Thai Street Food

It's been a long time since I have seen your smiling faces, loyal readers. It's been a rough spring in terms of getting regular free time, so though I have been cooking here and there, I just haven't had time to tell you about it.  I think I will be in town, at least during the week, for most of the summer, so I am back. Hopefully.


Remember last summer when I took the Thai street food class at the Portland Culinary Workshop (check out the green papaya salad)? Well, here are a couple more recipes from that class. I made this meal sometime in April, I think. 

Grilled Pork Skewers (Muu Bing)


10 oz pork loin, butt, neck, etc (I used a shoulder steak)
1/4 bunch cilantro
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp shaved palm sugar
Dash of soy sauce
Juice from one lime
2 Tbsp fish sauce
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
About 1/4 cup coconut cream to brush onto skewers while grilling


1. Make a marinade: using a mortar and pestle, pound the sugar, salt, pepper, and cilantro to form a paste.


2. Combine with soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, and oil. Stir together well.


3. Slice the pork into very thin and combine with marinade. Let marinate for 3 hours.


4. Skewer the pork on soaked bamboo skewers.


5. Turning often, grill on a charcoal or gas grill, brushing with coconut cream. This should take about 10 minutes on a medium hot grill.


6. Enjoy!


Sticky Rice with Mango (Kao Niaw)


1 1/2 cups sweet rice
3 cups coconut milk
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt
2 fresh mangos
1/2 cup coconut cream
2 pandan leaves, tied in a knot (I almost always omit this because it's not something readily available in the supermarket)
2 tsp vegetable oil


1. In a medium sauce pan, heat oil and gently toast the rice.


2. Add the coconut milk, water, pandan leaves, sugar, and salt, and stir well. Let simmer for about 20 - 25 minutes until the rice has absorbed the liquid and is cooked through.


3. Remove the pandan leaves, taste the rice for level of sweetness.


4. Stir in the coconut cream. Serve with sliced mangos. 


Bon appetit!

Chinese Sizzling Rice Soup with Pork Stock

My freezer is packed tight now that I have my 2012 pork. Because I need to keep more than just beef and pork in my freezer, I desperately need to make some room. Since I just took the Stupendous Stocks class at Portland Culinary Workshop, I decided to use my new skills and make pork stock.

8 lbs pork soup bones

1/4 lb carrots (about 3), roughly chopped
1/4 lb celery (about 4 stalks), roughly chopped
1/2 lb onion (about 2 large), roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
5(ish) black peppercorns


1. Caramelize bones in oven (30 - 45 minutes at 450F) on a cookie sheet. Deglaze the cookie sheet with about a cup or so of red wine.


2. Place bones to a large stockpot and add enough water to cover.


3. Bring to a simmer, skimming off foam and impurities.


4. Add the remaining ingredients, and simmer on very low temperature for at least 8 hours.


5. Strain the stock through a fine mesh. Let sit until the fat has solidified on the top, and skim off.


6. Refrigerate.

I didn't know exactly what I wanted to make with the stock, but a soup seemed like the most obvious choice. During some down time at work, I perused many many recipes using pork stock until coming across a recipe for sizzling rice soup (which, by the way, did not call for pork stock). Sizzling rice soup is one of my favorite things to order at a Chinese restaurant, and it reminds me of my childhood. Why not give it a try?

1 cup uncooked white rice – should make 2 cups cooked
6 oz. fresh shrimp, de-shelled and de-veined
10 oz. skinless, boneless chicken pieces cut into chunks and cooked (saute or use leftover chicken) 

1 Tbsp cornstarch
8 cups lightly seasoned homemade pork stock (or use chicken broth)
2 cans sliced water chestnuts

1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 cup snow pea pods, cut into 1 inch pieces
3/4 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp pepper (preferably white pepper but any ground pepper will work) 

4 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 tsp soy sauce

1. Before starting to make the soup cook the rice. Then, spread cooked rice in a thin layer on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake about one hour at 300 degrees, turning the rice layer over after 30 minutes. (Ovens vary; you may need to bake a bit longer to get it crispy, but don’t let it burn.) Break rice apart and set aside. Fry and add to soup as directed.

1a. I saved the shells from the shrimp to simmer with the pork stock while the rice was baking. You don't have to do this, but it may or may not give the broth a more fishy flavor, in a good way. I sauteed the shrimp shells until pink in my Dutch oven then added half the stock. I simmered it for almost an hour, then strained the stock.

2. Mix together the chicken with half the cornstarch, sherry, ginger, and soy sauce in one bowl. Mix the shrimp with the other half of those ingredients in another bowl.  Set both these aside. 

3. Into the soup pot put the broth and water chestnuts. Bring to a boil, add salt and pepper. Reduce heat and allow to simmer 3 or 4 minutes. Add any fresh vegetables you are using.

4. Heat 3 Tbsp oil until hot in a frying pan; place rice in oil to brown.

5. Add chicken and shrimp mixture to hot broth; stir and return to a boil. If adding fresh shredded greens, now is the time!

6. Remove rice from oil with slotted spoon, drain very briefly on paper towels.

7. Carefully pour soup in large serving tureen – or just serve from the stock pot. Tableside, add rice to soup. If both are hot enough, your soup should sizzle. 

8. Dish into serving bowls immediately and enjoy!

This recipe turned out better than I could have imagined. It almost tasted like it does at a Chinese restaurant, except my rice didn't fry quite right. Also, I think I would omit the cornstarch, rice wine vinegar, ginger, and soy sauce marinade for the chicken and shrimp. Sizzling rice soup should have a delicate flavor, and the sweet/salty of the marinade threw it off a little. Other than that, delicious.

Bon appetit!

Southern Fried Pork Chops and Okra Salad

In preparation for the second night of pork chops, I looked in all my cookbooks for another (easy) pork chop recipe that I haven't made before and came up empty handed. I just am not in the mood for a complicated meal. So I turned to the trusty internets and found multiple recipes that I combined into this one.

Since I had the buttermilk for this meal last night (bought during my frantic run to the store for ingredients), I thought marinating the chop in the buttermilk was a good idea. So I did.

Pork Chops (1 large or 2 small per person - I made 2 large)
Cooking oil (enough to submerge half the thickness of chops in oil)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp cayenne pepper


1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper 

1. Combine 1 cup buttermilk with cayenne pepper. Pour over pork chops and marinate for 12-24 hours. (I did a full 24 hours.)


2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine milk, egg, salt and black pepper. Beat lightly to mix well.


3. Spread flour out on a flat plate


4. Heat cooking oil in a 10- or 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat.


5. While oil heats, remove chops from marinade and one at a time dip in egg/milk bath, drain excess, and coat with the flour by turning over several times in the flour. I double battered the chops by repeating the previous instructions. I think double battering helps anything fried keep its crust.


6. Place breaded chop in hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides (5-10 minutes).

To accompany the chop, I thought okra would be good. AND there happened to be fresh okra at the store, so, yes, good, an okra salad.

*** OKRA WARNING ***

If you have never cooked with okra before, you should know that they get very slimy. Not everyone likes slimy food, and that is why I think you usually see okra either in a soup/stew/gumbo or fried. The salad below tasted great, but it was slimy. If you can't handle that, don't make it.

Pre-slimy okra

1 lb. fresh okra
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp finely minced fresh parsley
Pinch sugar
Salt and pepper

1. Cook whole okra in lightly salted boiling water for 20 minutes.  Drain and let cool for about 10 minutes. Trim stem and end, then cut crosswise into 1/4 to 3/8 inch slices.


2. In a large bowl, combine okra with dressing ingredients. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.


3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Mix thoroughly again before serving.

I just finished eating this meal. Eh, it was so so. The chops needed WAY more salt. So if you make this, I'd recommend salting the flour, maybe? Or maybe adding a good dose of salt to the buttermilk and cayenne so that the chops brine a little? I don't know.

I made two chops, so I am stuck eating this meal tomorrow too. Maybe the remaining chop will age well in the fridge tonight.

Bon appetit.

Pork Chops with Apples, Fresh Thyme, and Sweet Onions

I am picking up a third of a pig (a Red Wattle raised in Northern California named Sam and given massages everyday. Those last two tidbits are not true.) on Saturday, so I need to do some clearing out of the pork that remains from my 2011 pig. There isn't much pork left, but one pack of pork chops did remain, so I removed it to defrost and cook up.

I haven't made anything from my trusty Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook in a while, so that is where I turned first. There are only two recipes for pork chops in the book, and the one calling for smoked pork chops sounded better to me. My pork chops are not smoked, but I was sure it would taste good none-the-less.

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 medium sweet yellow onion, very thinly sliced
3 apples, peeled, quartered, and cored
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
4 smoked pork chops, 1/2 inch thick


(I only made one pork chop, so I only made a quarter recipe.)


1. Heat the oil in a 10- or 12-inch cast iron skillet. Add the onions and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Slice the apples crosswise into 1/2 inch thick slices and add to the onions. Add the thyme and salt.


2. Place a square of parchment paper directly on top of the apples. Simmer on top of the stove over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F.


3. Remove the parchment paper and place the smoked (or not smoked) pork chops on top of the apples. Cover with aluminum foil. Using a fork, poke holes in the foil 4 or 5 times. Place the skillet in the oven and bake for 18 minutes. Serve immediately.

I picked out this recipe yesterday after I took the chops out of the freezer to defrost. I even typed up the recipe and the intro yesterday. Then tonight, like so many other nights, I was still at work at 7.45. I didn't even have all the ingredients at home! Determined to eat something other than popcorn for dinner, I went straight to the store for my missing items, and cooked up these delicious pork chops. Thank goodness the prep work and cooking time are minimal.

Oh, and I have this Hickory Seasoning Liquid Smoke stuff that an ex of mine once used to make Kalua pork. As I was prepping the meal, I saw it amongst my spices. Since the chop was supposed to be smoked, why not throw some liquid smoke on it?  So I did. I also sliced an heirloom tomato and topped it with a sprinkle of a little salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

Let me tell you, this meal was DELICIOUS. I don't even like apples, but something about the combo of the sweet cooked apples and onions and the pork and the saltiness was perfection. Also, I was really hungry. I am SO happy I bucked up and made a real meal tonight!

Bon appetit.

Baby Back Ribs and Baked Beans

I can confidently say that ribs are one of my favorite things to eat, and they have been since I was a very young child. When I was a kid, I couldn't say my rs properly, and my parents still tease me about my reply each year to what I wanted for my birthday meal: WIBS!

I had a couple packages of baby back ribs from the pork I bought last winter that I intended to grill over the summer. I did not grill them, so I needed to find a good baked rib recipe.

I was talking with a friend last week, and he told me he was going to make ribs for a Sunday football watching party. Since he was making oven-baked ribs that he claims are the best, I requested he send me the recipe. The following are the directions I received, straight from his email.

"So the recipe is super easy...

Take a rack of baby back ribs, thawed, and apply fed pepper flake, onion powder, and a little garlic salt. Cover with a thin layer of dark brown sugar and press it into the ribs.

Let sit for an hour.

Heat oven to 300 degrees.

Put into a baking pan that is deep enough so when you cover the pan with foil, it doesn't touch the ribs (not a necessity to not touch them).

Brush liberally with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce. Cover pan with foil and place in the oven.

At hour one remove and baste liberally again with sauce. Back in oven covered with foil.

Do the same at hour two.

At hour three, remove from oven and baste liberally. Kick temp up to 400 and put back on oven uncovered for 15 min or so to just dry the sauce on the ribs a little bit.

Remove and pull the ribs out. Let sit for 15 minutes. Split into chunks of 3 ribs.

You can use the drippings as a sauce if you skim a bit of the fat off. Serve with Bush's honey baked beans.

As a leftover idea, hand pull the leftover rib meat and mix with a little of the leftover beans. Toast two slices of white bread and put a slice of Swiss on it, some jalapeño slices, and the pork/bean mixture. Eat as a sandwich.

YUM!!!"

Yum is right. I followed the directions exactly, but instead of serving with Bush's beans, I made my own baked beans.  Here's the recipe.

8 cups cold water
2 3/4 cups (1 pound) dried Great Northern beans
4 strips bacon
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 cup beer, preferably  pale ale
2 cups water
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp light brown sugar
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp salt


1. In a large stockpot, bring the cold water to a boil over high heat. Add the beans to the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover, and let soak for 1 hour. Drain in a colander and rinse the beans.


2. Heat a 10- or 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until golden, turning once. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel. Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of the bacon fat.


3. Return the skillet to medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally and scraping up the browned bits from the bacon, until golden brown. Add the beans, beer, water, molasses, maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, dry mustard, and paprika. Coarsely chop the bacon and add it to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for 3 hours. Add water as needed to keep the beans covered. During the last half hour of cooking, remove the lid and don't add any additional water to the beans. When the beans are done, stir in the salt just before serving.

I even used the leftovers to make a sandwich, as instructed. I did deviate from the recipe a bit by using a baguette instead of white bread. Mmm.

Two delicious meals.

Bon appetit.

Pork Carnitas and Sweet Corn Tomalito

I made carnitas last weekend during the make-room-for-beef-in-my-freezer frenzy. This huge chunk of pork shoulder was taking up way too much room, so it had to be eaten.

I got a little over enthusiastic in the frenzy and ended up with a bit too much defrosted meat. Is it normal to be cooking steak frites and carnitas simultaneously? No. Is that what I did on Sunday evening? Yes. 

Thank goodness carnitas saves excellently. If you make more carnitas than you intend to eat that day, do not broil all the meat.  Save some of the un-broiled meat and the reduced braising liquid.  Then the next day (or the next or the next) warm up the liquid a little, toss some meat in it, and broil.  It's just as good as, and maybe better than, same-day carnitas.

I ended up eating carnitas all week.  I can't say I minded. 

A while ago a coworker and I were discussing Chevy's, and we both agreed that the sweet corn stuff they have is delicious. I wanted something to go with the carnitas tacos, and corn is really good right now, so I decided to make some. Apparently "Chevy's sweet corn stuff" is not the proper name for it; it is called sweet corn tomalito. 

3-4 pounds of boneless (or 4-5lbs of bone-in) pork shoulder

About 1/2 cup lard (or vegetable oil)

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp chile powder

1 tsp cumin (freshly toasted and ground if you can--it does make a difference)

1 tsp garlic powder

3/4 cup orange juice

1. Cut pork into 1-2" cubes, trimming large sections of fat off (we need fat for the flavor, so just cut off any really large pieces).

2. Heat a dutch oven over medium high heat with just enough lard to cover the bottom (about 1/2 cup).

3. Pre-heat oven to 300ºF 

4. Combine the salt, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder to make a spice rub.  Toss pork pieces with the spice rub. You can increase the amount of spice rub you make if you have more pork than called for in this recipe.

5. Brown the cubed pork well in the dutch oven, going in batches so there is only one layer of meat at a time.

7. When all the meat is browned, deglaze the pan's bottom with the orange juice, stirring to break up the brown bits. Put all of the meat back to the pan and almost fully cover the meat with water.

8. Bring to a simmer, cover, and place in the oven.

9. Stir the pot after one and two hours, the pork should be very tender towards the third hour. After about three hours, or until the pork is very tender, remove the dutch oven from the oven.

10. Remove all the pork from the dutch oven with a slotted spoon and put on a platter. Boil the braising liquid on the stove top to reduce.

11. After letting the pork cool for a few minutes, using your hands separate and discard any fat or gristle pieces that did not melt during braising. Tear the meat into smaller pieces.

12. Turn your broiler on to high and place a rack towards the top

13. Toss the now shredded pork with some of the reduced braising liquid (that should have boiled down significantly by now) and spread in a single layer on a sheet pan.

14. Broil the pork for approximately five minutes per side until the outside begins to carmelize.

15. Serve.

I made tacos with the carnitas, but you can use it any way you would like. For tacos, you will need these additional ingredients:

Corn tortillas

Cilantro

Green salsa

Sour cream

This is a super long post, but I will carry on. Sweet corn tomalito recipe below.


1/4 cup masa harina
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons milk

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the margarine, masa flour, and sugar until light and fluffy. In a food processor or blender, blend one cup of the corn kernels with the water and cornmeal just until smooth. Stir into the masa mixture. Mix in the remaining corn, baking powder, salt, and milk until the batter is smooth. Pour into a double boiler.  

2. Place the tomalito over a large saucepan of simmering water, and cover tightly with aluminum foil. (I don't have a double broiler, so I instead lined the steamer thing for my large stock pot with cornhusks and steamed the tomalito that way. Here's a picture.)

3. Steam for 50 to 60 minutes, or until firm. Check water occasionally, and refill if necessary. Stir pudding before serving to give it a consistent texture. 

4. Serve in small scoops.


This is one of the best meals I have made in a while, and I have been making some good meals.


Bon appetit.

Pickle Themed Dinner: Pork Chops Brined in Pickle Juice and...?

I love pickles.  Really love them.  They were pretty much the only vegetable I would eat until I was, ohhhh, 23?  My mom sometimes brings me these delicious pickles from the Pop-up General Store in Oakland.  They are classic dills made by Studebaker Pickles.  They are amazing.  

Yes, I love pickles, and it breaks my heart every time I finish a jar and I have to pour the juice down the drain.  I mean, yes, sometimes I'll take a spoonful of it before sending it down the drain, but mostly it gets wasted.  So imagine my joy when I saw a twitter post with a link to A Gazillion Ways to Use Leftover Pickle Juice.  Why I never thought of using the juice is beyond me, but there it was, a bunch of ways to use it!

All of the options on the list sound pretty great, but the one that really jumped out at me was to use it as a brine for pork.  I happen to have a freezer-full of pork and love brined pork chops.  Done and done.

I took chops out of the freezer last night to defrost, and ever since I have been thinking of what to make alongside the brined chops.  By the time I got home, I had fully committed to a pickle themed dinner.  But what does that exactly mean?  Pickles aren't exactly a prime ingredient in anything.  Then I thought, FRIED PICKLES!  I love fried pickles, and after looking up a couple of recipes, decided they are easy enough to make.   I don't consider two items a themed dinner, but another food item seemed unnecessary, so a pickle martini will round out the meal.

Pork Chops Brined in Pickle Juice

Pork chops

Pickle juice

Freshly ground black pepper

Brine the pork chops in the pickle juice for some amount of time.  Mine got brined for 2 hours.  I flipped them after one hour.

Take the chops out of the brine and pat dry.  Grind some black pepper onto each side.

Cook the pork chops.  I grilled them on my trusty cast iron stovetop grill.  Surprised?

Fried Pickles

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg

Optional: dash of hot sauce (I used Crystal)

1 cup plain cornmeal

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Some pickles, spears or chips work best, cold and dried with a paper towel.

I didn't use the Studebaker pickles because it seemed wrong to fry them.  They are SO good on their own.  (I made 5 pickle spears of Whole Foods brand.  Had I made more spears, I would have needed more cornmeal coating, but I had plenty of egg wash.)

1.  Make an egg wash:  Whisk egg and milk (and dash of hot sauce if you like things spicy) together for about 30 seconds using a fork. Set aside.

2.  Make cornmeal coating: Mix remaining ingredients together and set aside.  By the way, you can put pretty much anything you want with the cornmeal for the coating.  I used whatever spices I had and sounded good.  

3.  Coat each pickle with egg wash.

4.  Coat each pickle with cornmeal coating.

5.  Repeat steps three and four to double-coat your pickles. The breading will adhere better if you give it a double dunk.

6.  Place each battered pickle on a cookie sheet that is lined with wax or parchment paper and freeze for at least 30 minutes. If you neglect to freeze your pickles, the pickle batter will not adhere and you'll end up with a naked pickle and a bunch of batter floating in the oil.

7.  Heat cooking oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  I used peanut oil because it's the only non-olive oil I have in the house right now.

8.  Carefully drop each frozen pickle into the preheated oil. Stir occasionally and let cook until pickles float on the surface of the oil and turn golden brown. Generally, pickle slices take 2 to 3 minutes; spears take 3 to 4 minutes; and whole pickles take 6 to 7 minutes.

9.  Remove pickles from oil and allow them to drain on paper towels.

10.  Transfer to serving plate and serve with your favorite dip!

Pickle Martini

2 parts gin

1 part pickle juice

Put in a shaker with ice, shake, and serve straight up with a pickle garnish.

I have already written way too much in this post, but I have one note.  The average person might feel a little pickled-out after this meal.  Not me!  After I finished, I had another pickle martini and ate one of the Studebaker pickles for dessert.

Bon appetit.

Loco Moco... Sort of

Santina says: even Martha went to prison.

I can't believe I am actually blogging about this meal, but I am committed to posting more of my meals.  If that means showing the world (er, the 3 people who read Princeton Eats Portland) the weird stuff I sometimes make for dinner, so be it.


I planned to eat the leftovers from my fajitas for dinner tonight, but for some reason I just didn't feel like it.  I defrosted some pork sausage over the weekend, intending to make myself a brunch including it, but I did not end up doing so.  So, I needed to eat it.  I didn't really know what to do with pork breakfast sausage for dinner, but I just bought a bunch of jasmine rice, so I thought, huh, I'll make a version of a loco moco.


Loco moco should be a ground beef patty over rice topped with fried eggs and gravy.  It's a hawaiian dish, and a hearty one at that, good for filling up after a morning of surfing.


My loco moco is a pork breakfast sausage patty over rice topped with salsa and sour cream.  It's a dish of no origin except my head, also a hearty one, good for filling up after sitting in front of a computer all day.


It does not look pretty but it tastes damn good.


Bon appetit.

Mexico Month - Mexitalian?

Okay, I am a little embarrassed to post the meal I made for dinner tonight.  But, it's been a tough week for cooking, and if I don't post this meal, there may not be any new posts this week at all.  First, I will give my excuses for my lack of/laziness with cooking this week: work and the Blazers.  


That said, tonight I boiled some angel hair pasta, tossed it with warmed tinga poblana, and crumbled some cotija on top.  


A little weird and very non-gourmet, right?  


Why would I do such a thing?  


I will tell you why.  I still have a lot left of that huge pot of tinga poblana I made, and I really do not want it to go to waste.  I have already eaten it plain as a stew for at least 4 meals, as tacos once, as a breakfast thing once, and as filling for tamales which I ate over two days.  I was planning to make enchiladas with it next, but I just haven't found the time.  


When I got home from work today - late, may I add - I just couldn't bear the bore of warming up a bowl of the tinga poblana and eating it plain again, and a quick check of my fridge and cupboards revealed very little in the way of other options.  Until I saw pasta.  Why not treat the pork stew like a spaghetti sauce?  And you know what, it was delicious.


And, as an added bonus, the name of my meal reminds me of my Italian best friend who is currently residing in Mexico... and looking a little like a local.  Yes, I think she's a Mexitalian.


Bon appetit.

Mexico Month - Tamales

One of the many wonderful things about the Authentic Mexican cookbook is the extensive background on Mexican cuisine.  The tamal section begins with 2.5 pages of the history and tradition of tamales followed by 4 pages of general information on tamal making.  Only after this introduction are the actual recipes presented.   I love that.


For me, tamales remind me of family.  I don't order them very often at restaurants because I am very picky about only eating good ones, and the good ones are the ones that my mom gets from one particular lady.  So, for me, tamales are best eaten at the kitchen counter at my parents house chatting with my family and shielding my tamales from my dad who swore he didn't want one, but once I have one it looks really good to him, and he wants to eat it all.


I have only made tamales myself one other time, and it enough time has passed since that I forgot how long it takes.  My mexican cookbook declares that tamal making is a festive event where part of the party is the getting together to produce the tamales.  I think next time I make them I will be more Mexican about it and make it a party.  It sounds much for fun that way.


I also want to note that I am fortunate to have an international market very close to my house that sells all sorts of Mexican and Central and South American foods.  Where else would I buy masa harina, dried cornhusks, and lard?  Unfortunately for me, the smallest quantity of lard they sell is a 2.5 pound tub.  What I am going to do with the approximately 2.45 pounds that remain is beyond me.


First step:  The first step in tamal making is preparing the cornhusks (or banana leaves, but I will only talk about the cornhusk covered type here).  The husks should be simmered in water to cover for 10 minutes, weighted with a plate to keep them submerged.  Then, let stand off the fire in the water for a couple hours until the husks are pliable (Erin's note:  I never have "a couple hours" to let the husks stand.  I have found that an hour is plenty.)

Second step:  While the husks are soaking, you can begin to make the tamal dough.  Masa is the main ingredient of the dough.  You can make the masa starting with corn, or if, like me, you don't have that kind of time or patience, you can make a substitute recipe.

Masa Fingida para Tamales


2/3 cup (4 oz) quick-cooking (not instant) grits
3/4 cup (3.5 oz) masa harina


1.  Pulverize the grits in a spice grinder or blender as thoroughly as possible.  Transfer to a medium size bowl.
2.  Stir in 1 1/4 cups boiling water and let stand for 10 minutes.  Measure the masa harina and stir until thoroughly homogeneous.  Cover and cool to room temperature.


Third Step:  Prepare the dough.  

4 oz. (1/2 cup) good-quality, fresh lard
1 recipe Masa Fingida para Tamales (above)
About 2/3 cup broth (preferably light flavored poultry) at room temperature
1 tsp baking powder
Salt, about 1/2 tsp


1.  If the lard is very soft, refrigerate it to firm a little.  Then, with an electric mixer, beat it until very light, about 1 minute.
2.  Add half the masa to the lard and beat it until well blended.  As you continue beating, alternate additions of the remaining masa with douses of broth, adding enough liquid to give the mixture the consistency of a medium-thick cake batter.
3.  Sprinkle in the baking powder and enough salt to generously season the mixture, then beat for a minute more, until about 1/2 tsp of it will float when placed in a cup of cold water.


Fourth Step:  Set up the steamer for the tamales.  If you are steaming less than 20 tamales, you can steam them in a collapsible vegetable steamer in a large, deep saucepan.  (Erin's note: My large stockpot came with a steamer, and I use this.  It's a little small, but it works.)  Line the steamer with extra husks to protect the tamales from direct steam contact and to add more flavor.  Make sure that there are small openings for drainage, so condensing steam will not pool.


Fifth Step:  When ready to form the tamales, separate out the 16 largest and most pliable husks - ones that are at least 6 inches across on the wider end and 6 or 7 inches long.  You can overlap smaller ones if necessary.  Pat the chosen leaves dry with a towel.


Tear extra and extra husk or two into 1/4 inch wide, 7 inch long strips - one for each tamal.  

Sixth Step:  The filling.  I think this step should have occurred earlier in the process, but I already had the filling from the tinga poblana I made earlier in the week.  Tamales can be filled with pretty much anything you want, in my opinion.  Some of my favorites are chicken with green sauce, poblano chile and cheese, and pork in red sauce.  So, you should have some sort of filling ready by this point.

Seventh Step:  To form the tamales in the cornhusks, lay out a large, lightly dried cornhusk with the tapering end toward you.  Spread about 3 Tbsp dough into an about 4 inch square, leaving at least a 1 1/2 inch border on the side toward you and a 3/4 inch border along the other sides (with large husks, the borders will be much bigger).  

Spoon the filling, about 1 1/2 Tbsp, down the center of the dough.

Pick up the two long sides of the cornhusk and bring them together (this will cause the dough to surround the filling).  If the uncovered borders of the two long sides you're holding are narrow, then tuck one side under the other; if wide, then roll both sides in the same direction around the tamal.  If the husk is small, wrap the tamal in a second husk.  Finally, fold up the empty 1 1/2 inch section of the husk (to form a tightly closed "bottom" leaving the top open), then secure it in place by loosely tying one of the strips of husk around the tamal.

As they are made, stand the tamales on the folder bottom in the prepared steamer.  Don't tie the tamales too tightly or pack them too closely in the steamer; they need room to expand.

Eighth Step:  When all the tamales are in the steamer, cover them with a layer of leftover husks; if your husk-wrapped tamales don't take up the entire steamer, fill in the open spaces with loosely wadded aluminum foil to keep them from falling down.  Set the lid in place and steam over a constant medium heat for about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.  Watch carefully that all the water doesn't boil away and, the keep the steam steady, pour boiling water into the pot when more is necessary.


Tamales are done when the husk peels away easily; tamales made with the substitute masa may seem a little sticky when they are done.  Let tamales stand in the steamer off the fire for a few minutes, to firm up.


Once the tamales are done, I like to put a little salsa or hot sauce on them then eat them.

I have so much more to say about tamales, but this post is already ridiculously long, so I will stop here.


Bon appetit.