Blog 5-Tamales

Tamalés

When my grandma lived in Mexico back in 2005, she would make the best Mexican food that you can think of and always made us laugh and smile, especially when she made Tamales. Tamales is the one food that I love the most because it impacted my life in a way that it was the first time I had tamales, it was the first time I have seen my grandma, and was introduced to a different culture in Mexico.

Ingredients

• Corn leaves
• 1 Potato cut into cubes
• 2 Carrots cut into cubes
• a small pot or steamer.

For the Masa

• 2 1/2 cups of flour prepared for tamales
• 1 1/4 cups of chicken broth
• 1 Tablespoon Salt or chicken powder consomme
• 8 oz. Pork Lard
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

For the Chicken

• Cooking and unraveling a chicken breast
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1/4 julienne onion.
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the Guajillo sauce

• 6 Chiles deveined boiled, drained and clean.
• 2 dry pasilla chiles, boiled, drained and clean
• 1/4 roasted onion
• 3 roasted garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup of chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin

Instructions
Start by soaking the corn husks in warm water so that they soften. Once soft put them in a sieve to drain the excess water.

Meanwhile fill your steamer with water and a handful of salt until it covers the bottom of the pot without going to the tamales.

Prepare the dough by adding the dry ingredients in a bowl and gradually empty the chicken broth to form a soft but manageable dough.

Then fry the onion and the shredded chicken with spices and olive oil.

In a pan with water boil the carrots for 5 minutes and then add the potatoes and boil everything for 10 minutes, that the vegetables are still firm. Then cook with olive oil, dried cilantro, salt and pepper to taste and Reserve.

Prepare the sauce aguajillo liquefying everything perfectly, if you use a blender of high power you will not need to strain but if you do not use it you will have to strain the mixture so that there are no residues of the skin of the chiles.

Grab two leaves and put them in the opposite direction of each other, add 1/4 cup of dough in the center of the leaves and in the center of the dough add chicken, vegetables and guajillo sauce. wrap in a gift and set vertically in the pot for the tamales. Let cook for an hour to an hour and a half at medium temperature and enjoy warm!  
The aguajillo sauce is not spicy if you like spicy, add 2 dried tree chiles to the mix before liquefying.
Makes approximately 15 tamales to make more double the mixture.