Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Time for Tamales!

Well...a day off means?? 

That's right...more coffee with Regis & Kelly:)  (the real Regis, this time:)

And for breakfast, I had another one of my "good deals" of the week:)  I had been eyeing BetterOats oatmeal in the stores for awhile now, and as soon as I saw it on sale for $1 this week, I knew it was time to try it out:) 

Awesome ingredients list! 

And it was really taste....and a pretty large serving for 160 calories.  There's nothing worse than opening one of those oatmeal packets and it's about 3 spoonfuls.  Boring!  A filing bowl of Healthy chocolate oatmeal, a good breakfast makes:) 

And like I promised, dinner was a brand new technique for me:)  After spending a week drooling over Miz Helen's Sweet Potato Tamale Dessert and dreaming of our Roasted Garlic Shrimp ones from Mesa Grill....that I thought it was about time that I tackled tamales myself!

I made sweet potato ones as well, but mine were savory rather than dessert.  Although, you wouldn't have thought that because we started by coating 6 sweet potato halves with a mixture of butter, cinnamon & brown sugar...
You let those cook at 350 for 1 hour or until they're easily pierced with a fork...

I also threw 3 cloves of garlic in the oven to roast along with the sweet potatoes....
Roasted Garlic in Quick Review: 
  • Cut off the top of the bulb
  • Drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper
  • Wrap up in foil
  • Bake for 1 hour...Done!
After the sweet potatoes were done, you scoop the flesh out of the skins and mash.  Next you add:
  • 1 cup vegetable broth (heated)
  • 1 1/4 cup Masa Flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • A dash of Chipotle powder (for a KICK!)
  • We also threw in a can of corn since we had some leftover in the fridge.  I liked the added texture....
Mix it all up and get to rollin!
You need to soak the tamale husks in hot water for 20 minutes before you start to roll.

Add a generous portion to the center of the husk and fold the 2 sides over to make a bundle....

Take 3 or 4 of the tamales husks and shred them into thin strips, and use the strips to tie off both ends of the bundles...

Throw the sealed tamales in a steamer over boiling water for 1 hour...

And WALLAH...tamales!!!  That's not so scary, right?? :)

While the tamales were almost done steaming, I added a drizzle of oil oil and the 3 cloves of roasted garlic into a skillet...

Next in went the shrimp....
Continue stirring the shrimp for a few minutes until it begins to get a little pink....

...that's when it's time to make the sauce...
Along with the shrimp, I added:
  • 1/4 cup of Peanut Butter
  • Enough Vegetable broth to thin out the sauce (about a cup)
  • A dash of ginger, cumin & coriander
  • Salt & Pepper
Allow that to heat up for a few more minutes, or until the shrimp is cooked through.

OK...I'll admit, the sauce wasn't the prettiest, but it was DELICIOUS!!  Roasted garlic AND peanut butter is a hard-to-beat combo:) 

And it went well with the sweet filing, which had the kick of heat from the chipotle powder and the great texture from the masa...
This one is a definite "MAKE THIS!"  It was a little time consuming, but really easy & VERY delicious!!!  Give tamales a try! :)

The rest of the day was spent cleaning out our kitchen cabinets, watching "The Town"... 
(really good...REALLY intense)

...an hour long date with Bob Harper...

...and already being completed addicted to my latest Jodi Picoult book... 
Her books are so hard to put down, that I've been known to wake up in the middle of night to read for a few hours.  I know...crazy:)  And like almost all of her books, this one doesn't hold back on the heartbreak...and I'm only 100 pages in!

Yeah....and also on my weekend agenda:  NOT taking down my Christmas decorations:)  I just couldn't do it!  You know when you get to the point where it's like "UGH!  I'm over it!"  Well, I realized this weekend that I'm just not there yet and they look too pretty to tear em down:)  Next weekend "for sure"...maybe:)  hahahhahahahaha:)

Anyway...you've heard enough from me for the day:)  Have a great Tuesday!

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