Cornmeal Tamales Recipes

HOMESTYLE HOT TAMALES - NEW ORLEANS STYLE

Steps:

• Put 150 to 180 tamale papers in water. Put in one at a time, sink it and add another until all are submerged. Set aside.
• Thoroughly combine all ingredients for meat mixture. Roll into finger-sized logs (approximately 150 to 180). Set aside.
• Combine cornmeal and salt with shortening, blending well with your hands. (The dough should be dark yellow and adhere easily to the outside of a meat log; if not, add more shortening.) Enclose each meat log in the cornmeal dough; place on a paper and roll halfway up; then tuck in one side of the paper and finish rolling.
• Cover the bottom of a large pot with chili powder. Add a row of tamales and sprinkle top with chili powder; then add another row, facing in the opposite direction, and sprinkle top with chili powder. Continue in this fashion until all of the tamales are layered in the pot.
• Pour cans of tomato sauce on top; then add water until all tamales are covered. Wait a few minutes (because water will soak into the layers) and pour in additional water until tamales are covered again. Bring to a boil and cook on high for 5 minutes; then reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

HOT TAMALES (LOUISIANA STYLE)

Steps:

• Run onions, celery, garlic, and bell pepper through your food processor until they are finely minced.
• In a very large bowl, combine ground meat, minced veggies, chili powder, cayenne pepper, and salt. Mix together thoroughly using your hands. Add in the rotel, 1 cup of corn meal, and 1 can of tomato sauce; mix again. (You need to mix the wet ingredients in separately from the spices so that the spices don't all clump together in one spot.)
• Lay out your papers beside two baking sheets or trays. Add 1 cup of cornmeal to one baking sheet, to roll the tamales in (the other one is to stack completed tamales on.)
• Pinch off some of the meat mixture, and form into a ping pong sized ball. Roll it in the cornmeal, coating it as thick as you can. Place in the center of a tamale paper on one side, and roll. The ball should squish into a log, leaving an inch of the wrapper empty on either end. Press down the top of both empty ends, and fold the two sides of the ends in before folding them under the tamale.
• Repeat with the remainder of the meat mixture. After a few, you get the feel of how much meat it will take to fill the wrapper up enough. We got 75 tamales out of one batch, it depends on how big you make them.
• In a large dutch oven, pour in the 1/2 cup oil and 1 can tomato sauce. Cover with a layer of tamales, then a can of sauce, and a sprinkle of chili powder, repeating until you run out of tamales. Fill the pan with water until the tamales are just covered.
• Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer 2 - 2 1/2 hours till done, adding water if necessary.

EASY CORN TAMALES

Steps:

• Working in batches, add the corn kernels to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until pale. Add the egg, salt, and baking powder. Mix to incorporate. Add the flour and pureed corn and mix until blended and forms a loose smooth dough.
• Put a corn husk lengthwise in front of you with the wide side closest to you. Spread 3 tablespoons of the dough all over the bottom half (wide side) of the corn husk, leaving about a 1-inch-wide border on the left and right sides. Pick up the 2 long sides of the corn husk and bring them together. Roll both sides of the corn husks in the same direction over the filling.
• Repeat with remaining corn husks and dough. Arrange the tamales, seam side down, in a steamer and add 1/2-inch of water. Cover with a tight fitting lid, bring to a simmer and steam for 1 hour, adding additional water, as needed to maintain 1/2-inch of water in the pan. Remove the tamales from the steamer to a serving platter and serve.

HOT TAMALES LIKE YA MAMA MAKES

Steps:

• Place the tamale papers into a shallow baking pan and soak them in just enough water to keep them wet.
• Place the ground beef in a large mixing bowl.
• With a food processor, puree the onions, garlic and Rotel tomatoes with juice. Pour this puree over the ground beef along with the red pepper, black pepper, salt, cornmeal, chili powder and tomato sauce. With your hands work this together until the meat mixture is uniformly and thoroughly blended. Your hands may become stained from the chili powder. Set aside at room temperature for about 30 minutes so that the seasonings can marry. In the meantime, mix cornmeal coating and tamale sauce.
• Cornmeal Coating:.
• In a shallow baking pan, blend together the cornmeal, salt, red pepper and chili powder until thoroughy mixed; set aside.
• Tamale Sauce:.
• In a small bowl combine tomato sauce and chili powder, stirring well; set aside.
• The Work Station:.
• Place a large sheet of aluminum foil on a work surface. This is what you're going to roll the tamales on to keep things tidy. Put within reach the meat mixture, cornmeal coating, tamale papers and the loaf pans.
• Begin Rolling:.
• Using about one (1) tablespoon of the meat mixture, take your hands and roll out an oblong tamale about the size of a Vienna Sausage and toss it around in the cornmeal mixture. It's not necessary to pack the cornmeal on; just a light coating.
• Remove tamale from the cornmeal and wrap it in one of the wet tamale papers. It's best to wrap them from point to point diagonally, tucking in the edges of the paper as you wrap.
• As you finish each one, place it into the aluminum loaf pan. There should be three layers of tamales with 10 tamales on each layer, fitting into the pans perfectly with criss-crossed layers so the tamales cook evenly.
• When all the pans are loaded, pour the sauce evenly over the tamales and fill each loaf pan with "boiling" water. Tightly cover each pan with aluminum foil and place them into an retangular roaster. Finally, fill the roaster with just enough water to come about 3/4 up the sides of the pans. Do Not Overfill.
• Place the roaster on the stovetop, cover it tightly and simmer the tamales for about 2 hours.
• Tips for freezing:.
• If doubling the recipe for freezing, roll and wrap, placing them into loaf pans, ladle on the sauce, cover with heavy-duty aluminum foil and freeze uncooked. Or, for fully cooked tamales, cool, cover tightly with aluminum foil and freeze; defrost in refrigerator.