If you know how to make the Masa (previous post), you can make any kind of tamales you want. These are my favorite. IF YOU ARE A VISUAL LEARNER THERE'S A VIDEO TUTORIAL ON MY INSTAGRAM PAGE! 😉 @Just_Dannica_
Ingredients:
- Masa (prepared)
- Corn husks
- Queso Fresco (Mexican crumbling cheese) sliced into sticks
- Potatoes, sliced into sticks
- Zucchini, halved & sliced into sticks
- Long carrots, peeled, halved & sliced into THIN sticks
- Poblano, sliced into sticks
- Jalapeño, sliced into sticks
- you will also need parchment paper, a LARGE ASS pot and a steamer basket or trivet
Directions:
- If everything is prepped, great! if not, get to it.
- In a large bowl (tall enough for the husks), add water to it and soak the corn husks before you use them. Flip a few times, these will rip dry and wet. But they're unusable while dry. I let mine soak for about 30 minutes, flipping occasionally.
- Tear parchment paper into big squares for wrapping the tamales up in after folding. Set aside.
- Take a corn husk (I like the bigger ones, small ones work great too, you may just need another small one to go with it.
- Grab a medium sized ball of Masa, squeeze once to make sure consistency is good. With the palm of your hand press dough onto husk, (start almost at the bottom), gently but firmly press the dough out onto the husk. Do this thin like but not paper thin! It should stay together as a dough, it should not be breaking apart (if it is, go back and fix your masa). Most of the husk should be covered with dough.
- Add 2 pieces of cheese, and 1 piece of each vegetable. Everything should be grouped together, on top of each other is fine too.
- Now, take the right side of the husk and fold it over to the middle, it can either cover the middle or not, it doesn't matter. Press down on the folded side, so the dough closes it. Take the left side and fold over to the middle as far as you can. (IF IT RIPS TAKE ANOTHER HUSK AND WRAP IT AROUND IT LIKE A BLANKET). Fold up the little tail at the end of the husk.
- Once the end is folded, start to firmly squeeze the tamale from the bottom up. (Like the end of a toothpaste tube, ya know?) Look at the top of the tamale and you can see the dough close up over the vegetables, (for the most part).
- Lay your tamale down on a piece of parchment paper, in the corner closest to you. Fold over your tamale once and then tuck in ends and continue rolling. (Sandwich style). Make sure you know which side is the top of the tamale.
- In a HUGE pot add the steamer basket and add enough water right before it touches the basket.
- Start to add the tamales, top side up! Make them nice and tight together. Make sure the thicker/bigger sized ones going first, there will be room on top of the tamales for shorter and smaller tamales to lay on top of. THEY HAVE TO BE SMALL THOUGH! Cover with a lid and turn on medium heat, JUST TO GET IT STARTED. Once you her boiling, to down to low and cook for 3 hours before testing one.
- Testing, vegetables should be almost completely mushy, and the dough should now be hard-ish. If its sticky, they need a little longer.
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