Slow Food Dinner Party — Margaritaville
My second slow food dinner party is in the books and it’s quickly becoming my favorite way to spend an evening with friends. I’m going to give you all of the instructions to host your own slow food dinner party.
To recap, a Slow Food Dinner Party, is a dinner party where you invite your friends over to help make an elaborate meal. I usually theme the meals and have enough recipes and food for all attending to help cook and eat.
The second slow food dinner party was Mexican themed and the main dish was tamales. When I plan a SFDP, I do a lot of research on the recipes we’re making. Usually, I’ve never made any of the recipes and it’s a fun way to hang out with friends. Everyone understands that if the meal is a flop, there will always be good wine and pizza is just a phone call away!
While researching Tamales, I quickly realized that traditional tamales are made with about a pint of lard. Now, I have nothing against lard and in fact, I think traditional tamales are very delicious. However, cooking a meal with 7 girlfriends means I need to keep things a bit healthy and not a lot of animal meats or products. None of my friends are actually “vegan”, however quite a few of us get a little queasy when around raw animal products. Needless to say, having a pint of lard in our meal would not go over very well.
I actually started to panic and had no idea what I was going to do. Everyone was super excited to make tamales and I didn’t have the heart to tell them about the lard. I even canceled the first date I chose for tamale night, I just kept procrastinating until it was too late. At some point, I thought to myself, “vegans must have a recipe or be able to eat some sort of tamale”.
A few years ago I went on this amazing yoga retreat with Vital Yoga at Haramara in Sayulita, Mexico. I was fortuitously paired up with the mother of the yoga instructor and studio owner. Jolie happens to be of Mexican heritage and I remember her telling the story of how her family has a tradition of making a ton of tamales on Thanksgiving.
I promptly emailed Jolie asking her for tips, tricks and any information on what she uses as a substitute for lard in her recipes (Jolie and her family also happen to be vegans). She told me that they substitute palm oil for the tamales. Using Jolie’s tips and a little internet help is how I came up with my recipe for tamales.
There are plenty of videos out there about making tamales, I recommend watching a few to get the idea of how tamales are to be assembled.
Prepare the corn husks: Soak the corn husks in warm water. (weigh them down to submerge in water). Do this about 2 hours before you start assembling your tamales.
Make the Masa Mixture:
Vegan Masa:
Makes 18 Tamales
2 Cans (15 oz ea) Corn Kernels
¼ Cups Vegetable Broth
2 Cups Yellow Cornmeal (you may need to add more or less depending on consistency)
7 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Filling:
8 oz Quesadilla or Mozzarella Cheese
Sliced Pickled Jalapeños
Cilantro
Any vegetable, meat or cheese you desire!
*You can fill tamales with anything you please. Think of these as warm sandwiches — so any filling sweet or savory will work perfectly.
Put corn in a food processor with the chicken/veg stock or water. Blend 1-2 mins until well blended. Add salt and baking powder. If you’d like more flavor you can add bullion. Add in corn meal and coconut oil and blend until well combined. The dough should be thick but not sticky.
Assemble the Tamales:
Remove corn husks from water and stand them up in a bowl so that all the water drips off of the husks. There is an “inside” and outside of the corn husk. The inside is smooth, spread the dough on the inside of the corn husk. The outside is rough textured – do not spread masa on the rough side.
Spread masa (one round table spoon of dough), using a piece of plastic wrap to spread dough to the bottom edge, and only halfway up the corn husk. Or you can use the back of a spoon to spread like peanut butter.
Add filling to the center, wrap both sides to the middle and then bend the top half over to seal the tamale. Lay them out on the sealed side. You can use pieces of corn husk to tie the tamales closed or to distinguish between fillings.
Steaming:
Lay corn husks over steamer bottom to protect the tamales from water.
Lay corn husks with the open side facing the center of the pot laying them in a circle. Stack tamales in layers. You can also stand them with the open side up, with the folded tails in the same direction.
Place corn husks on top of tamales to keep steam onto tamales (or a wet dish towel).
Depending on how many tamales are in the pot, they should take 30-60 mins to cook. Bring to boil and simmer. They are done when the corn husk peels off of the masa easily.
Add water with a kettle to the side, if water boils away. Let them sit for 15 mins to continue cooking before opening.
One of the best tips Jolie gave me was her Cranberry Ancho Chile Sauce recipe. This sauce is basically a sweet and spicy gravy to pour over your tamales.
Cranberry Ancho Chile Sauce
3 Cup Dried Cranberries
1 ½ Cup Tequilla
6 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Onion, minced
9 Cloves of garlic, minced
2 ½ Cup Dry Sherry
3 Dried Ancho chilies, chopped with stem removed
6 tsp Fresh parsley, minced
3 tsp Fresh thyme leaves
3 tsp Fresh rosemary, minced
4 tsp Pepper
3 Quarts Vegetable broth
3 Tbsp Corn Starch
Mince half of the cranberries. In a jar with a lid, combine the remaining cranberries with the tequila. Shake the jar and let the cranberries moisten at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
In a large pot, combine the olive oil, onion, and garlic. Cook, stirring until they are golden brown – about 5 minutes.
Add reserved minced cranberries, 1 ½ cups of the sherry, Ancho chile, parsley, pepper, thyme, and rosemary. Cook, stirring until liquid evaporates. Add the vegetable broth; simmer over medium heat until the mixture is reduced – 45 minutes to an hour. Strain the sauce through a fine wire strainer. Add the tequila-soaked cranberries and the remaining sherry to the clear sauce. Mix the cornstarch with 3 Tbsp water and add to the sauce. Bring sauce to boil and boil for 2 minutes. Keep warm in a double boiler or, if making ahead, cool, cover and chill up to 2 days. Reheat before serving.
Probably the best part of any dinner is the dessert. For tamale night, I made a dulce de leche ice cream! I didn’t really know what dulce de leche was, nor did I know how to make it. Again, the internet saved the day and I realized how easy and delicious it is!
Dulce de Leche
A favorite treat in Latin America, dulce de leche is made by slowly reducing fresh milk and sugar until the mixture thickens into a luscious caramel.
Stir together 4 cups milk, 1 1/4 cups sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until caramelized and thickened, about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours. (After about an hour, stir more often as milk caramelizes, to avoid burning.) Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Transfer to a bowl to cool. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.
Now…on to the ice cream!
Dulce de Leche Ice Cream
3 Cups Whole Milk
1 Cup Heavy Cream
1 2/3 Cups Dulce de Leche
1/8 teaspoon Vanilla extract
¾ Cup Chopped Toasted Pecans
Bring milk and cream just to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, then remove from heat and whisk in dulce de leche until dissolved. Whisk in vanilla and transfer to a metal bowl. Quick –chill by putting the bowl in a larger bowl of ice and cold water and stirring occasionally until cold, 15 – 20 mins. Freeze mixture in an ice cream maker until almost firm, then fold in pecans. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden at least one hour.
Tips for planning your own slow food tamale dinner party:
— I grocery shop a few days ahead and then just have people bring $30-$50 depending on the menu.
— Do a few things ahead of time: soak cranberries, soak tamale husks, make dulce de leche. Have several tamale filling options available. Think about the menu and the time it will take to make everything.
— I have everyone come over late afternoon so we can sit down together and eat dinner at a reasonable time. (no one likes to be hangery)
— Let guests bring beverages, we had coin margaritas…they were delicious and we probably drank too many!
— Break your guests up into “teams” of two people and give each team a recipe to make.
— Let everyone assemble and fill tamales.
— Once dinner is ready, gather around the table and enjoy!