Tamales are are Latin American/Spanish patholi/adas. Ok, thats simply putting it. Being a Konkani from Kerala, I am used to (have grown up with ) patholi or ada or ela ada . These are sweet or savoury rice flour morsels where the batter is put on a banana leaves or even turmeric leaves and steamed till done. Tamales are morsels made with masa (cornmeal) dough and along with veggies or meat and steamed in corn husks or in certain cases banana leaves as well. Pamonhas are brazilian tamales where corn is grated,mixed with sweetner and milk and steamed/boiled in corn husks. These are usually associated with Festas Juninas celebrations there. As usual I have used the recipe from here and I can't say I have succeeded in creating perfect pamonha,but tasty they were.
Ingredients:
Fresh Ears of Corn : 3
Sugar: 2 bsp + as per taste
Salt: a pinch
Cold milk: 2 tbsp
Corn husks : for steaming
Preparation:
Gently remove the corn husks and keep aside. Make sure they are not torn as they have to hold the corn batter.
Grate the corn cobs in a big bowl. Sieve this extract to remove the solid particles. I did not do this and texture of my pamonha is grainy. But it never affects the taste.
To the sieved juice,add sugar and a pinch of salt.Mix well till sugar dissolves.Add in milk and mix well.
Now take trim the husks into rectangles. Using the original recipe words,
"Using a corn cob as a mold, wrap the cob in at at least four husks, remove the cob, and tie one end of the package of husks securely with kitchen twine. Carefully fill each package with the liquid corn mixture, then tie the other end of the package with twine tightly."
Now I did not use the corn cob as a mold,but simply tied the twine at one end using three husks.Then I put two-three tbsp of batter into it and closed it by tying the other ends together. The collage looks like this
Steam the wrappers in a pressure cooker in medium heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour adding sufficient water and placing the wrappers in an appropriate vessel or else you can also place the wrappers in boiling water directly and simmer for 1 hour.Serve as a snack or dessert.
The estimate gives 8-10 pamonhas and is enough for atleast 4 people. Mine were not thick ones as shown in the original,but thinner.This again goes to AWED:Brazil at Saras's,an event by DK.
BTW,the pics are not that good. I am a bit busy in the mornings and whatever cooking -international experiments for me or blog cooking for my family- is done after 6 or 7 in the evening. So we had these pamonhas as dessert yesterday and the clicks were taken hurriedly. This recipe is by the best Pamonheira of Brazil. But whether I lived upto the standards set by her,I am not sure.Do try the pamonhas. You can also see the video tutorial here as well.