Tamales: a holiday tradition
How to Make Tamales
Prep Time: 5 hours 30 min.
Cook Time: 1 hour
36 servings
Ingredients:
• 4 pounds boneless chuck roast
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 (8 ounce) packages dried corn husks
• 4 dried ancho chiles
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• salt to taste
• 3 cups lard
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 9 cups masa harina
Directions:
1. Place beef and garlic in a large pot. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as water boils, reduce heat to a simmer and cover pot. Let simmer for 3 1/2 hours, until beef is tender and shreds easily. When beef is done, remove from pot, reserving 5 cups cooking liquid and discarding garlic. Allow meat to cool slightly, and shred finely with forks.
2. Meanwhile, place corn husks in a large container and cover with warm water. Allow to soak for 3 hours, until soft and pliable. May need to weight down with an inverted plate and a heavy can.
3. Toast ancho chiles in a cast iron skillet, making sure not to burn them. Allow to cool and then remove stems and seeds. Crumble and grind in a clean coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
4. Heat oil in a large skillet. Mix in flour and allow to brown slightly. Pour in 1 cup beef broth and stir until smooth. Mix in ground chiles, cumin seeds, ground cumin, minced garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, vinegar and salt. Stir shredded beef into skillet and cover. Let simmer 45 minutes.
5. Place lard and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whip with an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy. Add masa harina and beat at low speed until well mixed. Pour in reserved cooking liquid a little at a time until mixture is the consistency of soft cookie dough.
6. Drain water from corn husks. One at a time, flatten out each husk, with the narrow end facing you, and spread approximately 2 tablespoons masa mixture onto the top 2/3 of the husk. Spread about 1 tablespoon of meat mixture down the middle of the masa. Roll up the corn husk starting at one of the long sides. Fold the narrow end of the husk onto the rolled tamale and tie with a piece of butchers’ twine.
7. Place tamales in a steamer basket. Steam over boiling water for approximately one hour, until masa is firm and holds its shape. Make sure steamer does not run out of water. Serve immediately, allowing each person to unwrap their own tamales. Allow any leftovers (still in husks) to cool, uncovered, in the refrigerator.
|
By Catherine Ragsdale
The Collegian
Enrique De La Cerda, 26, can’t remember a Christmas when his family hasn’t made tamales.
“As far as I know, we’ve done it for at least 26 years,” De La Cerda said. “We’re not that close with my mom’s side of the family, so [making tamales] is what we’ve always done to spend time together at Christmas.”
De La Cerda and his family set up assembly lines where each task is assigned by seniority. His 19-year-old sister and younger cousin are assigned to the bathtub where the whole cornhusks are separated and cleaned.
“That’s the lowest job,” De La Cerda said. “We make the youngest do it.”
De La Cerda has only spent a few years higher in the line.
“I cleaned cornhusks for years, and I’m never going back,” De La Cerda said.
A total of about 15 members of De La Cerda’s family are involved in making the tamales. Duties are spread between preparing the cornhusks to spreading masa (the outer shell) onto the cornhusks to the filling with meat and folding the tamales closed.
De La Cerda has only experienced tamales for a miniscule part of their existence.
Tamales have been around for over 5,000 years.
According to Chicano and Latin American Studies professor Ramon Sanchez, Mesoamerican society developed tamales “as a portable ration for use by war parties.”
Sanchez wasn’t sure when tamales became a Christmas staple, but he believes tamales were an available food that were incorporated into “the already existing celebration of the earth goddess Tonantzin during the winter solstice.”
Tamales as a Christmas tradition can’t be traced to any specific time or group of people, but they are a tradition no less.
The tradition is a great benefit for The Tamale Shop on Shaw Avenue and the Van Ness Extension.
The tamale sales at the restaurant increase by 50 percent in December.
“Other months we sell mostly burritos and tacos,” owner Paul Urias said. “You can tell a difference [in December.] We really sell nothing but tamales.”
To accommodate the increase in sales, Urias works 20 hour days at the restaurant. A few family members help Urias out because they understand the strain he is under. For the most part, Urias works alone on the tamales.
“I have to stay at the restaurant around the clock in the weeks leading up to Christmas,” Urias said. “I have a cot that I pull out because I end up cooking until 3 a.m.”
The Tamale Shop is taking orders now for Christmas tamales. They offer 11 varieties; five of them are dessert tamales. The Tamale Shop caters to vegetarians as well with a vegetable tamale that has bell peppers, mushrooms, scallions and zucchini.
“We do special orders too. People come in requesting us to make tamales like their grandma used to make,” Urias said. “It’s hard to keep up with the main types of tamales, but we can put whatever you like in a tamale.”
Urias produced about five hundred dozen or 6,000 tamales in December 2004, the first Christmas The Tamale Shop was open.
Once the customers pick up their orders the days before Christmas, Urias can finally rest.
“I sleep all through Christmas Eve and Christmas trying to catch up,” Urias said.
Comment on this story in the Features forum >>
|
