My kingdom for a husk

After watching the most recent episode and seeing Alton Brown make tamales, I wanted some. After AB's Feasting on Asphalt 2 cookbook came out, I tried the Mississippi Delta tamales from it and they were might tasty. But for as much as I loved them, I hadn't attempted the recipe again. Why? Corn husks.

Well, the lack of corn husks to be precise. I looked high and low for those darn things when first attempting the FOA2 recipe.

I had my doubts the things could be found here. Its not the most culinarily diverse locale.

I was right. After hitting a couple of Kroger locations and Wal-Mart, a had exhausted my sources. Those are my two megamart options and despite AB's claim the corn husks were next to the masa flour... I was sans husks! I even checked a couple of mom and pop stores... nada.

Although Alton said using parchment paper made dense and greasy tamales, it was my only option and, goshdarnit, I wanted tamales!

While AB's hot tamales were pork, I opted for beef. Outside of locating the troublesome corn husks, making the tamales was easy. The spice mixture is simple and straight forward:

• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 2 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon freshly toasted and ground cumin seed

Now, half of that mixture goes into a pot of water with two pounds of meat. And cook until tender. That was three hours for my beef.

After that, I made the cornmeal dough. Which, too, was so easy.

• 2 pounds yellow cornmeal, approximately 6 cups
• 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon powder
• 7 1/2 ounces lard, approximately 1 cup
• 3 to 4 cups reserved cooking liquid

Once the beef was cooled and pulled, I cooked a large onion and a jalapeno in 1/2 cup of oil then added the meat and the other half of the spice mixture.

Rolling the tamales was to most time consuming part of the whole dish. It took me a while to roll, I believe three dozen, of those suckers. Into a big pot with the reserve liquid from the beef and a little extra water, they steamed for an hour.


Sorry, no glamor shot ;) I was hungry!

Hot Tamales recipe