Tamales, Vato!

If you're from Texas, you know that tamales are considered one of the important food groups, right behind Bar-B-Que. For those of you that aren't from Texas, tamales are traditional south-american fare, often made with beans or pork. They are wrapped in corn husks and steamed. Unlike former President Ford, it is not recommended that you eat the husk.

The holidays, especially, find all the Gringos out searching for their dozen or so Christmas tamales from the most authentic tamaleria (tamale store) they can find. Or if they're lucky, from the person you know that makes them at home. Home-made tamales are made during a tamalada, or tamale-making party.

Although I myself am a Gringo, I also live in Texas, so tamales are muy importante to my diet. This year, I decided to make my own tamales. So far, I've made three batches. I don't see how people can make money selling a dozen tamales for $10, but they are a lot of fun, and you get a certain satisfaction from rolling your own.

Tamales

What You Need

Something in which to steam the tamales (e.g., something that lets you put water on the bottom and the tamales on some surface above the water). A tamale pot (a tamalera) can hold hundreds of tamales, while a lobster pot can hold about 45 tamales.

Corn husks

4 cups masa harina (it is different from corn meal, so make certain your masa has been treated with lime)

5 cups lukewarm water

1 cup manteca (that's lard)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Filling

Queso Quesedilla

Jalapenos or minced chipotles

Rice (lightly seasoned with sugar and cinnamon)
Raisins

Chicken (prepared with 2 tsp cumin and a can of Ro-Tel)

What To Do with It

Soak the corn husks in warm water beginning about 1 hour before you're ready to start spreading masa.

Start your fillings. If you're doing the chicken, add a couple of chicken breasts to the Ro-Tel and cumin, add enough water to cover the chicken, boil, then simmer rapidly until about 95% of the liquid has evaporated and the chicken shreds with a fork.

For the rice, make some white rice (about 2 servings). Add a few sprinkles of cinnamon, 1/3 cup of raisins and 2 tsp sugar.

For the pepper/cheese filling, slice the jalapenos into quarter strips and de-seed. Cut the cheese into 1/4" strips, each about as long as your jalapeno slices. Mince some chipotles (about 1/4 cup).
Mix your dry ingredients. Add the water and, using your hands, knead until all the dry ingredients are wet. Separately, whip the lard until fluffy.

Combine the masa and lard, and mix (using a dough hook, if you have it) until slightly spongy.

Start your water on medium-high heat. If you're not using a tamale pot, make certain that your pot has an insert that will allow you to place the tamales above the water.

Take a couple of husks and pull apart until you have several corn threads (about 40 for starters). These should be long and thin to use as ties later.

Get some kitchen shears and cut the other husks to about 7-8" long (cut the pointy ends).

Start spreading masa. Ideally, your husks should be about 4-5" wide, and you should use 2-3 tbsp masa. Feel free to use a knife to trim the husks to the correct width. You want to go from side to side with the masa, and leave about one inch on each end. Place your ingredients toward one edge and roll. Tie the ends with your husk threads.

Once you have about 12 (or double the amount that will fit on one layer) tamales done, place 1/2 in your pot, leaving space between them, and begin steaming. After five minutes, add another layer, let steam 5 minutes, add another layer, etc. Once your final layer has been added, steam for 45 minutes (depending on thickness: my tamales are about as big round as a quarter).

Pull them out, let them rest for 15 minutes to firm up, and serve!

Roasted Cornish Game Hens

Sometimes, we get a wild hare up our you-know-whats and feel a sudden, inexplicable need to cook an involved dinner. This happened to us Friday on the way home from work, so we called some friends and invited them to dinner Saturday.

The thing that was burning a hole in our ovens was a package of cornish game hens we had bought stupid cheap a few weeks earlier. Interesting thing about cornish game hens: they're not game birds, and they're not necessarily hens, either. It's a breed of chicken, developed in Connecticut in the 1950s, that is ready for processing in 2/3 the time of a normal chicken. It is similar to a poussin, except that it must be from a "cornish chicken or the progeny of a cornish chicken," or at least so says the USDA.

So, in chicken terms, it's a teenager from back east. As good a reason as any to kill it and eat it, I suppose.

Before you begin, a couple of safety tips: First, taking the birds out of the freezer and leaving them on the counter for 9 hours may not be sufficient time for them to thaw. If they're not thawed, run warm water over and through them until the meat is room temperature. Secondly, soup is hot, and I do not recommend coating your hand in it.

Roasted Cornish Game Hens

What You Need

2 birds

2 slices of lemon

1/2 cup of Beaujolais (not the nouveau variety)

1/8 tsp minced rosemary

2 cloves minced garlic

Salt

Pepper

What To Do with It

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.

Kosher the birds. Well, not a full-on kosher, but rub some kosher salt on the skins and set them aside. This will remove some of the moisture from the skins and help them brown up.

Combine the other ingredients in a roasting pan. You want enough wine to just barely cover the bottom (1/8" or so). Squeeze in the lemon slices. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Taste, and adjust seasoning.

Wipe off the salt from the birds using first a paper towel, and then your hands. This probably goes without saying, but since the object is to dry out the skins, don't use water in this process. Rub each bird with olive oil (about 2 tsp each).

Truss the birds: tie the legs together in the back, and tie a string around the bodies to keep the wings in tight. Place the birds in your roasting pan. I did mine breast side down because I didn't want to baste them to keep the meat moist. Cooking them breast up will give you crispy skin over the breast, but you'll need to baste the birds about every 15 minutes.

Cook at 475 for 15 minutes, then lower temperature to 325 for about 45 minutes. Cook until they're 180 degrees on the inside. If they don't get quite brown enough, you can bump up your temperature at the end for a couple of minutes, and then pass the hens under a broiler for about 2 minutes.

Remove the hens and let them rest for 10 minutes. Empty the remaining liquid into a flat-bottomed pan and reduce to about 1/3 volume for a sauce. Cut each bird in half (just press down with a chef's knife in the middle of the back), plate and serve.

We drank the wine we cooked with, and served with white asparagus with a beurre blanc sauce, wild rice, and a very thick and hot potato leek soup.

Turkey Chilli Rellenos with Tomatillo Salsa

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I'm glad this year is about over. As Roseanne Roseannadanna would say, "if it's not one thing, it's another."

To help make it through the season, Jenn and I took off most of Thanksgiving week. Not only did it ease up on the stress of the season, but it gave us a lot more time to play in the kitchen, which has been nice.

Quite frankly, there are few things quite as therapeutic and relaxing has having a bottle of wine and chopping the ever loving %#@! out of some onion.

Couple all that with the fact that, yet again, we have waaaay too much turkey in the refrigerator, and it's time to get those creative juices flowing at maximum (at least for me: Jenn would be content to eat turkey sammiches for the rest of her days).

This little dish, however, may have cured her of that.

Turkey Chilli Rellenos with Tomatillo Salsa

What You Need:

(Chili Relleno)
3 poblano chilis
1/4 lb. chopped turkey (smoked, preferably)
1/8 cup cilantro
1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
2 1/2 ounces of panella fresca, crumbled (or you can use queso fresco, or maybe even goat cheese)
1 cup cornbread dressing
juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 tsp salt

(Tomatillo Salsa)
5 roasted tomatillos (destemmed)
1 minced serrano (not seeded)
1/2 avocado
1 large clove garlic, crushed and minced
3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 medium white onion
1/8 cup cilantro
1/4 tsp salt

What To Do with It:

Make the salsa. Just throw the ingredients in a blender and puree for a couple of minutes.

Cut out the tops of the poblanos, and cut out the seeds and membrane. Roast the poblanos in a cast iron skillet over medium-low heat until skin blisters, then peel off skin. (You can blanch them in boiling water, then rinse in cold water, to help the process along).

Mix your other ingredients and stuff into the poblanos. Stick a couple of toothpicks in the top (or along the sides to seal any holes).

Place the chilis in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. Place 1 tablespoon crema mexicana along the length of the poblano, then add a couple tablespoons of salsa.

Serve with mexican rice (start it at the same time you put in your poblanos) and merlot.

What To Do with a Six-Legged Turkey: Smoked Turkey Legs

I'm not a huge football fan, at least not since Jerry Jones became the owner of the Cowboys. Perhaps it's better to say that I'm not a big Cowboys fan, but let's face it, if you're not a Cowboys fan, you can't really enjoy football. Even so, at least once a year I'm able to put aside my disdain for Mr. Jones and enjoy a good football game. That day is Thanksgiving.

Anyone who has watched a T-Day football game knows about the John Madden six (or even sometimes eight) legged turkey. This is all fine and dandy if you do an oven bird (and have a professional cook staff). For the rest of us, the additional-legged variety of turkey poses a problem.

The solution is quite simple, actually: cook the legs separately. With a dry rub. On a grill.

Smoked Turkey Legs

What You Need:

Turkey Legs (skin on). If you live in Dallas, you can get them at Central Market for about $1.50/pound.

Cayenne

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Cracked Black Pepper

Cracked Green Pepper

Crushed Dried Rosemary

Dried rubbed Sage

Salt

What To Do With It:

Make your rub. 4:2:2:1:1:1:1 and then salt to taste. You may also want to adjust the herbs. For six legs, you're going to want about 1/2 cup of rub, so use 1/4 cup cayenne, 1/8 cup garlic & onion powder & so on...

Dry the legs, apply the rub, and let sit for a couple of hours, until they're room temperature.

If you're smoking:

You should be going low & slow. Wrap the legs in foil, and place in smoker for two hours, then unwrap, and smoke for an hour on each side.

If you're grilling:

Place the legs on foil, but don't wrap. Cook about an hour per side, then finish for a few minutes without the foil.

Serve with beer. Make lots of cave-man noises while you eat.