One Tamale, Two Tamale, Three Tamale Four!

I love a good tamale, I always have and I always will, but after becoming a vegetarian about 9 years ago I’ve been in search of good tamales and am always left wanting. Everyone seems to think vegetarians want spinach and feta in their tamales and I for one do not! If I wanted spinach and feta, I would be eating Greek food, not tamales. So today after finding a little impromptu kitchen inspiration, I made my own! I have to admit it took a while, and required a lot of different kitchen appliances, so I’m glad I made enough to freeze for later.  I also have to confess I don’t stock corn husks in my pantry, so I used parchment papers taken out in 4 inch sheets and cut in half.  

The filling was Tillamook Mexican cheese blend, and a  cilantro pesto I made for a cooking contest to go on something else, but after tasting it I knew it was meant to be in tamales!

Cilantro pesto:

1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
3 cloves garlic
½ to 1 jalapeno (some like it hot!)
1 ½ cup cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp lime zest
1 tsp salt
Enough water to blend smooth (1-2 tablespoons)

Give this a whirl in the blender until it’s a smooth green spread like pesto.

After making the pesto, I adapted a recipe off of the side of my Masa bag- it was pretty easy to make, no more difficult than whipping up a batch of brownies.

Basic tamale recipe:

2 Cups Masa Harina
1/2 Cup Organic vegetable shortening
1 Cup Lukewarm vegetable stock
1 Cup Lukewarm Water
1 Tsp Baking powder
1 Tsp salt
More water if needed to make tamale dough thin.

I mixed all the ingredients together with my stand mixer (I’ve used hand mixers, and just my hands too. Both of these methods work fine.) Because the vegetarian filling doesn’t hold the same bulk as a meat tamale I like to make my tamale dough a lot thinner so that it doesn’t end up overwhelming the filling. This is a problem I’ve come across many times.

Get your steamer basket or rice cooker going, and start an assembly line to make your tamales. I like mine to go Wrappers, Dough, Pesto, 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend, bowl to put finished product in.

Spread 1 heaping tablespoon of dough onto wrapper and spread thin leaving about 1/4 an inch top and bottom. Spread 1 tablespoon of pesto on dough, and sprinkle on about a tablespoon of cheese. Fold in the center of the tamale and then fold top and bottom up. Set in bowl sitting slightly upright.

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat

As you can see this is what makes this recipe time consuming.

Steam each batch of tamales for 10-15 minutes until tamales are done. The dough will still be soft when you take them out, and will harden up when they are cooled. If you are using parchment paper, they will stick some to the wet paper, so as soon as they are firm peel the parchment away.

Sorry for the lack of photos. I wasn’t planning on blogging about this because it’s a little more complicated than the simple food I normally make. But this was too good not to share. If nothing else hopefully you make some cilantro pesto to thrill your taste buds!

Sweet potatoes- Not just for Thanksgiving chili

When I came across this website http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/blogger-recipe-contest/ I thought it was a great idea because the sweet potato to me is really an unsung hero in the kitchen. They are sweet, nutritious and have a great texture and have a versatility that really allows them to be added to a wide verity of dishes. I often add sweet potatoes in vegetarian dishes when I need more depth of flavor and a nice meaty texture. This chili is my hand down favorite recipe to use sweet potato in. It’s vegetarian, but I promise meat eaters will be happy to eat it. It’s all in the way the potatoes are diced. One sweet potato is diced up very fine so it breaks down in the chili and melts into the sauce. The other sweet potato is left to shine as a meaty component of the dish.

2 sweet potatoes diced (read special directions on how to dice these)
1 cup cooked and drained pinto beans.
1 cup cooked and drained kidney beans 
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 white onion chopped
1 red pepper, diced
1 jalapeno diced
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 can petite diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 handful or 2 tablespoons of diced cilantro
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
A large splash or about 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons butter
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

For the garnish (We do this when we are serving chili at a party along with corn bread and corn chips)
1/2 red onion diced
1/2 red pepper diced
1 jalapeno diced

Special Directions:

Peel two sweet potatoes, dicing one into bite size pieces, the other sweet potato dice into very fine pieces. This is a very important step to this recipe and should not be skipped.

 Combine all ingredients into the crockpot and season with salt and pepper. Set on high and let cook for about 8 hours until everything is tender and the smaller sweet potatoes have become very soft.

I feel like there should be more directions to this recipe, but that’s it!  The labor of this recipe is really only in the chopping. It also tastes even better second day, and after freezing as it breaks down the sweet potatoes in the sauce a little bit more, so don’t be afraid to double this recipe!  

This is a great link for picking out the right sweet potato- http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/sweet-potatoes-101/sweet-potato-varieties/ I like O’Henry for this recipe.