Nix the GMO - Non GMO Homemade Tamale Corn Masa

Ok, I can feel a rather long post coming on because this topic is one I can totally soapbox out on...

I'll save you.

The nitty gritty of this story is that I just made my very own homemade masa using non-GMO certified organic corn I bought from Amazon.

Hilariously, Tsunami tried to add this dried corn to his last batch of chili. He did try to rehydrate it for a few hours simmering, like a good sport. I also tried to tell him that I didn't think that was all there was to it... but not being sure myself, I let him truck along. It didn't work, of course. It never rehydrated properly and he was surely baffled. We ate it anyway. lol!

However, I decided that it was indeed time to figure it out properly because I wasn't going to keep store bought corn out of the house for very long, if I didn't.

My primary rationale for buying this in the first place was to make corn tortillas for chips for nachos. Yea, that's me, dudes. That's how I operate. It might take me days to make one dang thing I love to eat, but no one complains when I do. It's the kitchen curiosity in me, I guess. And also, I don't want to die eating the things I love to eat just because I can't figure out a healthier alternative.

My health, in my own hands, I endeavor.

Anywho, back to corn.

Nixtamalization. 
The process for making dried corn edible. There is probably a lot more to that, but you can Google that if you like. For this post, it's enough to say that the corn is a tough nut. It needs a process to rehydrate it enough to allow for the skins to be removed and in doing so, make it edible through the cooking process.

This is done by cooking the corn in an alkaline solution. And this is easily accomplished by adding pickling lime to your simmer and letting the whole thing sit overnight. Easy, right? Yup. So easy.

2 cups dried corn
2 tbsp pickling lime
water to cover well

1. Wash and pick through your dried corn just in case there are small stones or oddballs in the mix.
2. Simmer corn, lime and water on low for about 30-45 minutes, covered.
3. Turn off the heat and let this sit, covered, overnight.
4. Wash the corn the next day and store, covered, in the fridge with fresh water until ready to use. I didn't get to mine for 2 days and all was well. I changed the soaking water daily.
5. Wash corn in fresh water, gently rubbing kernels to remove skins. Try to remove what you can and don't worry if you don't get it all off. A lot will have slipped off themselves during the soaking and cleaning.

Corn Masa for Tamales

~4 c chicken stock

1/2 block of manteca (pork lard)

~ 4 cups fresh finished nixtamalized corn

salt, to taste

My 2 cups dried corn turned into about 4-5 cups of nix corn. Basically two batches in my food processor. The chicken stock is a starting point of what you may need. I had a half gallon of stock handy and used about half during the grinding process of the corn. It does depend on your environment as well because your corn may not need as much liquid, etc.

If you were using masa harina, or ground masa flour, then you would alternate adding a little flour to your whipped manteca with a little chicken stock to hydrate your dough/batter. For tamales, you want more of a batter than a dough, which is why the manteca and chicken stock are key. They also add a real depth of flavor to your tamales, of course.

I took half my corn or what would fit in the bowl of my food processor and pulsed the corn using the chicken stock to create a loose, but not wet, corn puree of sorts. Just enough stock or liquid (you can absolutely use water) to allow it to break down into a smooth corn batter. Hard to explain this part but you will use this to add to your whipped manteca.

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, if you have one, whip up the manteca until silky and smooth. 
2. Ladle in the corn mixture a little at a time and incorporate before adding more corn.
3. Add a little more chicken stock if it looks like your batter is too stiff. It should not fall off the spoon but still be spreadable like a good hummus. 

And that, is about all there is to that. 

There is magic in this whole nixing affair... and it is what produces THE quintessential essence of Mexican corn tortillas, cooking, in fact. It transforms the corn and produces that distinct nutty flavor found in all authentic tortillas.

To make tortillas, you don't need the pork fat. It's just the corn and water, instead of chicken stock. Press balls of this simple corn dough between two plastic baggies and fry that sucker up on a hot tomal or cast iron skillet. You may never eat another or look at another, corn tortilla the same way ever again.

A word about manteca...you could use shortening but why, dude? In Texas, at every grocery store, you can buy fresh, housemade rendered pork fat. Seriously easy to come by. I don't have that luxury in Hawai'i although the Paniolos definitely provide access to any and all real Mexican kitchen staples. I can get manteca at every grocery store. And when we get our wild boar, we'll probably be able to get more manteca than we can shake a stick at. 

Moral of this long-winded pseudo-story is to encourage you, even if you are little sketched out by the idea of pure pork fat... just allow me to gently encourage you to get over it and try it. You will not ever think of it the same way again. Your granny probably kept cans of bacon fat on the stove, right? This is no different. Why waste what most people now understand to be quite healthy for you. In moderation, big shocker.  Animal fats, our bodies know how to process. Just sayin'...

If you can't hack the idea, use shortening but just know that you will improve the flavor and overall kitchen experience immensely if you go the distance and use PORK FAT! YEA!

You're The One That I Want - John and Olivia's Baked Chile Rellenos

Crazy freaking couple of years...  I'm starting to believe that my life is more of a Modern Love Food Diary, but maybe it has always been that way.

I've been married an awfully long time and this new chapter of being un-married again is fraught with exciting and terrifying twists and turns. Sometimes I cry for sentimental reasons. I have, at times, missed our early life together, memories stuffed into the nooks and crannies of this blog. Reminders of the past; nostalgia.

Sometimes, I can't remember what he looks like, what his voice sounds like. Even the good memories, slowly fading...

Other times I have to giggle outright because what may seem like the worst thing in the world that could ever happen to you, turns out to be a beautiful, amazing blessing in disguise. As in save your life kind of blessing in disguise... I mean what the Hello Kitty happened? Could it be any more intriguing, confusing, mystifying, utterly terrifying, butterflies-in-your-tummy kind of ride? Don't really think so.

Between going through a divorce I thought, at first, I never wanted and navigating life as a single woman in unchartered waters, on my own, far from anything or anyone familiar... it has been quite a wild roller coaster ride. Just me, myself and everyone, everything, new.  Totally scary, but kinda exhilarating once the sheer terror wears off, which admittedly has taken quite a bit of time for me.

But it's true what they say... When one door closes, another door opens wide.

And then suddenly, when you least expect it and when the timing seems insane but yet, wildly appropriate, you randomly meet someone kind, genuine... a Tsunami of Goodness, he would later call himself boastfully. I still smile when he says it because it couldn't be more true.

Sharing this rollercoaster ride with a man I am now certain is Richard Pryor and Joan River's lovechild, the past year and a half has been anything but boring. And my new friendship has been anything but typical. It's been so fun, it's stupid. And being that we've both been displaced from everything we have known and loved before... it has been like learning to walk all over again. Oddly comforting when nothing feels familiar or comfortable. A feeling of safety and security that is more real than anything I've had in a good long while. And that thing... I never thought I'd ever feel again...

Laughter. Nothing cures a broken heart like laughter. And a lot of time. And a good looking hunk of a Green Beret that cooks like an Iron Chef!

Let's face it, a man that cooks for you, makes you laugh till you pee your pants and treats you like his dreams have also been answered, will almost certainly seal the deal. Hard to cry when you are trying not to pee yourself laughing...

I've been trying to write down all of the madness because it is so comical. I keep a journal of all the hilarious things he says because he really is a riot and the first time he opened his mouth, I was hooked; trying not to laugh but not able to contain myself.  Something you might see in a movie.

He gets out the scrabble board while I finish making dinner and randomly tells me I'm his Olivia Newton John. I secretly gush with pride and smile to myself... I mean, who doesn't want to be John Travolta's Olivia Newton John??!

So Modern Love is covered, let's get on with the Food Diary part..

After a super mellow night (for us) at the Tacos al Carbon food trucks, we decide to make chile rellenos because the back food truck is the only one that makes the rellenos. As usual, we are too late. Once they are done, they are done; we missed the boat that night. Unthwarted, I head over to the Mexican grocery store across the street and pick up everything I need to make it for dinner the next night.

Prepping the Chiles:
4-5 poblano peppers, roasted and skinned, seeds removed.

I roast the peppers for 10 minutes on a nonstick cookie sheet with a silpat. After 10 minutes under my broiler, I flip the peppers over and roast on the other side for another 10 minutes. The idea is to literally blister and blacken the skin of the poblano peppers. Don't fret, you won't burn them and this is part of the process of a good chile relleno.

The poblano skins are tough and don't digest well so you blister the peppers in an effort to easily remove the skins much like you would to blanch tomatoes or peaches when trying to remove the skins of fruits and vegetables. You probably could poach them in water, but traditionally, they are roasted which imparts a nicer flavor.

Once the peppers have blacked on each side, I remove them from the oven and place the peppers in a paper bag, closing the bag to let the peppers cool and steam a bit. This makes the blistered skin just slide off once they are cool enough to touch. Once the peppers cool, gently run your fingers along the skins and they should easily slip off. Just be gentle with them because the rellenos will hold stuffing so you want them to remain as intact as possible.

Once the skins have been removed, I tug at the stem to remove the stems and this will create an opening in which I can slide my finger along the length of the pepper to remove the remaining seeds. You should have a nice pepper "sheet" at this point which will allow you to stuff the pepper with whatever stuffing you choose and roll it up to create a little chile bundle.

Stuffing:
This stuffing was pretty darn good but you can use whatever you like to stuff the chiles. Traditionally, it's cheese or meat and cheese.

I used what I had on hand, as usual but I love going to the Mexican grocery store so I picked up some Mexican cheese and other chiles to make salsa, guacamole and enchilada sauce for meals later in the week.  The Mexican grocery store where I live has exceptional produce and the best selection of chiles so I stock up while I'm at it, just for fun. It always freaks the Mexicans out to see the white girl with her haul of hot peppers. But I actually know what to do with them and I have a wild Florida boy who likes hot stuff too; maybe even more than I do.

This time, I used this for stuffing the peppers:

Roasted chicken breast shredded
~ 1 c of cotija cheese
~ 1 c of grated Monterrey Jack (or Oaxaca or Quesadilla cheese if you have it)
1 cup of salsa, tamale or enchilada sauce

I had some roasted chicken leftovers from earlier in the week, fresh cotija cheese which you can find at any Mexican grocery store and often times at your regular grocery store depending on where you live. Either way it isn't a must but since I have access to it, I usually get it. Cotija is a crumbling fresh cheese very mild in flavor but it is traditional so I get it when I can.  It is great on salads, too so I usually get enough to have on a pepita (sunflower seed) salad later on in the week.

Butter a casserole dish and ladle about a cup of salsa or enchilada sauce on the bottom of your casserole dish.  Once the peppers are seeded, gently stuff the peppers with whatever mixture you use and gently close the pepper around the stuffing. It's almost like a little burrito. Lay the stuffed pepper in your casserole dish, seam-side up and prepare the batter below in a blender to make it easy to pour over the pepper bundles.

Batter:
1/3 c flour
1/3 c milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs

I put everything for the batter into a blender and blend to incorporate all ingredients thoroughly. Pour the batter over the peppers, just to the edge of the peppers and sprinkle more grated cheese over the top.

Bake:
Bake at 425 F in a buttered baking dish or mini loaf pan if doing individuals for 25 minutes or until brown and bubbly. Take out of the oven and cool for about ten minutes before serving.

I also have a recipe for traditional, fried chile rellenos and will post that one later. I make both but baking them is so much easier to clean up than frying them, so I usually prefer that method although I do love both ways.

Serve:
I usually serve this with a little shredded lettuce, grated cheese, guacamole and sour cream on the side. Of course, we always have salsa or a sauce of some kind.

A word about salsas:
My go to salsa is super quick and easy, as is most Mexican sauces so I will make a point to post those recipes as well since I have quite a few good ones to share. But if you love ready made salsa, I ain't mad at ya, but do try your hand at making it fresh because it really is a very different flavor profile. Most all pre-made salsas, whether jar or canned varieties, are cooked. And while I am no salsa snob, I have grown more fond of fresh salsa having grown up with it made fresh as a child. It's just a personal preference.

Smoke-a-licious Chicken Chipotle Tamales, Oh My!

What a super fun adventure we had! Ethnic grocery store shopping… even though we didn’t really set out to do that.

Seeing an opportunity to do a little stocking up, we decide to stop off at the Bodega Mercado, a Mexican super grocery store. Taking advantage of the moment, we head in to pick up a few things for our Mexican night with the kids this weekend.

Tsunami’s mother makes wonderful homemade picadillo (ground beef) tacos so for our family Sunday dinner this weekend, she’s coming over to make tacos. Unexpectedly, we have much to celebrate this weekend as a family. 

And since we based our family night on a number of ingredients that we both had on hand, turns out that Mexican night was certainly a good choice. All we were really missing was the ground beef, which they make fresh at the Bodega and so naturally, it was worth a visit.

In order to make use of a massive amount of smoked chicken we made the weekend before, we decide to try our hand at homemade tamales just to round things off. Neither of us have ever made tamales before, but his mama has so we both felt a sense of needing to get this right. Overachievers or true enthusiasts; take your pick.  Either way, we were definitely up to the challenge.

I was hoping to get masa at the grocery store pre-made for my first attempt but since they didn’t sell it in bulk, I thought why not just make it myself? What a shocker.  

I picked up corn husks, instant masa for tamales and decided to wing the rest. After all, I'm southern and have grown up eating Christmas tamales in Texas my whole life. I love to make things I love to eat and this would be no different. I just felt like it was somehow in my blood to make this and it turns out, I wasn't exactly wrong...

For some reason unknown to me, I stood in the aisle with the lard trying to decide whether I needed some. I had no idea that tamales actually require lard, but there I stood. Tsunami asks me, “Do we need lard? Why do we need lard? You don’t use Crisco either…” and he wanders off talking towards me about some black label habanero hot sauce he discovered and pointing out they have all kinds of pickled jalapenos en escabeche, which he knows I love. Kids in a candy store... 

But there I still stood, pondering and mesmerized. He starts to unload my arms for me because I’m carrying way too much without a basket as usual and with my free hand, I grab a tub of rendered pork fat that is produced by the market’s own meat department and restaurant. No clue why or what made me do it, but that's what I grab. Pork fat.

We carry on and head out with our goodies, which included the freshly ground beef we explicitly came to get for his mama's tacos. We also take home some manzano chili peppers which we are lucky enough to find fresh here in Florida and of course, the black label habanero hot sauce he was enthusing about earlier.

Once at home, I look up a couple of recipes in some of my cookbooks, research a few cooking sites online and all of them had one thing in common which I did not get: lard! Gosh darnit, I’m thinking to myself… there was a reason I was locked in place for fifteen minutes just standing there in front of the shelves of lard! But, then I remembered my pork fat! So I quickly google whether or not you can use rendered pork fat instead of lard and the resounding answer was yes! In fact most of the authentic Mexican recipes recommend rendered pork fat, if you are fortunate enough to obtain it. Aye aye aye!

And so… we endeavoured...

It should come as no surprise, but if someone ponders lard for 15 minutes, chances are good something will go right.

Our first tamales. And they couldn't have turned out better, more delicious or more satisfying. Maybe that is because we were both so fascinated with each part of the process.

Filling:
First, we had a bulk of smoked chicken quarters that we didn't want to go to waste. Not sure why I thought of it, but I decided that smoked chicken tamales were the ticket.

Next, I made a batch of fresh salsa and after pulling all of the smoked chicken off the bones, we marinate the cooked chicken again in the salsa overnight.

Once ready to make the tamales, we strained the chicken out in a colander and reserved the salsa liquid to make the tamale sauce below.

For the filling, it really was just the smoked salsa chicken. No other seasoning was required and it was delicious.

Tamale Sauce:

• Salsa from marinating the chicken
• 1 can of chipotles
• Poached, roasted garlic
• Garlic oil
• Honey
• Roasted whole fresh red jalapenos, charred in the oven until blackened

We put all but the oil and honey into the sauce pot and simmered on low. I dumped everything from the sauce pot into a blender and slowly added in about 2 tablespoons of garlic oil which made the sauce so smooth and silky.

At the end, I added about a tablespoon of honey just to soften the flavors and it turned out to be so delicious. I mean, come on... honey smoked chipotle tamale sauce... How can you not love it?  I practically licked the whole blender clean.

Corn Husks:
We bought corn husks which we brined overnight. I mean, why not? The husks are used to steam the tamales so why not add some flavor to that part of the party as well? You must soak the husks for a few hours or overnight like we did, so we just added flavor at the same time.

Tsunami used a jar of chile pepper brine we had on hand from making hot sauce and to it he added onion salt, garlic powder and black pepper. If you don't get all OCD like we do, but want to season your husks choose flavors that make sense like garlic, onion and fresh lime, for instance. It's very close to the flavor profiles we used to marinate the husks. We just like to use whatever we have on hand and we almost always save our chili pepper brine for just such an occasion.

Masa:
On to my first batch of masa. Here's how I made my first masa, which turned out perfect on my first try. Don't be intimidated. I was a little bit unsure of myself but I'm ok with failures in the kitchen so I was more unprepared for my success than I was expecting a little bit of a first time fail. Turns out, it wasn't at all hard.

• 2 pounds (4 cups) instant masa for tamales
• 10 oz (1 1/3 c) rendered pork fat (soft but not at all runny)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• ~ 2 cups of homemade chicken stock (yes, absolutely makes a difference)
• salt to taste

To make the masa, start by combining the masa flour with the pork fat. Just like a good pastry recipe, you combine the fat with the flour and it gets crumbly.  I just mixed it with a large fork, then added in the baking powder.

Next, add about 1 cup of chicken stock and keep adding more stock slowly until your tamale dough holds enough stock to be loose like a muffin or cake batter. Thick and fluffy, but not stiff and loose enough to spread. If it holds its form on a spoon but spreads easily like a thin icing, you are in good shape.

So for your first time making tamales, I suggest doing what I did. Google making tamales and watch a mamasita make them on youtube. I had no idea how to do the masa part and I found a video  not only instructional but it boosted my confidence as we began the process. It certainly helped a lot to have a partner in the kitchen to help, so we divided the tasks between us. I spread the masa using a spoon and my fingers. Meanwhile, my better half did the filling, rolled and tied the tamales.

Process:
Remove the husks from your brine, squeezing out excess brining liquid. They will steam the tamale filling so they don't need to be dry, just not dripping wet. Take any small or torn pieces and pull the husk apart creating thin strips which will be used as ties to tie the filled husks just before steaming.

Place the tapered end towards you and leaving about an inch of space at the tapered end, spread filling with a spoon or your fingers, applying the masa all the way to each side edge.  My first ones looked like the one in the pic, but I ended up doing it edge to edge and that worked nicely.

Don't go so thin, you see husk through the masa, but don't go so thick that it oozes out of the edges too much when you roll it up. Do a few and you'll see what I mean.

Place about a spoonful of filling (can be cooked meat, cheese, jalapeños, anything) down the center of the masa and then fold one side over the masa and seal like a roll of sorts with the other masa edge. This creates the tamale and the masa encloses the filling.

You never want to put masa on the entire husk. Just about half is good, leaving enough to allow you to fold over creating a bottom seal. Once the tamale is "rolled" the free end is folded over and creates an envelope of sorts with the tapered end remaining open. Don't worry, nothing falls out.

Cooking:
I used my rice cooker! Yep, that's right. I put a plate that fit the bottom of my rice cooker inside and layered the rest of the unused husks on top of that to create a steaming platform for the tamales. I added just enough water to cover the bottom without getting the husks wet. (You definitely won't like soggy tamales. )

I layered the tamales in the rice cooker and much to my surprise, I got 30 tamales in there perfectly. My rice cooker steams rice in about 20-25 minutes and I thought this would be perfect for the tamales. It was just right. My rice cooker goes into "warm" mode automatically but we were eager to try them so maybe about 40 minutes later, I took one out to test.

Tamales will pull easily out of their husks if they are done. The first one I tried made us both swoon in total amazement at what we had just done on our first try. It isn't rocket science but oh how satisfying when you do something simple so well. We quickly piled a few on plates and gobbled them up, serving them with more of the chipotle sauce on the side. Just incredible.

Just in case you were wondering... his mama came over yesterday to watch our new puppy while we went to Spring Training for the Marlins. Left at home with a warm rice cooker full of tamales, she proudly announced that they were so good, she ate 4. She also admired our ingenious use of the rice cooker and said that was the perfect way to reheat them. Super high praise coming from our favorite family chef!

**If you don't have a rice cooker but have a large stock pot with a steamer, use that. If you have a veggie steamer, you can use that. I just happened to have my rice cooker and suspected it would be perfect for this task and it really was. But in future, when we make more tamales and we most assuredly will make bulk tamales now that we know how, I will probably use a large 20-40 quart stockpot with a steamer basket.

**You may or may not know but tamales are excellent for freezing. Just take out what you need and re-steam. Perfect for stock piling.

**Another tip: get a $7 masa spreader.  Google it. Watch the tamale lady's video and you will never spread masa by hand again. Amazon sells them and I bought one immediately. It will get so much use and makes quick work out of this traditionally time consuming part of making tamales.

***UPDATE*** So of course, we make another batch of tamales once the masa spreader arrived. An absolute must, so glad I got it. This time we made just under 5 dozen tamales in about 40 minutes. And this time, we didn't fuss with tying the tamales. Just folded them up and put them in the steamer upright on their ends. This way, we got about 4 dozen in the rice cooker and we froze the other dozen or so fresh. I mean, after all, you will steam them again to reheat so why not just steam them fresh? That's what we're gonna try next. :) So fun and so delicious. We also got a little creative and made pizza tamales for the kids which were so yummy! Pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, pepperoni. So good.