Wanderlust Queen: Tamales

I love Mexican food. A passion that started in earnest on my twelfth birthday when my uncle bought me a tortilla press and a 1 kilo bag of masa harina. It may not have been on every young girl's dream gift list, but in those days (back in the last century) northern England was not exactly a mecca for exotic foods. I am not sure where my uncle managed to find the masa harina from, but to me it was like a bag of gold dust, and it stands out years later, as being one of my most memorable presents ever...

Tamales were always the Holy Grail of food items I wanted to try. They looked so wonderful, these little packages of joy. I had considered making them myself but was put off by tales of how complicated it was. Also, having never eaten a tamale and unlikely to come across one in the near future I put it to the back of my mind, until a couple of months ago when I travelled to Mexico and got to taste them. The first thing I did when I returned home was to hunt down some corn husks and masa harina.

Do not listen to the naysayers who claim it's difficult. Sure, it may be time consuming if you're making enough to feed a small village, and if you're making a meat filling that may up the complication factor somewhat. But the actual process? Simple. These took around 3 hours from start to finish, which also included time out to try and find something to use as a steamer.

Tamales de elote con queso (makes enough for around 20)

Dried corn husks - soak them in hot water for at least 1 hour prior to use (the packet I bought said 15 minutes, but after 4 hours of soaking they still had the texture and pliability of cardboard...)

For the masa:
250g masa harina
100g margarine
1 tsp salt
1-2 tsp cumin
500ml stock

For the filling:
350g sweetcorn
1 handful of fresh coriander
80g soft cheese (i.e. one of the mini tubs)
Chopped green chilli to taste (I used some frozen homemade green chilli salsa)
Mix everything in a blender, you still want it to have some texture and then leave to one side while you make the masa

Making the masa:

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl

2. Melt the fat – most recipes talk about whipping the fat (usually lard) I don’t have a food processor, and in sub zero temperatures the thought of manually trying to whip up semi-solid margarine is not appealing. Doing it this way gives the same results taste and texture wise

3. Pour the melted fat into the dry ingredients and mix in well, the mixture should have the texture of breadcrumbs

4. Slowly add the stock. The final amount will depend on various factors so it’s easier to add it in small quantities. You’re aiming for your masa to have the texture and consistency of smooth peanut butter on a warm-ish summer day. It will probably take 400-450ml, but I sometimes find if the mixture starts to stiffen up I can add a little bit more as I go along.

5. Whisk the masa thoroughly. You could use a blender or a hand whisk if you want, vigorously stirring with a fork works just as well

6. Take the corn husks out of the water and pat dry, and get all the other ingredients within easy reach. This is probably the most time consuming aspect, but I find it quite relaxing, especially if you stick on some good music*

7. Add a dessert spoonful of masa to the corn husk. A handy hint to spread it out easily (rather than use the back of the spoon and get it stuck everywhere) is to tear off some plastic wrap and use that to smooth down the masa.

8. Add a spoonful of the filling

9. Fold, the aim is to make a neat little package, tear off some strips of corn husk to tie around the tamales if you want. Yes, I am aware that mine aren't that neat, but like all bad cooks I will blame the ingredients. Cardboard corn husks... hmm

10. Repeat, until you run out of a) corn husks, or b) masa

11. Put the tamales into a steamer and steam for around an hour/hour and a half. Don't worry if you have to cram them in, they seem to be very forgiving!