I got the spreader in the mail yesterday and made three dozen in less than an hour last night (already had ingredients ready) all the while taking quick breaks to stir things on the stove for dinner.

I brought the remainder of the ingredients to the office, three of us convened in the lunch room at 11:30, ate our lunches (and a piece of pie) then began rolling, I was spreading masa, and two were rolling. At 12:17 we were cleaning up with just under six dozen rolled. We'll steam them after work.

This spreader may be my new favorite thing.

I am going to try out my new masa spreader this weekend and report back.

I'll be making more on Sunday. A couple people at my wife's office have requested some for purchase.

I'm officially in business now.

so.hungry.

I plan to try this for the first time this year. I'm going to try for turkey tamales with leftover turkey from thanksgiving.

I think I'll go to home depot and get a cheap putty knife to use as a masa spreader.

Would a tamale sauce discussion go on this thread or on another? i made one that was good a few christmas's ago that I got from texags but can't for the life of me remember where it went.

What is this tamale sauce you speak of, rebelionel?

Has anyone ever steamed their tamales while wrapped in foil and packaged by the dozen(multiple dozen at a time)?

[This message has been edited by Agz_2003 (edited 12/14/2011 10:35a).]

quote:

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What is this tamale sauce you speak of, rebelionel?

---

well, I was intimidated by the prep of what goes into homemade tamales. I didn't even know that tamales at christmas was a 'thing', but reading TH's posts years ago on the GB clued me in. What I ended up doing was getting tamales from a place nearby that made great ones, and what I did was focused on was making a great sauce to cover them in. It went quite well, many compliments.

was it fido's chile con carne from the Cheese Enchilada thread???

actually i think you are right. how the hell did you remember that, ginger kid?

chile con carne on top of homemade tamales sounds like a big winner.

is this it?

quote:

---

Enchilada Sauce:
1/2lb 90/10 ground beef
1/4 cup Oil
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Tomato paste
1 crushed garlic clove
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried mexican oregano
2 T Pure (New Mexico) chile powder (I grind my own, of course)
1 T Ancho Chile Powder
2 cups chicken broth (or water)

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Brown meat (Don't drain) Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 3 to 4 minutes, or until it begins to darken. Add the rest of the ingredients except the broth and cook about a minute more. Add chicken broth or water and cook until the sauce thickens. Turn heat to low and let sauce simmer for 15 minutes. Add water/broth to adjust the thickness.

---

http://mobile.texags.com/Forums/34/Topics/1460081

[This message has been edited by Agz_2003 (edited 12/14/2011 11:40a).]

yup, that's it. good find.

quote:

---

how the hell did you remember that, ginger kid?

---

I remember very strange, random things, plus we've been swapping that recipe around like it was NA's mom.



[This message has been edited by Tree Hugger (edited 12/14/2011 12:47p).]

Hungry

I still have five spreaders I can send out to the first requests. pm or my handle@gmail.com

Gig 'em Aggies!

Mike: any idea on approximately how many tamales a 2# pkg of bolner's fiesta shucks will make?

Mike, PM sent.

All spreaders have been mailed. Everyone report back your experiences, please.

Tex - A 2# bag of shucks should make about 25 dozen or so.

Gig 'em Aggies!

Ingredients
10 dried corn husks
1 1/2 cup masa harina
1 1/4 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded cooked chicken
Amarilla Mole, recipe follows

Directions


In a large mixing bowl soak the corn husks for 30 minutes.

In another bowl, add the masa harina and salt and with a whisk, mix well. Slowly add the chicken stock to the masa harina and mix well until a dough-like consistency. Make 10 ping-pong ball size balls of dough.

In a plastic-lined tortilla press (both sides), press out each ball of dough to form a 5-inch round (about the size of the press). Carefully remove the tortilla, and place a spoonful of amarillo mole sauce, a spoonful of shredded cooked chicken. Fold each side of the tortilla and place in a corn husk length-wise. Secure both ends with a string or part of the husk used as a string, and repeat process.

Steam for 30 minutes.

Mole Amarillo:
3 guajillo chiles, seeded and deviened
1 ancho chile, seeded and deviened
1 medium onion
4 garlic cloves
5 medium tomatillos
2 medium green tomatoes
15 black pepppercorns
7 whole cloves
3 large hoja santa leaves or 5 dried hoja santa leaves
3 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil
3 tablespoons masa harina
3 tablespoons water


Toast chiles on a griddle. Remove and place in a bowl. Cover with boiling water and let stand for 20 minutes.

In a hot cast iron pan, roast the onion, garlic, tomatillos, and green tomatoes. Roast until well charred on all sides. Place in a bowl and let cool.

Meanwhile grind peppercorns and cloves in coffee grinder. When the vegetables are cool enough to handle peel off the charred skin and puree them in a blender with the hoja santa leaves, drained chiles, and spices.

In hot pot, heat the lard, add the pureed strained sauce, and cook for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, add the masa harina and water. Mix until well blended. Add this mixture to the sauce and cook for 5 minutes more, until done.

Recipe for The Mexican Tamales from Oaxaca:





Ingredients:

4 big banana leaves, washed-down
1 Onion
4 cloves garlic
1 whole chicken
1/2 pound pork leg meat
1 pound black Mole Oaxaca style store bought
1/2 pound lard,
2 pounds white masa (dough) for tamales
1/2 water cup with 2 teaspoons of tequesquite (or yeast if unavailable)
salt to your taste


Preparation:

Dip the banana leaves in boiling water for a few seconds; this is important as it will make them pliable. Unroll the banana leaves, dry them off and cut them up into 12 inch X 12 inch squares approximately

Boil the pork leg meat in water, just enough to barely cover it, with garlic and the chopped onion. Once finished cooking discard the water and reserve the pork.

Cooking the chicken: to speed things up cut your chicken in two halves and plunge it in water (with one tsp salt), which you will bring to a boil. Cook your chicken this way and when it is ready, take out the chicken from the water and save the broth; this will become the broth we need later on. Allow the meat and chicken to cool, take out chicken's and pork's bones and cut their meat to medium sized chunks. As I wrote earlier, save the chicken broth for the next step.

Mix your Oaxaca Mole with that chicken broth as you bring it to a boil, stirring constantly until you get a thick sauce. Add to this sauce the chicken and pork chunks...

Beat the lard to make it soft and spongy. Add the lard to the tamal corn flour and knead them together. While beating the masa, spkinkle the tequesquite in that dough. Keep kneading and rolling the dough until a little chunk of it would float in water instead of sinking to the bottom of a glass.

Spread your banana tree leaf squares; put in the middle of each one a chunk of the mixed tamal dough and some meat and chicken oaxaca sauce. Leave room for you to be able to close the banana tree leaves, the dough will expand but not too much. Add another banana tree leaf on top and tie up your tamales tightly enough, using twine rope. Keep your tamales square, if you want to follow tradition.

Drop them in a steamer, and cook them with steam for about 1 hour, making sure the steamer never runs out of water.
A trick to make sure there is water in the steamer: drop a metallic piece of some sort at the bottom; as the water boils and moves the metal, this will make clinking noises. When the clinking noises stop this means there no longer is any water!

You know your tamales are ready when, when opening one its leaves they come off easily from the dough. One hour steaming should be perfect for this.

Serve your Tamales Oaxaqueños while hot, or save for later in the refrigerator.

The masa spreader worked great! It's an excellent investment. It makes spreading masa so much easier and quicker. I would estimate you can spread masa 2-3x faster when using it. I'll have to buy another one for next time. Two thumbs way up!

my dad and I just finished about 12 dozen, took about 8 hours including the time it took to cook meat and prepare masa, chile sauce, etc.

We also took about 45 minutes for lunch and took frequent other breaks to play with the kids.

Looks like it was more than I thought. There are a dozen in each package, who knows how many on that tray, and Dad already took two dozen home:

nm

[This message has been edited by aznaggiegirl07 (edited 12/21/2011 6:33p).]

ttt for bonfire

thanks!

bump for the season...I was looking for this thread and figured others might soon