Spinach Tamales Recipes

Steps:

• Place pork into a Dutch oven with onion and garlic, and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 2 hours.
• Use rubber gloves to remove stems and seeds from the chile pods. Place chiles in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then remove from heat to cool. Transfer the chiles and water to a blender and blend until smooth. Strain the mixture, stir in salt, and set aside. Shred the cooked meat and mix in one cup of the chile sauce.
• Soak the corn husks in a bowl of warm water. In a large bowl, beat the lard with a tablespoon of the broth until fluffy. Combine the masa harina, baking powder and salt; stir into the lard mixture, adding more broth as necessary to form a spongy dough.
• Spread the dough out over the corn husks to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Place one tablespoon of the meat filling into the center. Fold the sides of the husks in toward the center and place in a steamer. Steam for 1 hour.
• Remove tamales from husks and drizzle remaining chile sauce over. Top with sour cream. For a creamy sauce, mix sour cream into the chile sauce.

Steps:

• 1. Place corn husks in hot water and let stand for 15 minutes to soften; remove and blot off excess water
• 2. Stir together masa, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add spread and mix again. Using an electric mixer beat in enough stock/broth to form a soft dough. Stir in remaining ingredients
• 3. Place equal amounts of mixture on center of each corn husk. Fold in the sides, then the bottom. Place in a steamer basket folded sides down. Cover and cook over medium-low heat 45 minutes to an hour. Best if served immediately with desired toppings

Steps:

• Soak corn husks in hot water 30 min. Meanwhile, beat next 4 ingredients in large bowl with mixer on low speed until blended. Gradually add warm water, beating after each addition until light and fluffy. Combine vegetables and cheese.
• Drain corn husks. Spread about 1/3 cup masa dough into 4x3-inch rectangle down center of each of 12 husks, leaving about 2 inches at top of husk. Top each with 1/3 cup spinach mixture. Fold over both sides and 1 end of each husk to enclose filling.
• Pour 3 cups water into tamalera pot or 8-qt. stockpot fitted with steamer basket. Line bottom of basket with some of the remaining corn husks. Place tamales, open-ends up, in tamalera; cover with remaining husks or damp kitchen towel. Cover with lid. Bring water to boil on medium-high heat; simmer on medium-low heat 1 hour or until tamales pull away from husks, adding more boiling water to pan and adjusting heat as necessary to maintain a gentle boil.

Steps:

• blend the rice to powderize it.
• mix everything together adding warm water until you get a soft batter.
• spread the batter on the on the husk or you can use foil paper instead.
• Cook in a tamale steamer for about 1 hour.

Steps:

• Begin with the spinach by washing, stemming, and chopping it into approximately 1/4-1/2 inch pieces. Mince the garlic and onions; brush, slice, and chop the mushrooms.
• Over medium-high heat in a *very* large pot (I use my largest Le Creuset) heat the oil. Add the minced garlic and scallion and sauté quickly, stirring, for about 20 seconds (careful not to burn the garlic!).
• Quickly decrease the temperature to medium and add the sliced mushrooms, and allow to sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped spinach, salt, sugar, pepper, nutmeg, and cinnamon. (This step is admittedly the messiest part of making the filling, because spinach is so much larger before it cooks down; I usually add it about a 1/3 at a time to the large pot, stir it and wait for it to cook down a bit, and add more until I've got all of it into the pot. Cover it for about 2 minutes, stir again and uncover, and continue cooking.) Sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender.
• Pour cooked mixture into a colander and allow to drain - if you like, you can reserve the juices for making sauce for the tamales after they're cooked or for some other use.
• Lower the temperature to low and add the crema and cotija and continue cooking for 5 minutes, stirring so that it's mixed well and the cheeses do not scald. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
• Use as filling for your tamales and enjoy! I prefer to make a simple crema and garlic sauce for these tamales, but a red sauce is also good (although it can overpower the lighter tasting tamales, so you'll want to be careful). Also, although the small amount of salt might not seem like enough when reading through the recipe, remember that cotija cheese is salty - it provides plenty of seasoning to the filling.