Years ago I offered tour and tea of The Huntington as auction items for fund raisers. One year our good friend Mary Swanton paid a high price to buy the offering and made it a gift to her Mother-in-law and friends. The tour and tea were fun; it was a joyful group. Our conversation ranged across many topics, including food.
Learning that making Tamales was a like a quilting bee for the family, I interrogated them about recipes and process. The fallout from this was an invitation later in the year to join them in tamale-making, an opportunity I would not turn down.
I’ll check back to see if I still have photos to include in this page, but minimally I recorded the recipe at the time, which I’m archiving here.
Ingredients:
- 6 lbs fresh prepared masa
- 5-6 lbs whole chicken breast, with skin and bone
- 15-20 Jalapeños and 10-12 Tomatillos
- Garlic – one entire cluster
- Small Onion
- A bunch of celantro
- Liquid lard (available in Mexican markets)
- Caldo de Pollo (instant soup/broth)
- Prepared corn husks (enough for 3 dozen tamales)
Prepare Chicken:
Boil whole Chicken breasts (with skin and bones, 5-6 lbs), adding 2 T of Caldo de Pollo, additional salt to taste, a small onion cut into wedges, and a whole head of garlic (with the top sliced off).
Partially shred the cooked chicken breast and set aside. Reserve broth.
Prepare Sauce:
- Cook several tomatillos (7-10) and jalapeños (12-20) in pure water, until very tender
- Drain water and puree cooked fruit with a large fistful of celantro tops (I go very light on this)
- Heat a quarter cup of lard in a skillet, add puree and cook until the mixture comes to a boil and loses some of its green color.
- Combine sauce with shredded chicken and set aside
Tamale Construction:
Bring 6 lbs of Prepared Masa (Ours was purchased from La Blanquita in El Monte, CA. Prepared masa contains the baking soda, salt, broth and flavoring needed) to room temperature, soften to the consistency of a wet dough or very heavy batter using liquid lard (from Mexican markets) – we added about a quarter cup. A pea-sized portion of masa should float in water.
Using cleaned corn husks that have been soaked thoroughly and drained, position the point away from you and spread one of the large, intact husks (or two to three layered husks to achieve the same size and integrity) such that you are looking at the inner surface (the husk will cup upward), and the husk forms a rounded triangle with the long point positioned at the top. It will be 9-10 inches top to bottom, and 8-10 inches across the skirt. Dry the inner surface of the husk with a cloth or paper towel.
Using a large soup spoon, take a fairly good-sized portion of masa (about a quarter cup) and place it near the top of the corn husk. Holding and cradling the top angle with one hand, smear the masa with the bowl of the spoon, pulling the spoon toward you, such that the masa covers the corn husk surface smoothly. A great tamale will have less than one quarter inch of masa covering the bulk of the broad area of the husk.
Spoon a nice amount of the shredded chicken and sauce mix – about the amount that will fill the bowl of a large cooking spoon – into the center of the masa. Fold one side of the corn husk completely over the filling. Then fold the other side over and turn the pointed end down toward you (a 2-3 inch fold) to hold the package together.
Stack the tamales with the fold down, so they stay closed.
Cook – or Save for Later:
The tamales can be steamed immediately (it will take up to 2 hours), or packed in freezer bags and frozen for use over the next two months. Frozen tamales do not need to be thawed. They can be placed directly in the steamer, though cooking time will be extended by 30-40 minutes.
Steam the tamales until the masa is completely cooked and congealed. To accomplish this, stack them vertically in a large boiler such that they are elevated over a water reservoir. Cover with a tight lid and steam at a simmer. When cooked, the masa should cling together in a layer and should peel easily from the corn husk. This recipe makes about 3 dozen tamales.
Serve: Eat while warm. A flavorful tamale needs no additional salsa. All elements contribute to the taste, from the corn husk and the corn of the masa, to the flavorings and chiles, to the chicken and broth. Every flavor will be present in a spectacular mingle.
Alternative Filling: To make a cheese tamale, use a strip of Monterey Jack cheese (about the size of a healthy carrot stick) and 2-3 strips of roasted Pasilla Poblano Pepper as filling. The pepper can be roasted on a comal (an iron griddle) until blackened somewhat on all sides and heated through. After wrapping in a cloth or paper towel, the steamed and softened pepper can be peeled, seeded and cut into strips.)
Page Link: https://botanyincontext.com/andole-tamales-by-eva-guzman/