Green Corn Tamales

Ryan Mooney

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The Gorge Area, Oregon
Just got back from an extended lunch where we dropped by the local produce stand and got a big old bag of green chiles and 36 ears of corn.

Going to have to diverge a little from the traditional lots of cheese and extra cream here because loml has a bit of a reaction to casein so we'll skip that . We are going to add some chicken, have a bunch of getting-old frozen thighs that will go into the crock pot tonight. I was planning on roasting the corn in the husk to sweeten it up a little and make it easier to shuck (I think it has a good flavor as well).

Still figuring out the best recipe based on those constraints (have done lots of tamales but not much on the green corn side other than eating :D) so any thoughts there welcome from anyone who's done this one before.

I have a 7 gallon brew pot with a steamer bottom we'll use to cookem so that should be no problem (its worked for regular tamales..).
 
Should be a project!! Tasty and fun...but a project! We just picked up 16 ears...roasted corn and tomato salad with honey mustard vinaigrette, black bean, peppers and roasted corn salsa that we use as a base for fish and shrimp and just plain old corn on the cob...almost the end of the season :(
 
Welp the peppers are roasted and pealed. The corn is roasted and creamed. The chicken is in the crock pot with a couple of onions a handful of garlic a bunch of chili powder and three hot as you could please smoked cayenne (?we think? look like it and are hot enough) peppers I got from a buddies garden and am in progress on smoke drying.

That corn and tomato salad sounds good!
 
Welp!? Well I never!!....well...sometimes, after all I just know medicine! :eek:

I think the salad/whatever it is cam from a generic source but I really don't remember. So...

2-3 ears of corn, roasted (your choice of how) and cut from the cob
1 to 2C, to your amount of tomato love, halved grape, cherry or plum tomato's
Big handful of chopped chives...green onions are good on a whim
1/2C of feta...now here is a good swaportunity. Trader Joes has a Mediterranean herbed feta that rocks!!! We always go with this!!

Mustard vinaigrette...4 tbsp red wine vinegar, 2 tbsp evoo...make sure it's good and fresh...1 tbsp good mustard...and not baby puke mustard!!!! Dijon, spicy...what have you.
Now we have a Bullet mixer that is amazing for dressings and such...great for small amounts! Mix dressing and season to taste. We like a small amount of dressing so the grilled corn stands out, but you may like other flavors and this salad is great for that...add some bacon, pancetta or grilled zucchini.

Enjoy!!
 
Thanks Jim - sounds like a winner if we get more corn this year I'll give it a shot.

Chicken was shredded.
I ground 0.78lbs of fresh cornmeal - now there is a project to give you a workout, this small amount wasn't to bad though. I used our Country Living hand mill (the corn is a bit hard on the nutrimill and it takes it a bit fine imho). Used some blue corn we grew a few years back (keeps really well once dry and fresh ground its still waaaay better than store cornmeal - tastes like corn!!).
Food processed the cob corn and the cornmeal together. Still looked a bit runny so we added 1.5C of commercial masa
Whipped a pound of butter and a pound of lard together until fluffy with a bit of salt (skipped the sugar this time going more savory)
Folded the fat and corn mixes together.

Time to roll!
Soak your corn husks if dry. We mostly used the green ones we'd salvaged from the fresh corn (first time trying that). I think they'd have worked better if we'd blanched them first but still worked pretty ok. Used a handfull of dry ones to take up the slack.

A good heaping tbps of corn mix on the corner of a corn husk, make a well add a tsp of shredded chicken mix and 1/4 tsp of fresh hot chile chunks
Another not-so-heaping tbsp of corn mix on top
Roll tightly
Fold the ends
Stack into the steamer

Some folks tie the ends which looks nicer, but folding works faster. Loml does it a little differently, and smears a couple scoops of corn mix on the side of the husk then adds the filling and rolls it all at once. I haven't gotten the hang of that.

Steam for two hours (just started in progress)

The excess that wouldn't fit (I think we used about 4 gallons capacity in the steamer - I had to jury rig it a bit to get enough water in it so it won't run dry and still keep the tamales out of the water..) is cooking as a tamale pie for lunch. A goodly smear of the meat and then the corn mix on top - into the oven at 350F!

No idea how many we made but it was about 1:30 of rolling time.
 
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