all wrapped and ready, cover the pot and turn on the burner to get the water boiling. Once boiling, turn down to low and let your tamales steam for about 45 minutes.
    
    
12. When done, remove from pot and let cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Top with a bit of salsa verde.

* Vegetarian fillings:

• Oaxacan cheese and rajas (slices of jalapeno or roasted poblano)
• Oaxacan cheese and refried beans

5-pepper and cheese tamales

When I was in Oaxaca, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the kitchen with my host family making tamales. They are impossible to reproduce at home due to the lack of fresh, soft masa and lard (which I wouldn’t use anyway but it sure does make for a rich and light tamal dough). So this recipe was inspired by that cooking adventure as Eunice uses swiss chard to wrap the tamales, rather than the traditional banana leaf or corn husk. I really enjoy the flavour the greens infuse into the tamale. And this version is 100% vegetarian.

These take a while to make, so be prepared to spend some quality time in the kitchen on a weekend. Your guests will be impressed.

These unique tamales are wrapped in swiss chard, which you also eat, rather banana leaves or corn husks that get tossed.

Yield: 10-14 tamales

Ingredients:

For the tamal dough:

(This will make double the amount of dough you need, so you can double the rest of the ingredients and make lots or you can use the remaining masa to make another kind of tamal. I made some amarillo mole with chicken tamales wrapped in corn husks with the remainder). 

280 g vegetable shortening, at room temperature 
Salt
1½ tsp baking powder
3½ cups dried masa harina for tamales mixed with 2¾-3 cups hot water
1 to 1½ cups vegetable stock

For the tamales:

·        2 big bunches of swiss chard

·        1 jalapeno

·        2 serrano chiles

·        1 red pepper

·        1 anaheim or banana pepper

·        1 poblano pepper

·        200 g of mushrooms

·        2 large or 3 smaller roma tomatoes

·        ½ onion

·        100-120g of monterey jack cheese with pepper in it (or really any melty cheese you want)

·        Salt

·        1 tsp Mexican oregano

·        Juice of half a lime

·        2 tbsp olive oil

For garnish:

·        Queso fresco or fresh ricotta

·        Salsa of your choosing, but freshly made is always best

·        Sour cream

Wash the swiss chard and let it dry. Then remove the stems so you are left only with soft leaves. I added probably about ¼ cup of finely sliced stems to the filling mixture, so cut and save that while you’re cleaning the leaves.

Tamal dough:

Mix the water and dried masa harina together until you have a soft dough. If it doesn’t hold together or is still a bit crumbly, add a bit more water until you can get a good ball of it. Sometimes if your masa harina has been around a while, it can get really dry so needs more water to reconstitute. Use hot but not boiling water for this as boiling water is really hard on the old hands when mixing it all together (obviously a lesson learned the hard way).

You can make the rest of the dough by hand, but it is much easier with a stand mixer so those are the instructions I’ll provide.

With your mixer on medium-high speed, beat the shortening, 2 teaspoons salt, and the baking powder for a minute or two. Continue beating as you add the masa in small handfuls.

Reduce the speed to medium-low and add 1 cup of stock. You should be able to roll the masa into a ball without it either breaking apart or being so soft it sticks to your hands so add more stock if you need to but be careful not to add too much. Continue beating for another minute or so, until a ½ teaspoon of the batter floats in a cup of cold water (if it floats you can be sure the tamales will be tender and light).

Taste the batter and season with more salt if you think it needs some. You can, if you have time, refrigerate the batter for an hour or so, then rebeat, adding a little more stock or water if you need to bring the mixture to the soft consistency it had before. This can make your dough a bit lighter.

Filling:

Roast the poblano. If you have a bbq or gas stove, char the skin over the flame. If you have an electric stove, put it under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning it so all sides get charred.  Put the hot pepper in a bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it sit/steam while you chop up the other ingredients so it will be easy to peel. Then remove the skin, stem, and seeds. Rinse it to get all the black stuff off. Then cut into 2” slivers.

Stem and deseed all the peppers and chiles. (You might want to wear gloves for this part). Then cut them into fine slivers about 2” long. Finely slice the onion and the mushrooms. Chop the tomatoes into small pieces.

Heat the oil in a medium-sized frying pan and add the peppers, chiles, onions, mushrooms, oregano, and a pinch of salt. Saute until soft, then remove and put in a mixing bowl. Using the same pan, cook the tomatoes, along with the lime juice, until they’re soft. You may have to add a bit of water and squash them in the pan to make it all saucy. Pour the saucy tomatoes into the vegetable mixture.

Cut the cheese into 2” long slivers.

Making the tamales

To steam the tamales you will need a really big pot with a wire rack or vegetable steamer on the bottom. Add water to the bottom of the pot until it is just below the rack. Lay a couple of swiss chard leaves or parchement paper (with a few holes poked in it) across the rack so you won’t have the steam directly hitting the tamales.

Take enough masa dough to roll into a walnut-sized ball.  Starting with pushing your thumb into the middle of the ball, proceed to flatten the ball on the palm of your hand. Add a tablespoon or so of filling as well as two or three strips of cheese onto the flattened ball. Then bring the edges up and make a bit of a dough packet.

Wrap each ball in a leaf of the swiss chard. Try to make sure that there is no dough peeking out but the wrapping doesn’t have to be super neat because once it’s steamed, you won’t be able to tell. Place the wrapped tamales into the steaming pot making sure you leave a space in the middle of the pot for the steam to travel through. If you don’t have a huge pot, you may have to steam in a couple of batches.

Once you have all of the tamales wrapped and placed in the pot, turn it on and get the water boiling. Once it has started to boil, turn the heat down to a very low simmer, cover and let the tamales steam for about 1½  hours.

Once they’re ready, gently remove them from the pot (it’s a bit tricky because the steamed chard is so soft and you don’t want to tear it) and place them on individual plates. Garnish with a bit of salsa, crumbled cheese, and sour cream on top.

You can have these as a whole meal accompanied with rice and a bit of salad or by themselves as an appetizer or snack.

(10 Weight Watchers SmartPoints per serving)

© 2016 Gail J. Cohen

Tamales!

They are crazy for tamales in Oaxaca. I thought tamales were mostly made for festivals because they take forever but here they eat them all the time - stuffed with moles, veg, chicken, etc. I have probably eaten tamales at least every second day since arriving. 

While I am in Oaxaca, I am staying with a family along with three other students from my language school. The four of us, along with the family of five, plus a dog and cute puppy make for a big household. Although the house is big and the students all have rooms with an ensuite (mini) bathroom to ourselves. While here, we get breakfast as well as the choice  of having our main meal. There's also a little restaurant in the garage that pops up every night. So there's cooking going on around here.  So I asked my host Eunice the other day if I could cook tamales with them one day and today was the day.

After lunch at 3, I hung around in the kitchen and tamale making started. Usually tamales are wrapped in either dried corn husks or banana leaves. Today, we used swiss chard, which was really awesome.

The tamales were pretty basic and easy to make, as tamales go.

Eunice showing me how the pros do it; the salsa, and the wrapped tamales getting ready for a steam.

The stuffing was thin slices of jalapenos (rajas de jalapeno), tons of onion, and tomato and shredded chicken. That's it. Basically cook it up into a salsa. In order to use it for the stuffing, just scoop some out of the pan and strain it so you don't get all the sauce, then add some chicken and that's it.

The masa (corn meal mixture) that is used for tamales is really hard to replicate back home but you can do a decent approximation using the pre-packaged masa that's available in lots of stores. Here's it's fresh and therefore much lighter and smoother. To the masa, which you can buy around the corner from pretty much anywhere, you add quite a bit of fat which makes the batter rich, and a few teaspoons of baking powder. 

Roll the masa into little balls, then turn those into a little cup, fill with salsa and chicken, seal them up, then wrap in the swiss chard. Then you just steam them until they're ready. In a pressure cooker it takes less time but in a regular pot, steaming would take about an hour and half. 

Once they're ready, simply serve with a bit of the salsa with juice as well as a bit of crema and crumbled queso fresco. Easy, peasy (and no messing around with unwrapping steaming hot leaves or corn husks!)

During the whole affair, I was chatting away in Spanish with Eunice, who told me my Spanish was pretty good. Her mom even said she understood most of what I was saying. So the whole Spanish lesson thing seems to be paying off. Maybe by the end of all this I'll be able to read and understand those kids books I bought at the book fair in the zocalo last night.