Thursday, February 4, 2010

Tamales for Diá de la Candelaria

February 2nd is a major holiday that I don't think has been getting it's due. First of all, it's Groundhog's Day, which is best celebrated with a viewing of the Bill Murray movie of the same name. But I think lesser known is the Catholic Celebration of Candelmas or Candelaria as it is known in Mexico where it is more widely celebrated. Jesus had remarkable timing, coinciding so many major events of his life with existing pagan holidays, making it conveniently unnecessary for banks and government agencies to change their closure schedules. Candelaria is the Feast of the Presentation of Christ at the Temple. It was traditional in those days for a baby to be presented at the temple 40 days after birth. This just happened to coincide with the mid-way point between the winter solstice (Christmas) and the spring equinox (Easter).

In Mexican household this event is marked with a feast of tamales. The tamales are made by the person who found the figurine of the Baby Jesus in the King Cake (Rosca de Reyes) on Three Kings Day (Diá de los Tres Reyes), January 6th the day the Three Kings arrived to see Jesus. This is also known as Twelfth Night, or the last day of Christmas.

I missed celebrating Three Kings Day this year, so I figured if I didn't make the tamales for Candelaria this year, it would slip by unnoticed as well. I searched around a bit for a recipe and decided on one I found on epicurious.com. I doubt it's the most authentic one I could come up with, but it was un-intimidating enough for this novice gringa to try.

Originally my friend Jan Smelk was going to join me for the adventure, but a homeless kitten ended up in her life on Tuesday morning, so she had to spend the day acclimating said kitty to the luxuries of a litter box, food that isn't scavaged and a cat roommate. So I was on  my own. Jan was also supposed to bring a large stock pot and steamer insert, so not having those was my first set back.

I had bought the masa flour a couple weeks ago when I got it in my head that I wanted to celebrate Candelaria.
 
 On Sunday I bought the tomatillos and serrano chiles, both first time purchases for me. My friend SuperTerrific offered me her large container of lard that she didn't think she would have cause to use up in exchange for the opportunity to eat some tamales and I had everything else on hand except the corn husks.

Tuesday:
I set about preparing the filling. I husked the tomatillos 


and put arranged them on aluminum foil in a broiler pan, and broiled them for about 5 minutes on each side until they were black in spots.
  
Then I poured the blackened tomatillos and accumulated juices into the blender and let them cool for a while while I chopped up the garlic and serrano chiles. 


Here is where our second problem started. I began very carefully, scraping the seeds out of the chiles with a knife, not touching them with my hands at all. Then around the third chile, for some reason I decided such care was not necessary and just started scraping the seeds out with my fingers, using my thumbnails to dig out the ones that clung to the flesh of the chile. Why did I do this, you are probably wondering... I am wondering this myself. I distinctly remember the thought process of "I must be careful with these seeds or my hands will be burning from the oils" and I sort of remember a mental switch to a more careless approach. I don't know why my more cautious and reasonable self didn't prevail, and I am very sorry for that fact. It was gradual, but slowly over the next half hour or so three fingers on my right hand, the tips of my left index and ring fingers and especially underneath both of my thumbnails began to heat up. No amount of hand washing in hot or cold water had any effect. I took a break from the cooking and gave Baby J a bath. The twenty minutes of submerging my hands in bath water did nothing to assuage the heat. I did a little internet searching. Most of the advice said, "Where gloves"... thanks, that helps a lot right now. Some of the more useful suggestions where, soak your hands in alcohol (No rubbing alcohol here, so I tried rum), bleach, milk, lavender lotion, washing in very hot water... I tried all of these things. They each seemed to work for about five minutes, then the heat would just creep back. It's a miracle I didn't rub my eyes during this odyssey. Eventually after about three hours of being driven to distraction the discomfort sort of ebbed away and I was able to turn my thoughts to something other than relief, but my zeal for this project was rather deflated for the day. 

As I had mentioned before, Jan Smelk was going to bring a stock pot and steamer insert, so I had to forage for one on my own. I had intended to make the tomatillo sauce then go out and search for one. I had looked on line and the options for getting a Calphalon steamer insert to go with my stock pot was around $70, which was way more than I wanted to invest in making tamales. I was hoping a cheaper solution could be found in some of the strange housewares markets in my neighborhood. As I said, after the burning hands incident, I couldn't face another challenge, so that had to wait until the next day... so much for celebrating Candelaria on the day, but I'm guessing Jesus hung around the temple for a few days.

Back to the cooking. I added the diced garlic and chiles to the tomatillos and blended it all up into a nice puree. At the same time I heated some oil in a pot, then added the puree and boiled it for 5 minutes. Then I added 2 cups of chicken stock, reduced the heat and let it simmer until it reduced to about one cup, about 40 minutes. 


At this point you are supposed to add four cups of shredded chicken, (They suggest purchasing a rotisserie chicken - but you know I can't do that.) I had to roast a chicken
 

So the tomatillo sauce went in the fridge and the chicken went in the oven. I threw some potatoes in the roasting pan as well because it seems a waste of an opportunity to have some delicious potatoes if you are going to the effort of roasting anyway, and I was getting pretty hungry and I knew no tamales were going to be eaten that day. So I ate the chicken wings and potatoes while the rest of the chicken cooled, then I put the whole chicken in a ziploc bag and went to bed.

Wednesday:
I pulled all the chicken off the bone and shredded it. It made just over four cups, packed. Then I chopped about 2/3 cup cilantro in the mini chopper and mixed it with the chicken and poured the tomatillo sauce over the whole thing.


Next I set out to find the steamer insert needed to actually cook this mess. I got Baby J into his enormous stroller that is awkward and unwieldily in small shops. Just perfect this kind of adventure. On my third shop I found just the thing. 
  
It cost $6, was tall enough for the tamales to stand up and would slide right into a stock pot. One problem. It is about 2" too wide to fit into my stock pot. I observed this when I was purchasing it. Now, you may have perceived already that sometimes I don't think things all the way through, so it may comes as no surprise to you to learn that I bought it anyway, did not investigate the possibility of also buying a stock pot that would accommodate this steamer, and took it home certain I could rig something up. (Rigging things up is not really a skill I possess. Misguided optimism is.) Well I got home, confirmed that it didn't fit in my stock pot, pulled out several other types of pots, confirmed that it didn't fit in any of those either and had to go back to the store to see if they had a stock pot that would fit. They did. It cost $10, cheap enough that I should have bought it the first time, even if I believed that rigging was a possibility.

 
While out buying the steamer I also picked up a bag of corn husks and I put them in water to soak before I went back out for the stock pot. 

At this point I realized that I had used up all of my reserves of chicken stock making the filling and didn't have any for the dough. Luckily, I saved the carcass from the chicken I roasted, so I threw that in my other, too narrow stock pot with a bag of potato, onion, carrot, parsley, etc. clippings I had been keeping in the freezer... Only about four hours to wait until that's ready to go...

In the interim I made a lovely Butternut Squash Puree with a squash that needed to be used.

On to the dough. This was my second opportunity to use my beautiful new standing mixer. So exciting! To begin you mix 1 & 1/3 cup vegetable shortening (or lard) with salt & baking powder. (If your masa doesn't contain those ingredients already, mine does not)

 
Beat this in the mixer until it is nice and fluffy.

 
Then beat in 4 cups of masa in four 1 cup additions. 
 
Reduce the speed to low, and gradually beat in 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock.

 
Use the remaining half cup of stock to soften the dough to your desired consistency. (This is where having a grandmother whose been making tamales for fifty years would come in handy, to tell you what your desired consistency is...I don't have one of those.)

Assembly:

Now fill your pot with enough water so that it is just touching the bottom of the steamer insert. Line the bottom of the steamer with softened corn husks. Then tear three large husks in to 1/4" wide strips to use as ties and set aside.

Open a husk on your work surface. Scoop 1/4 cup of dough onto the center and spread our into a four inch squareish shape. Leaving about 2-3" clear at the narrow end of the husk.

 
Spoon a heaping tablespoon of filling in a strip down the center of the dough. (You will probably want to shred the chicken more than I did. It's too chunky, as you can see here, I think it would make the whole thing juicier.)
  
Fold long sides of husk and dough over filling to cover. Fold up narrow end of husk. Tie folded portion with strip of husk to secure, leaving wide end of tamale open.
  
Repeat until all the dough or filling has been used. (I still had about half of the filling left when I ran out of dough, but the recipe says it makes about 26 tamales and I only ended up with 16, so I probably used too much dough.)

Stand tamales in the steamer basket.
Bring water in pot to boil. Cover pot and steam tamales until dough is firm to touch and separates easily from husk, about 45 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then serve.
  
I ate this by myself at about 11pm on February 3rd. So I wouldn't say it was a traditional Candelaria celebration. But I'm pretty sure that Baby Jesus appreciates a long journey towards a goal, and I'm all set for next year now. 
Though I read that traditionally tamales are served dry and that sauce is more of a Mexican-American thing, since I am in America, I recommend making some extra tomatilla sauce to spoon over the top. 

Here is the recipe in a more concise form
Filling
1 8-ounce package dried corn husks

1 pound tomatillos, husked, rinsed
4 3-inch-long serrano chiles, stemmed, chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
4 cups (packed) coarsely shredded cooked chicken (about 1 pound; from purchased rotisserie chicken)
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Dough
1 1/3 cups lard or solid vegetable shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (omit if masa mixture contains salt)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (omit if masa mixture contains baking powder)
4 cups freshly ground masa dough for tamales (34 to 36 ounces), or make masa dough with 31/2 cups masa harina (corn tortilla mix; about 17 ounces) mixed with 2 1/4 cups warm water
2 cups (about) low-salt chicken broth
preparation
For filling:
Place husks in large pot or large bowl; add water to cover. Place heavy plate on husks to keep submerged. Let stand until husks soften, turning occasionally, at least 3 hours and up to 1 day.
Preheat broiler. Line heavy baking sheet with foil. Arrange tomatillos on prepared sheet. Broil until tomatillos blacken in spots, turning once, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer tomatillos and any juices on sheet to processor and cool. Add chiles and garlic to processor and blend until smooth puree forms. Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add tomatillo puree and boil 5 minutes, stirring often. Add broth. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until sauce coats spoon thickly and is reduced to 1 cup, stirring occasionally, about 40 minutes. Season with salt. Mix in chicken and cilantro. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

For dough:
Using electric mixer, beat lard (with salt and baking powder, if using) in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in fresh masa or masa harina mixture in 4 additions. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in 1 1/2 cups broth, forming tender dough. If dough seems firm, beat in enough broth, 2 tablespoons at a time, to soften.
Fill bottom of pot with steamer insert with enough water (about 2 inches) to reach bottom of insert. Line bottom of insert with some softened corn husks. Tear 3 large husks into 1/4-inch-wide strips to use as ties and set aside. Open 2 large husks on work surface. Spread 1/4 cup dough in 4-inch square in center of each, leaving 2- to 3-inch plain border at narrow end of husk. Spoon heaping tablespoon filling in strip down center of each dough square. Fold long sides of husk and dough over filling to cover. Fold up narrow end of husk. Tie folded portion with strip of husk to secure, leaving wide end of tamale open. Stand tamales in steamer basket. Repeat with more husks, dough, and filling until all filling has been used. If necessary to keep tamales upright in steamer, insert pieces of crumpled foil between them.
Bring water in pot to boil. Cover pot and steam tamales until dough is firm to touch and separates easily from husk, adding more water to pot as necessary, about 45 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cool 1 hour. Cover and chill. Before serving, re-steam tamales until hot, about 35 minutes.)

2 comments:

  1. There was a computer meltdown while writing this post. I will finish it tomorrow, I promise.

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  2. I'm seriously just in awe of you. I normally think I can jump in and do anything. i wouldn't even begin to think about attempting something like tamales. I'm so impressed!!!!

    ReplyDelete