Tamales
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Wikipedia-Article "Tamales"
- For the city in Ghana, see Tamale, Ghana.
A tamale or tamal (from Nahuatl tamalli) is a traditional Latin American food that begins with corn (maize) flour mixed with water and lard. This mixture (masa) is then filled with meat or cheese or any preparation according to taste.
Tamales are an ancient American food, made throughout the continent for over 5000 years. Their essence is the masa dough, usually filled with a sweet or savory filling, wrapped in plant leaves or corn husks, and cooked, usually by steaming, until firm. Tamales were developed as a portable ration for use by war parties in the ancient Americas, and were as ubiquitous and varied as the sandwich is today.
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Tamales in Latin America
Tamales are a favorite quick breakfast dish in Mexico, where you can see street vendors serving them from huge, steaming, covered pots (tamaleras). Often the tamal is placed inside a bread roll to form a torta de tamal, which is substantial enough to keep the breakfaster going until Mexico's traditionally late lunch hour.
The most common (and traditional) filling is pork or chicken, in either red or green salsa or mole. Another very traditional variation is to add sugar to the corn mix and fill it with raisins or other dried fruit and make a sweet tamal (tamal de dulce). Instead of corn husks, banana leaves are used in tropical parts of the country such as Oaxaca, Tabasco, Chiapas, and the Yucatán Peninsula. To the south, banana-leaf tamales are also common in the neighboring countries of Central America.
To make a full meal, the tamal is often accompanied by atole, hot chocolate, or champurrado. A person might eat two or three tamales at one sitting but probably not be able to manage a fourth.
In El Salvador they are wrapped in banana leaves, and there are several varieties, including tamal de gallina, tamal pisque, and tamal de elote.
In Guatemala, in addition to El Salvador versions, there are Tamales without filling and are served as the bread or starch portion of a meal:
- Tamal de elote (corn tamal sometimes sweet taste and yellow),
- Tamalito de chipilin (Chipilin is a delicious green leaf) or
- Tamal blanco (white tamal made with corn), very simple but unique taste.
Peruvian tamales tend to be spicy, larger, and are wrapped in banana leaves. Common fillings are chicken or pork, usually accompanied by boiled eggs, olives, peanuts or a piece of chilli pepper. Smaller tamales wrapped in corn husks are called humitas, and are usually sweeter.
Tamales are also found in Colombia, where there are several varieties (including boyacense and santandereano).
Tamales in Anglo America
The plural is tamales, and this is the form of the word most often seen in the United States, with the singular frequently given as tamale (incorrectly, to Spanish-speakers, which prefer tamal). As tamales have acquired mainstream popularity in the United States, other fillings have become more common, such as beef; another popular filling is corn (partially mashed, like the product known as "creamed corn"). Tamales are popular as Christmas meals in the southwestern states of the USA. A basic modern southwestern tamale contains a spicy meat filling, usually shredded pork or beef, and is often served with a chili con carne sauce.
The preparation of tamales is extremely labor intensive; as a result, when home-made, they are usually made in very large batches in a family or neighborhood event or as a special holiday treat.
The tamale is also a staple in Belize, where it is also known (in English) by the Spanish name bollo. Confusion with the nomenclature also leads to the plural form being used as a singular: thus, "a tamales".
A recipe for pork tamales
A simple outline of cooking a pork tamal:
Stew a fatty pork shoulder for several hours at low heat, seasoned with salt and chilli peppers, and maybe some onion and garlic. When the meat is tender enough to fall apart, drain, saving the broth.
Cool the broth, skim off the lard and save. Purée the chiles with the broth.
Shred the pork with a fork, throwing out the remaining fatty tissue. Add some broth back in to keep the meat moist.
Moisten the masa with some of the remaining broth.
Whip the lard until fluffy, then blend in the moistened masa.
Spread spoonfuls of masa into a 1/4" thick layer onto moistened corn husks. Place a small amount of pork in the middle. Fold husk over to form a tube of dough, with the meat in the middle. Leave one end of the husk open, fold the other end over.
Place the tamales in a steamer basket, closed end down, and steam for 30 minutes to an hour, until the dough is firm.
As is evident from the recipe, tamales are quite a chore to make. Once made, however, then can be frozen quite easily (the husks help keep them from sticking together) and reheated as needed. Because of this, the making of tamales is often a social occasion, with friends and family all pitching into help make hundreds of tamales to be shared out.