Green Corn Tamales

Sweet corn is in season and really good right now. So I got a dozen ears and thought I'd make some tamales.



Cut off the kernels and mixed in 1 lb of Monterrey jack cheese then into the food processor with a stick of butter salt and baking powder.



Added enough corn flour to dry up the mix then rolled up the tamales with a strip of chile and a stick of Colby cheese, then steam for a couple hours.



Then let them cool and I'll probably freeze some of them.

Oh. My. Those look fabulous, Randy!

Randy,

My mouth is watering as we speak!! Thanks so much for sharing your food with us

- E.Y.

Oh those look soooo good! So did you use the corn husks too, or did you buy the husks?

I usually use the husks but these were too narrow so I used dried ones. -RP

Then let them cool and I'll probably freeze some of them.

Dont freeze, I'll be right there!! Looks really good and yummy !

[Jenise]

Those are gorgeous. I had forgotten how much I love green corn tamales (I prefer them to any meat version, much as I like those) until I watched a Rick Bayless episode the other day in which he made some--in fact I saved the episode to make sure I didn't let myself off the hook for making my own. Green corn tamales were a relative rarity in Los Angeles where I grew up and spent most of my life, there was just one restaurant that made the green corn that I knew of, Tortilla Flats in Laguna Beach, and when down that way it was often my place of choice for dining just for those tamales.

I watched Rick's show and saved it also, it was my inspiration to make these. -RP

[Jenise]

Randy, a belated question: You steamed these already so the cheese has already been melted once. How are they on subsequent reheatings vs. the first cooking?

A lot of the cheese came out of the top of them during steaming, what didn't sort of blended in with the masa. These things are fantastic re-heated. Will you be trying them soon? -RP

[Jenise]

A lot of the cheese came out of the top of them during steaming, what didn't sort of blended in with the masa. These things are fantastic re-heated. Will you be trying them soon? -RP

Let me ask the question a different way: I'm sure they're good reheated, but are they as good reheated as they were immediately after the first cooking? And yes, I am.

I actually think they are a little better reheated, they seem to be a little firmer. I have some frozen vacuum bagged ones that I'll be dropping into some boiling water reheating for dinner tonight. These will be the first frozen one I've tried, the rest were just refrigerated. I'll let you know how they are. -RP

Frozen tamales were excellent, good luck with yours. If you have any questions give me a call, 520-419-8150 cell number, I usually have it on 5:30 am to 7:00 pm. -RP

What is green corn? I noticed the silks on your corn were starting to brown, so the corn must be ripe. Don't laugh, I just have never heard of green corn!

What is green corn? I noticed the silks on your corn were starting to brown, so the corn must be ripe. Don't laugh, I just have never heard of green corn!

Karen, I am betting that the green description refers to the color of the shucks.

Actually in Mexico, green corn is the term used for when field corn is in its sweetest stage. -RP

Actually in Mexico, green corn is the term used for when field corn is in its sweetest stage. -RP

Randy, I was raised on a farm in Missouri, and we ate field corn every spring. we just called it roasting ears. I still suspect it is called verde because of the color of the shuck.

[Jenise]

Randy and Bob, I went looking for some facts about the origin of the name green corn tamale, and I didn't find that but Wikipedia had this interesting tidbit:

The green corn tamal (green, meaning "fresh") is made with fresh white corn, often mixed with cheese, then lined with a long green chile slice before it is rolled and wrapped in a husk. Then the husks are steamed. Although the Arizonans (Tucson), claim to be the originators of this tamal, the base of it remains to be Mexican, and its popularity extends to southern California.

There was also this item, unreleated to green corn:

The tamal is a staple food along the Mississippi Delta, locally known as "Tamales calientes". It grew in popularity in the early 1900s when Mexican farmworkers introduced it to black workers in the cotton fields in the deep South. Hot tamales in the Delta are more typically made with corn meal instead of masa. The Mississippi hot tamale features (possibly as sexual innuendo) in the well-known, cryptic song "They're Red Hot by early Delta blues singer Robert Johnson.

I did not know of this, but when I was a kid and living near Disneyland, there was a 'ride' called Tom Sawyers Island, and the cantina on the island was my absolute favorite place to eat while at the park solely because of the heavenly tamales they served there. It has been a mystery in my mind all these years about the nature of the dough, because it was coarse and lighter than the typical tamales I knew. And now I know why: corn meal! They were actually making the Mississippi version, which I didn't know was authentic.