Tamal de Camaron Con Chile Verde ~Shrimp and Green Chile Tamal

There was a time when I was hooked on trying out sauces in a jar! I had so many jars in my pantry, I could never use them all in a timely manner. At the time I was working in a gourmet food gift shop and it was easy to have access to all kinds of brands and flavor combinations. Once I left the retail world and decided to work from home,  my sauces in  a jar no longer seemed interesting. My goal from that point forward was to prepare all sauces from scratch. How else would I learn if I never tried? I mean, I already had the experience of preparing salsa’s, so that was a good starting point. Since that time, I have learned quite a bit about sauces of all kinds. Of course the Mexican sauces are my favorite, but I do love Indian, Asian  and Italian as well. Getting back to the sauce in a jar, ha, ha, ha! Shopping at my favorite store last year, I came across this jar of fire roasted green chile from Santa Fe, New Mexico! You had me at Santa Fe! Anybody that knows me, knows how much I love New Mexico and hope to live there one day. Needless to say, that jar sat in my cupboard for almost a year, before I finally convinced myself to try it, lol! In the meantime, I had prepared my own green chile sauce several times that year. First taste of the fire roasted green chile sauce in a jar, outstanding! Seasoned perfectly and with a good amount of heat. I knew whatever I prepared using this delicious sauce would have to be something special and worth the effort. Tamales! Shrimp tamales are something I had always wanted to try. The recipe comes together fairly easy and did not take as much time as traditional Mexican tamales. I can’t get those tamales out of my head and know I will have to order the fire roasted green chile sauce online now. So much for no sauces from a jar. #foodieforlife #greenchile #tamaleseverday

 

Prep Time- 45 minutes

Cook Time-1 hour, 40 minutes

Yields 10 Large Tamales
Ingredients

You Will Need:
20 xlarge(or jumbo) shrimp, cleaned
20 corn husk

For Masa
2 cups masa harina
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup warm chicken broth(I prepared the broth with the Knorr caldo de pollo). See directions on jar.
2 cups green chile sauce, reserve 1 cup seperate for filling tamales(sante fe fire roasted green chile)
1/2 cup manteca(lard) or shortening, melted

Tips~ To the green chile sauce, I added 1 teaspoon of cumin and 1/2 teaspoon of crushed Mexican oregano. 

 

Directions

1. Soak the corn husk in very hot water one hour or more before using.  Bring a  sauce pan filled with salted water to a boil. Add the shrimp and cook for just 3 to 5 minutes. As soon as they turn pink, remove them from hot water and into a bowl with ice water. Remove shells and chop the shrimp into 4 pieces each. Season  shrimp lightly with salt and pepper and  a couple tablespoons of green chile sauce until ready to use.

2. In a large bowl, add the masa harina, salt and baking powder. Gradually mix in the warm broth and 1 cup green chile sauce until masa comes together. Mix with hands to make sure there are no lumps.

3. Mix inthe melted manteca or shortening to the masa. Taste the masa for salt, cover and set aside.

4. To Assemble: Take 10 corn husk and shake off excess water. Take one at a time and spread a full 1/3 cup(more or less) of masa in the bottom center of husk.   Add a good amount of shrimp  down the center of tamal, a heaping spoonful of green chile sauce over shrimp. Then I added a little masa on top to cover the salsa. It’s optional. Fold in the sides to close, then fold down top flap of corn husk. Seal the open end with a little more masa. You can secure the tamal by tying or wrapping tightly with foil paper.

 

5. Fill the bottom of medium steamer pot with water. Insert the steamer and place the tamales, open side up. Use some foil paper and the extra corn husk to hold tamales in place and to cover while they steam. Cover and turn heat to high. Once it comes to a boil and begins to steam rapidly, reduce heat to medium. I steam my tamales for 90 minutes, adding a few cups of hot water every 30 minutes. You never want to run out of water. Set you stove timer so you don’t forget. After 90 minutes, remove pot from heat and let tamales set up and cool slightly before you serve them. They should peel away from corn husk easliy.  Serve with your favorite salsa’s, rice and beans.

Tips~ Instead of green chilesauce, you could prepare this same recipe with a red chile sauce. Type in chile ancho, chile sauce or enchilada sauce into the search bar to find various recipes on site. For the red chile sauce version, you will only add 1/2 cup of chile sauce combined with 1 1/2 cups of broth to the masa. 

Tips~ Find yourself a medium size steamer pot. It is so much easier than trying to use a regular, dutch oven style pot for steaming the tamales. This was a test batch, so I only added a few pieces of shrimp. You will want to add double the amount pictured. 

Tips~ Must have fresh pico de gallo, guacamole and Mexican rice(recipes on site) with my tamales. One green chile and one red chile tamal, side by side.

I think I see a small batch of shrimp tamales in my near future!