Today is the tamale-making day! Chef Bravo and Chef Maurício offer cooking classes once a week in the evening. Now that I am eating, I could not miss a chance to learn how to make tamale without the traditional lard that is used to make the corn dough that surrounds the filling and then wrapped in corn husk and steamed.
We were provided recipes for the tamale dough, a green salsa, and a red mole to mix with assorted roasted veggies to place as the filling. I will describe the making of the tamale dough, but will leave the salsas to you to discover in one of Chef Bravo’s cookbooks or classes, as this is his recipe. Making and wrapping the tamale is a labor-intensive process, so it is often reserved for special occasions and made with a group of people. The good news is the tamales freeze well so that you can make a batch and freeze some and eat some later.
Corn husks are not organic, so if this is a concern for you, then soak your corn husks in hot water for 10 minutes, drain the water and repeat this step three times. If you are not concerned, then soaking once and draining is sufficient or you can use banana leaves to wrap the tamales instead.
First, soak 1 &1/2 cups of cashews in cold water for 3 hours. Next, take 9 cups of no-salt vegetable broth in a saucepan with 1 teaspoon of granulated garlic and 1 teaspoon of granulated onion and reduce on medium heat to 4 &1/2 cups of broth to concentrate the flavor and let cool. Drain the cashews reserving the liquid and place the cashews in a high-speed blender with ½ cup of soaking liquid and blend until smooth adding liquid if needed to form a smooth paste.
In a food processor, add 4 cups of masa-harina and 1 tablespoon of baking powder and mix for 30 seconds. Add the cashew paste until combined, then add the broth mixture. This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and is enough to make 15 -18 tamales.
Now you are ready to make the tamale. We had an assortment of roasted corn, carrot slices, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, chard, and black beans for our filling. We took a bowl, placed the items together for the filling, and mixed it with mole or green salsa. We took a corn husk or banana leaf, spread the ¼ to ½ cup masa and then add the filling in the center of the masa filling, and then fold.
Pro-tip is to place the masa on the shiny side of the wrap that you are using so that the tamale will not stick once it’s cooked. If you don’t know how to wrap the tamale, there are YouTube videos that will guide you. If you are using the corn husk, you will place the masa on the long edge in a rectangular shape and, if using banana leaves, it will go in the middle.
The tamales are steamed for one hour, usually in a large pot where they are placed upright in circles from the outside inward using a steamer basket. It is important the tamale does not touch the water and that you do not run out of water. Towels are placed on top so that water does not collect along the top. Once cooked, they should be allowed to sit for 5 to 10 minutes before eating or cooled completely to freeze them.
