Wondering how to eat tamales? Worry not, this piece will lead your way towards the answer. Tamales are a traditional Mexican dish made from corn husks or plantain leaves stuffed with savoury toppings like meat, cheese, vegetables, or chilli peppers. These sumptuous treats can be put together with other offerings like tomatillo salsa or a small cup of atole, smothered with homemade chillies, or simply enjoyed on their own, and are also popular as portable street foods served chilled in trucks. catering and stands. There is no wrong way to eat a tamale!
How to eat tamales?
Method 1 of 2: Eat tamales alone
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Devour a tamale straight out of the package. Just peel off one end of the wrapper (usually a corn husk or a plantain leaf) and start munching. Once you’re done, throw the packaging in the trash and get on with your day. Tamales were originally meant to be eaten as a pocket food, much like you might nibble on a sandwich or bagel wrapped in charcuterie paper.
Look for tamales sold as street food in places with a strong Mexican heritage, or wherever food trucks tend to be spotted. Their size and portability make them perfect for scarves on the go.
Never eat the packaging itself. -
Eat your tamale with a fork and knife. Unwrap the tamale and discard the packaging. Then throw it on a plate and cut it into small pieces. That way, you won’t have to hold it all the time you eat or worry about getting your hands dirty.
Be sure to completely remove the wrapping from the steamed tamales in corn husks. however, plantain leaves are edible (though they are not eaten with tamales), corn husks are inedible and can cause choking or an upset stomach if ingested.
Cutting the tamales makes them easier to feed children, which could make a mess if given the whole serving.
Eating with your hands is also an option, but it will be more complicated. -
Add salsa or Mole for more flavor. Top the savory tamales with tangy tomato salsa or salsa verde. Mole, a Mexican sauce made with chocolate, chili peppers and spices, can also be used to spice up an otherwise ordinary tamale. Pour the condiment of your choice directly over the unwrapped tamale or dip it to control how much you get with each bite.
Feel free to substitute your own favorite salsa recipes, such as black beans and corn, mango-habanero, or chunky pico de gallo.
If you don’t have salsa on hand, regular hot sauce can be an acceptable substitute. -
Order a sweet tamale for dessert. While most tamales contain spicy or savoury toppings, some are assisted with sweet ingredients like chocolate, raisins, or even bananas. It is not uncommon to find sweet tamales on the dessert menu at restaurants specializing in tamales.
Sweet tamales are often flavored with potent spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom, and can be finished with a whipped cream spritz or a drizzle of honey. -
Reheat the leftover tamales before eating them. If you have a few extra tamales in the fridge, there are a few ways to reheat them without losing that soft, tender texture. Try steaming them in a pot of boiling water using a steamer basket, or toss them in the oven or hot pan with a little cooking oil for a slightly crispy finish.
You can also use a microwave oven to heat the tamales as a last resort if you have no other options available. Sticking a small glass of water with them will help prevent them from drying out and becoming crumbly.
It is not strictly necessary to warm your tamales before eating. Although they are most often eaten hot and fresh from the pot, there is no rule against you to eat them cold!
Method 2 of 2: Pair Tamales with Other Foods and Drinks
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Wash a tamale with a steaming cup of atole. Atole is a hot beverage made by simmering ground corn with water and an assortment of sweet flavours like chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon and fruit. It’s often sipped alongside tamales, making it a perfect addition to your meal.
Freshly brewed atole is often available at restaurants and food stalls that sell tamales.
If you want to try your hand at making atole, you can do so using the same masa corn dough used to coat the tamales. -
Tamales plate with a side of rice pudding. Arroz con Leche, also known as Mexican rice pudding, is another traditional item that is often associated with tamales. It is prepared by boiling long-grain white rice with milk and cinnamon sticks until it takes on a creamy consistency. Refrigerate the pudding to help thicken and serve chilled.
Sprinkle a small handful of raisins, chopped walnuts or ground cinnamon on top for the finishing touch.
A cup of Arroz con Leche is a great companion for sweet tamales eaten for breakfast. -
Smother the hearty tamales with chilli. Place a tamale in the bottom of a bowl and cover it with a few ladles of homemade chilli. Dress up your smothered tamale with grated cheese, sour cream, diced tomatoes and onions, or one of your other favourite chilli fixings.
Chilli is most often served with a little heavier types of tamales filled with ground beef, pork, or sometimes cheese. -
Try a Chicago-style “mother-in-law” sandwich. If you’re looking for a slightly unconventional take on the old-fashioned tamale, put a fresh beef tamale in a hot dog bun with a generous amount of chilli. Save room for iconic Chicago toppings like yellow mustard, onions, pickle relish, tomato slices, sport peppers, and celery salt.
A mother-in-law can be served in a bun, but when it’s full, it’s anything but an appetizer. Make sure you have plenty of towels nearby!
Advice
Tamales that are not consumed can be placed in an airtight container or zippered plastic bag and stored in the refrigerator. They will be best when consumed within 4 to 5 days.
Types of Tamales:
1. The chuchito:
In Castilian from Guatemala, it means “little dog”; it is a variation based on cornflour (commonly called masa ) and cheese. The chuchito also contains meat and the sauce ( recado) common to most preparations in papillotes. It is however more compact. Its cheap and, inevitably, very impoverished version, which can be found in the markets for a few Quetzales (2 or 3) has everything of a Christian stifle and will not give the best opinion of this typical dish, better at home. , like most Guatemalan dishes.
2. The pache:
A pache before cooking (base of potatoes and lard with a few peas, here completed with chicken, mushrooms, chilli and a dice of cheese) variants where the cornflour base of the tamal is replaced by crushed potato, also mixed with lard; you can place peas in it; the preparation that is placed in this base is the same as that of tamal. The variant from the Huehuetenango department, which I prefer, consists of placing not a piece of meat in the middle, but the meat slivered throughout the length of the preparation;
Tamal lanquinero:
A famous tamal stuffed with fish and chilli, a variation among dozens of others from the Guatemalan territory offering a huge variety of ingredients, as many as reliefs and climates.
Tamal de masa:
These are small papillotes of pure corn flour, commonly used, such as tortilla, to accompany dishes in a sauce, that is to say of a use equivalent to that of bread in France.
3. Tamal de chipilín:
A chipilín tamal, at the opening of the foil a little cheese and chipilín leaves and the previous tamal, becomes immediately delicious. Passing tourists, not used to the texture, will not be convinced; a long immersion gets used to the palate… and, the taste formed, this one is one of the most appreciable.
How to make Tamales?
Ingredients
To make both savoury tamales and sweet-savoury tamales, here is the complete list of ingredients:
- rice whole
- lard (100 grams per pound of rice; it is possible to substitute margarine, even butter or oil,
but the flavour inevitably changes) - saffron
- peppers ( chile guaque or guajillo and chile pasa )
- maxán leaves (alternatively, banana leaves)
- dried squash seeds
- tomato
- green tomato
- cinnamon
- sesame seeds
- peppers
- cloves
- sandwich bread
- drinking chocolate chips (failing that, some Van Houten type chocolate powder and sugar), salt
- sugar.
Preparation
First wash the whole rice, dry it (in the sun, if necessary), then grind it. On the other hand, put water to heat in a very large pot, as well as in another smaller one and soak saffron in a bowl of water.
When the water boils in the large pot, add the lard and stir until diluted; Then add the saffron water, ground rice and a handful of salt. The cooking time is long; the mixture should be stirred so that it does not stick or burn at the bottom of the pot.
During this time, toast the tomatoes and green tomatoes, on the one hand, as well as, on the other hand, the sesame seeds and squash seeds, then brown the sandwich bread. (It may be preferable to perform this step before preparing the rice, which requires attention to cook and stir regularly, therefore full availability.)
The cooking of the rice will be finished when, due to the lard, the preparation shows a slight sheen, the wooden pallet is standing in the middle of the preparation compacted by the cooking and the texture has completely lost its crunchiness. (It is useful during cooking to regularly add hot water from the other pot because the rice, of course, absorbs a lot.)
The preparation of the sauce - requires the use of the mixer. First, you throw in the cinnamon (120 grams, or 4 ounces), 4 peppercorns, 2 cloves, the 85 grams (3 ounces) of sesame seeds and as many squash seeds previously mixed, as it is mixed dry until a powder is formed. Set this powder aside. Then put the tomatoes and green tomatoes in a blender. Combine all the preparation in a pot, taking care to filter with a colander. Now the colander in the pot while waiting for the next step: put the golden sandwich bread in a blender with a little water, then empty into the colander. Shake lightly (and beware of splashing) to facilitate filtering. If necessary, pass the residue in a blender. Add salt, then simmer this preparation, stirring.
Now, if you want to make dulce tamales (sweet and savory, in this case), pour some of this preparation into a smaller pot and set aside the rest. In the small pot, pour the chocolate bars of drink broken into pieces and stir to dilute them in the preparation. Note that this is the basis of the mole de plátanos (that is, plantain bananas), a classic of Mexican and Guatemalan cuisine. Also, set aside some of the rice and lard mixture and add sugar.
Making tamales
The next step is the making of the tamal itself, that is to say, the filling of the maxán (or banana) leaves with the elements of the papillote. You have to superimpose two of these large leaves, placed on the palm, then, closing the palm, “break” the central rib, strong and rigid, to soften and make the leaf more manageable. In the first, part of the preparation of rice and lard is placed (or crushed potatoes and lard in the case of pache , or lard and corn flour in the most common case of tamal ); we then put the “sauce” on it, then the piece of meat: here, raw chicken, which will cook in the foil; but it can also be pork, in this case already cooked, or even turkey. (A tip: try to cut the meat well, to avoid bone splinters, which spoil the tasting a little.) Finally, add an olive and a thin slice of the chopped pepper.
Then comes the operation of closing the foil. We lift the two edges above the preparation, that we fold so that the tamal is tight in the sheet; then, we fold the two edges on the tamal. If it cracks, just try folding to the other side. Turn it over in the second sheet that you had kept under the first: this will be used to wrap the first foil, to reinforce the hermeticity of the first, to contain overflows in the event of a hole. For folding, it’s the same. Place, once tight and folded, the double foil in the pot, in which you will have taken care to place the residue of leaves previously cut at the bottom, to prevent the tamales of the bottom do not burn during cooking.
Note that it is the same operation for the tamal dulce (instead of the olive and the pepper, we added almonds, raisins, a prune, chicken, the mixture with spices and chocolate), as well as for the pache (made from potatoes) or any other papillote.
Nutritional Facts Of Tamales
Calories 174.0
Total Fat 8.0 g
Saturated Fat 0.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.0 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 180.0 mg
Potassium 54.0 mg
Total Carbohydrate 24.0 g
Dietary Fiber 2.0 g
Sugars 0.0 g
Protein 2.0 g
To Conclude with
Basically, a tamale is a bit like pizza or pasta: when the basis is acquired, everyone is free to put their personal touch on it.