Tag: snack
Sweet Corn Tamales
Sweet Corn Tamales
There are many different types of tamales. Most people are used to seeing either pork or chicken tamales served with either a green or red sauce. These sweet corn tamales are considered a dessert tamale. They are still served with sour cream and some hot sauce. There are many extra ingredients that you can add to the dough if you’re looking for more than just sweet corn. Egg yolks, cinnamon, cream, and cheese would be great additions to the dough.Assembling the tamales is pretty simple. Place dough in the center of the husk. Fold over right, bottom, left, then roll up. Easy enough. While not necessary, I like to roll them up again in another husk. When steaming the tamales, make sure to line the bottom of the steamer basket with extra husks and that no water is touching the tamales. You only need 1” of water in the bottom of your pot. These will take 75 minutes to steam. When finished, let sit for 15-20 minutes before you serve them. They will need a little time to settle and firm up. Serve the tamales with sour cream and a hot sauce of your liking.These can be made with fresh sweet corn and husks. It takes about 5 ears of corn to yield 6 cups of kernels. Make sure to thoroughly clean the fresh husks of any silt. You will want to layer up the corn husks will fresh ones. Other than that, they assemble and cook the same way.
Equipment
- food processor
- steamer
Ingredients
- 6 cups sweet corn
- 1 1/2 cups masa flour
- 1 1/2 cups butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Pour over the corn husks, making sure that they are completely submerged. Weigh them down with the pot you boiled the water in. Let soak for 40 minutes. While the husks are soaking, you can start to prepare the dough.
- In a food processor, lightly pulse the corn until it is coarsly chopped, but not puréed.
- Mix the corn together with the masa flour.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, and salt.
- Add the butter mixture to the corn mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add in the baking powder and mix.
- When the husks are ready to use, pick out the biggest ones. Depending on how big you want your tamales, use either 1/3 cup of the dough for smaller tamales or 1/2 cup of dough for larger tamales. I made larger ones, obviously. Place the dough in the center of the husk like so, forming into a cylindrical shape. Fold over the right side first; then the bottom upwards; then the left side over; then roll. At this point they are ready. I like to personally roll them up again in another husk.
- If making large tamales like I did, the dough recipe will yield a dozen. If making smaller ones, you will yield 16-20 tamales.
- Line the bottom of a steamer pot basket with some of the smaller corn husks that you didn’t roll up. Place the tamales in the steamer standing upright. If the pot isn’t ham packed, fill the gaps with the remaining husks. Cover the top of the tamales with more husks.
- Add no more than an inch of water to the bottom of the steamer pot. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium. Place the steamer pot basket in the pot, covered with a lid. Steam for 75 minutes.
- Let sit for 15-20 minutes before serving. They will firm up quite a bit.
- I like to serve these with a little sour cream and a couple drizzles of hot sauce.
Black Bean and Chicharron Tamales
Black Bean and Chicharron Tamales
Tamales are one of my favorite Mexican foods. This tamales are so good that I ate the entire recipe over the course of 2 days when I made this. Black beans in tamales sound great to me, but when you mix in crushed chicharrones, the tamales are taken to another level! There is a lot of steps to making tamales. You definitely need to have patience when making these; but it will pay off in the end.Try making tamales in a banana leaf. It gives them a whole different flavor.
Servings: 16 tamales
Ingredients
- 2 cups masa harina flour
- 2 cups Mexican style black beans
- 2 cups chicharrones crushed
- 1 cup lard
- 3/4 cup chicken stock
- 3 green onion chopped
- 2 tsp salt
- 16 corn husks plus more
Instructions
- Boil enough water to pour over the corn husks. Weigh down the husks with something to make sure they are all submerged. I used the pot I boiled the water in. Soak for 45 minutes.
- Whip the lard in a bowl with a spatula until smooth. Add in the masa harina flour. Mix.
- Measure out 2 cups of chicharrones.
- Lightly crush.
- Mix the chicharrones into the dough.
- Mix in the black beans, green onions, salt, and chicken stock.
- Form a small turd-like dollop of the dough down the center of a corn husk.
- Fold the right side of the husk half way over the tamale.
- Fold the top part of the husk over the tamale.
- Roll it up.
- Do this until you run out of dough. This recipe yields about 16 tamales.
- Since I don’t have a proper steamer to steam these tamales, I used my sticky rice steamer. Fill the pot with 2 inches of water and bring to a boil. Layer all of the tamales so they are standing somewhat upright.
- Cover with any remaining corn husks. Put a kettle lid over the tamales. Steam for 1 hour.
- Let the tamales rest for 10 minutes before serving. Eat them in the husk. Top with sour cream and a salsa of your liking.
Okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese style savory pancake, sometimes also referred to as a Japanese pizza. These are very popular as an appetizer, snack, or if you are a high ass as myself, a main course. Okonomiyaki originated from Osaka, Japan. In the recipe, all of the batter ingredients are mixed together. There is also a slight variation that came from Hiroshima. The difference is instead of mixing all the batter ingredients together, they are layered over the pancake while cooking with more of the batter poured over the top to give the illusion of it being stuffed. This recipe is a lot simpler having everything mixed in.There a many variations of ingredients and toppings that can go into making an Okonomiyaki. They typically all have cabbage in them. The one I made has very thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms, green onions, and pork belly. You can substitute bean sprouts for mushrooms if you’re not a fan of them. For the toppings, I used Okonomi sauce, Japanese mayo, bonito flakes, and green onion. You can find okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayo, and bonito flakes in any asian grocery store. DO NOT USE AMERICAN MAYO! It is not the same as the Japanese variety. The brand I use and what most people use is Kewpie. Bonito flakes are dried flakes of the bonito fish. While smelling fishy, it sure doesn’t taste fishy when combined with all of these ingredients. It adds a nice saltiness to the pancake. Another great topping variety is Okonomiyaki sauce, a fried egg, and crushed nori.In this recipe, I used pork belly for the protein. If you can’t find pork belly, thin sliced bacon will work fine. For the pork belly, I purchased some skin on, pre sliced. It was about an 1/8″ thick. I used my food mallet to hammer it down thinner. The goal is to get the belly crisp. Once you pour the batter into a pan, lay the belly slices across the top, making sure that nothing overlaps. Make sure to press the belly into the pancake. Once flipped, flatten the pancake even more by using a wide spatula.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 cup okonomiyaki pancake flour
- 1/2 cup dashi stock
- 1 large beaten egg
- 1 shiitake mushroom cap thin sliced
- 2 green onions chopped
- 1 cup shredded cabbage
- 3 slices pork belly thinly sliced, cut in half
Okonomiyaki Toppings
- Japanese mayo
- okonomiyaki sauce
- bonito flakes
- green onion
Instructions
- Mix together the okonomiyaki flour and the dashi stock. Mix in the beaten egg. Then mix in the cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, and the green onion.
- Unless you happen to get slices of pork belly that are almost paper thin, I recommend hammering them down with a food mallet.
- On a griddle or large skillet, heat the sesame oil over medium high heat. Pour all of the batter in the pan.
- Lay the pork belly slices across the top of the pancake. Try not to have them overlap. Cook the pancake for 3 minutes on the first side.
- With a wide spatula, careful flip the pancake over. Gently press down on the top of the pancake with the spatula to help flatten it. Cook for 3 minutes.
- Flip the pancake over again. As you can see, the pork belly is browned and stuck to the pancake. Press down across the top again with the spatula to help flatten it some more. Cook for another 3 minutes.
- Flip the pancake over for the last time. Cook for 3 minutes.
- Plate up your okonomiyaki.
- Top with okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayo, bonito flakes, and green onion.
