When I started my blog, I wrote about Tres Hermanas, the Three Sisters, and the early origins of New World food. I find myself deeply interested in the origins of food in general and of New World foods in particular. How can I connect my own earliest food memories with the food I know today? And can I connect my own history to earlier American people and traditions?

My mother’s parents were restaurant people.  When my mom was a girl, my grandparents had a hamburger stand on the side of the road, Mr. B’s Burgers.  My mom met my dad, who was bagging groceries at the grocery store, when she would shop for staples for their roadside business.  When I was a girl, my grandparents had a Mexican restaurant.  My grandfather had developed a passion for Mexican food.  And as they neared retirement, they became restaurant inspectors for a chain of Mexican restaurants.  I remember hot summers driving across Texas in my grandfather’s station wagon, for his job, stopping at various Mexican chain restaurants along the way. 

This is a small part of how I learned about Mexican food. We ate rice and beans, enchiladas, tamales, chile rellenos, sopaipillas, flautas, queso… At home he grew chilies and tomatoes in coffee cans. Spring onions were served raw with such meals and set on the table in canning jars… These things contribute to my own earliest food memories.

Early North Americans began to make dough from corn using a process called nixtamalization. It means that the corn kernels were soaked in water and lime (the mineral, not the citrus fruit) until the coarse outer skin of the corn kernel loosened from the soft meal of the corn within. Through this process of nixtamalization, the niacin within the corn becomes accessible to the consumer. The corn could then be cooked and eaten, or re-dried as hominy, or it could be ground into a masa or dough. This dough, for examples, would be used for tamales and tortillas.

Though this was the process for hundreds of years, I certainly don’t know anyone who does this at home today. If you’re down to try, I’d seriously like to come over and check you out…

Today, one buys a big bag of masa harina at the market and hopes to be lucky enough just to find non-GMO, if not organic. How do we take this dry corn meal – and make a lovely dough comparable to the healthy, native nixtamalized corn masa?

The primary ingredients for tamales today are the masa harina and a solid fat – traditionally, lard. Vegetarian and vegan versions of this Native American food are typically made with shortening. For many of us who are trying to eat mindfully, these fats, and hence, tamales too, may be off the menu.

For me this was rather heart breaking. This is a food I grew up with, an incredible comfort food. But, in truth, I had no hope of any healthy alternative. I didn’t even look. I tried to write off the tamale. I felt that without a considerable amount of solid fat, the steamed tamale would never have the desired light, fluffy consistency.

Then someone sent me the Mayo Clinic’s tamale recipe. Seriously. Mayo Clinic. “Mayo Clinic” and “tamale” felt like a ridiculous and cruel non sequitur to me. Everything about it smelled like mothballs and disappointment, I imagined… I felt sort of geriatric and somehow insulted. I had no hope that this could be anything other than a heavy failure. I still don’t know why I even tried it.

Ignore for now the filling they suggest – there are infinite possibilities for us with the right masa! And this masa does work!

What made this masa work was the inclusion of thawed frozen corn kernels processed in a food processor with the masa harina. This, with the addition of some water (or broth), only 3 tablespoons of oil (comparatively little! They recommend canola, which I dislike. Try safflower oil.), and a lifting agent, a teaspoon of baking powder – made for a dough with a fluffy and light body of soft corn meal. I was truly impressed.

To anyone who suggests that this recipe might be ‘less authentic’ when compared to other contemporary variations of tamales, I am going to suggest that the opposite may be true. Because the corn is blanched, frozen, thawed and processed in the food processor, the kernel of the corn is broken down and less fat is required. This may be more authentic, as the earliest versions of this dough had no added fat.

Please try them. Fill them with roasted vegetables or beans or chilies and cheese… or all of these. Tamales freeze and re-steam so nicely. I believe they present a healthy alternative with all the comfort, flavor and body of the native food.