My April Cookalong: Tamales

My Mole Flavoured Tamales with Salsa

It's time for the Irish Foodies' Cookalong Challenge again: this month's theme was chocolate, so I decided on the very traditional Mexican Tamales with Chicken Mole. Tamales are steamed maize dough parcels wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves. They are really traditional and are served at most Mexican feasts and celebrations: Christmas, the Day of the Dead in November, Candelaria Day in February and in wakes, weddings, parties and any occasion one can muster the energy to make them. Tamales are stuffed with pork cooked in a fragrant chilli sauce, or with refried spicy beans, however nowadays people also use chicken, cheese and chilli, or like me today, chicken and mole. They're a little time consuming, but if you like cooking, the couple of hours will fly! I love them not only because they're really yummy, but also because they feel like home.

My tamales ready  & cooling down

I have blogged before about Mole, which is the Mexican answer to curry: it is a thick sauce made of a blend of different dried chillis, spices, seeds, nuts and of course, chocolate.  It is wonderfully fragrant and spicy without being too hot. The other half loves it! The tamales I made for the cookalong were stuffed with chicken mole, but I also did a few stuffed with refried beans, chipotle chilli and goat's milk Cheddar cheese (they were scrumptious). The recipe is a family one, so feel free to give me feedback if you try it. In the North of Mexico, where I am from, Tamales are wrapped and steamed in dried corn husks, while in the South of the country, people use banana leaves. I find that banana leaves give a lovely flavour and they look so cute! Also, they are easily available in Ireland reason why I used them here.

Note: you can get the mole paste and the tamales Masa-harina in our shop, www.mymexicanshop.ie Banana leaves are available in any Asian Shop. I bought mine at the Oriental Emporium in Rathmines, but any Asian or African food shop should stock them.

Mole Flavoured Tamales:

Equipment:

1 deep steamer

Kitchen string

Scissors

Skillet or pan

Electric Mixer

Ingredients:

(these quantities will yield about 18 - 20 tamales)

For the Tamales Filling:

2 chicken fillets

1 garlic clove

1 bay leaf

Pinch of salt

1 cup of mole paste (you can buy it here)

10 grams of dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

2 tbs of tomato puree

1 tbs of chicken stock powder (optional)

1 slice of stale white bread or 1 slice of white bread toasted

1.5 - 2 cups of stock where chicken cooked

For the Tamales' Dough:

4 cups of Tamales Masa-Harina (buy it here)

2 cups of cookeen at room temperature

4 cups of chicken stock (use the stock where chicken cook if possible)

1 tsp of table salt

2 tbs of baking powder

1 pack (200 grams or 3 pieces) of banana leaves (for stockist see note above)

Onto the Cooking:

 

The chicken mole mix ready

First of all, get your mole stuffing ready. Put the chicken fillets in a pot, cover generously with water (you'll be using this stock later on both Mole sauce and Tamal dough so make sure you have plenty of liquid), add the garlic clove (unpeeled), the bay leaf and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and let it simmer covered until the chicken is fully cooked (about 20 minutes max). Take the chicken out, shred it and set it aside. Reserve the stock for later. 

Put the mole paste in the blender or food processor, add the chocolate, the stale bread, the tomato puree, the chopped 1/2 onion, the chicken stock powder and 1 cup of the stock where the chicken cooked; blend well together until everything is a runny paste.




Banana leaves ready to be used

Heat a pan with a tiny bit of olive oil and pour the mole mix from the processor or blender. Stir regularly to avoid the sauce sticking. If the sauce thickens too much, add another 1/4 cup of the liquid where the chicken cooked. Add the shredded chicken and stir well. Cook for further three or four minutes or until the sauce and chicken are well incorporated and remove from it from the heat. Set aside and get on with prepping the banana leaves. 

Assembling the tamal

Prepping banana leaves for tamales requires a little bit of time and patience. Open your package and unfold the leaves. Banana leaves are quite long and have a thick stalk running through the middle (a bit like spinach only harder and with the consistency of palm tree). Normally you will get two or three long leaves in your package, but these are only half leaves, so they will have a stalky end. Using scissors, cut the banana leaves in ten inch segments so you might end up with four or five squares per leaf. Then proceed to trim off the stocky bit and discard.  Put the stopper in your sink and boil the kettle. Place your banana leave squares in the sink and pour the boiling water. Make sure the leaves are covered.  Heat a pan or a skillet and carefully take a banana leaf square off the sink. Dry it with a tea towel and place it on the hot pan and press with an egg lifter, as soon as the leaf changes colour, flip it and do the other side. Take it off the pan and place it on a plate. Repeat the same process with all your leaves. This is called "curing" and it ensures that any resin (which gives a bitter flavour) is removed from the leaf, this process also makes the leaf a little thinner and easier to fold.

The Tamal wrapped and ready

Now get on with the dough. Place the cookeen in a big bowl and whip it with the electric mixer until creamy. Add the masa-harina, the salt, baking powder and the chicken stock. If my any chance you run out of chicken stock, prepare some with a stock cube (although it is indeed better if you use the liquid where the chicken cooked). Using your electric mixer bring all this together until well mixed. This mixture is quite wet. To know if the dough consistency is good, fill in a glass with cold water and drop a small ball of dough in it, if the dough floats, your mixture is ready, if not, beat it a little longer with the electric mixer.



My Thai Steamer

You're ready to assemble the Tamales: take one of your cured banana leaves. Using a spoon, drop a generous amount of dough in the center of the leaf and with the back of the spoon spread it a little. Take a generous spoonful of Mole mixture and place it in the centre of the dough. wrap the mix with the leaf as if wrapping a present and use some kitchen string to keep it together. Don't worry if the mole mixture is not fully covered with dough, the nice thing about these tamales is that they should show a little of their flavour in the outside! If your leaf breaks in the wrapping process, take a second leaf and wrap the tamal a second time. Repeat this process till you have run out of one or all the ingredients!

If you have dough left over, but no more mole, be inventive with stuffing. Use big chunks of cheese and some jalapeno peppers, or cut thin slices of carrots and cheese. The dough is really versatile, so don't be afraid!

When you have your tamales ready, put them in a steamer and cook for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. I use my new Thai Steamer, but any old steamer is good.  Take the tamales off the heat into a plate and let them cool down for about 5 minutes, they should feel firm to the touch. Serve them with a generous portion of salsa and can be accompanied also by beans or a lettuce salad. Some people like to use salsa and sour cream. 

This recipe freezes really well. To reheat tamales, you can put them in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes or you can gently heat them up on a dry pan in the hob.