put
When I make a red sauce for tamales, I use tomato sauce, thin it with water,add salt, garlic powder, ground chile powder and ground cumin. Sorry, I do it on the fly and never wrote down any measurements.
4 dozen tamales made 1351Tamales can sound complicate, but it's most grunt work. I'd suggest searching on the net for a recipe that sounds good to you. I've briefly covered what...
Here is a quick recipe for tamales from Azteca Milling, makers of Maseca corn flour. I have made tamales from this and other recipes many times. This one has always provided very good results. It utilizes rotisseried chickens sold at most supermarkets. You could also easily adapt it to use pork, beef, orcheese & green chiles. The recipe that follows was the 1st place winner for the "Best Commercial Gourmet Tamale" at the annual International Tamale Festival in Indio, CA - Dec. 2, 2000.
60 minute Chicken Tamales
Yields aprox. 25 Tamales
6 Cups Maseca corn flour for tamales 1 Large (49oz.) Can Chicken broth 1 Cup Vegetable corn oil Salt 1 1-2 tsp.Baking powder 2 Large rotisserie chickens 2 Jars Green tomatillo sauce (12oz.) 1 Bag Corn husks (shells)
Soak the corn husks in warn water until soft.
Blend with an electric mixer, Maseca, corn oil, salt, baking powder and the chicken broth to obtain a consistent mixture.
Shred the chicken and marinate in the green tomatillo sauce.
Spread masa evenly over corn husks. and spread a spoonful of marinated chicken on top of the masa.
Fold the sides of the corn husk to center over the masa so that they overlap to make a long package.
Fold the empty part of the husk under so that it rests against the side of the tamale with a seam
Place the tamales in a steamer and cook tamales for 35 - 40 minutes. Check every 20 minutes.
The tamale is cooked when it separates easily from the corn husk.
Notes: 1.) Unless you make your tamales rather small, the yield will be less than 25. 2.) I prefer the regular Maseca corn flour instead of the coarser ground variety specified "for tamales" in the recipe. 3.) I recommend longer steaming times than indicated in this recipe. --DR
