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Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Warm
You’ve read about
up with these hot tamales
Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Tamales are available at El Griton Grill with a variety of fillings and are often served with atole, a warm milk beverage with sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.
El Griton Grill’s fillings options include pork, chicken or vegetarian.
Imelda Godinez, co-owner of El Griton Grill, does much of the cooking at
the restaurant, including making the tamales. Imelda has been cooking
since she was 15 years old and works off taste and feel.
Gustavo Godinez Sr., co-owner of El Griton Grill, speaks about tamale
options on Tuesday, Nov. 27. “All the people in Mexico, any house, they
know how to make tamales,” Godinez Sr. said.
the tasty delicacy,
now here’s how
to make them
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
As soon as you make your way
into El Griton Grill, you’re greeted
with a boisterous voice that echoes
off the walls of the Mexican eatery.
It’s the voice of Gustavo Godinez
Sr., one of the owners of the fam
ily business and a former mariachi
musician.
He’ll ask you how your day is
going and if you ask for a menu
recommendation, he’ll point you
to the No. 12. It’s an order of three
tamales, a staple in Latino culture
you read about in The Times on
Thanksgiving, or “dia de accion de
gracias.” More and more, tamales
are becoming a staple in Latino-
American culture, too, as holidays
in the U.S. fuse well with Latino tra
ditions of gathering family and cel
ebrating with food. They’re fairly
easy to make, can be prepared in
bulk and carried around, encourag
ing large gatherings.
On Tuesday, Nov. 27, Godinez
and his family laid out how the
famous dish is made — often using
eyeballed ingredients and made by
feel rather than precision.
“All the people in Mexico, any
house, they know how to make
tamales,” said Godinez Sr., who
grew up in Jalisco, Mexico, on the
Pacific coast west of Mexico City.
In his house, and in his restau
rant, it’s his wife, Imelda, who does
the cooking. She said she is a self-
taught cook who doesn’t measure
ingredients. She does it all based off
taste and feel. She’s been at it since
she was 15 years old, so she knows
her way around the kitchen, espe
cially when it comes to tamales.
“It’s a lot of work, and it makes
me tired,” Imelda Godinez said.
“This is tradition in my little town
... especially in the cold weather,
everybody makes it.”
The first step in making tamales
is preparing the corn husks. They
come dried, but have to be rehy
drated in warm water to ensure
they fold properly, keeping all the
other ingredients wrapped inside.
“You’ve got to make sure it’s
cleaned, make sure it doesn’t have
any corn hairs,” Godinez Sr. said.
Gustavo Godinez Jr., their son,
said the next part is the most
important: While the husks are
soaking, the dough, or masa, has
to be made. It’s a corn flour dough
mixed with chicken stock, spices
and a little vegetable oil.
“Once we get all that, we just
mix it, mix it and mix it,” Godinez
Jr. said. “Once I feel it’s pliable
enough, we’ll put them on the corn
husks, which at that point, they’ve
been soaking in warm water, that
way they can bend easy instead of
breaking, and we’ll put a portion of
it, flatten it out a little bit, then add
the filling.”
The filling, also an important
part of the tamale, is where chefs
and home-cooks can get creative
— almost any variation of filling
will do. At El Griton, they like to
serve pork or chicken tamales.
They can also be vegetarian and
filled with beans or cheese.
“The white people like chicken
and the Hispanic people, pork,”
Imelda Godinez said. “Really,
they’re (Hispanics) never asking
about chicken.”
Pork is her favorite, too,
although she said she likes hers
spicier than what she serves at the
restaurant.
“I try to make it not too spicy,”
Imelda Godinez said. “The pork
is really good spicy, but I try to
not make it spicy so everyone can
enjoy the tamales, like kids and
everybody.”
Once the filling of chicken or
pork is seasoned and cooked,
assembly begins.
A corn husk is laid out and a por
tion, which Godinez Sr. said his
wife doesn’t have to weigh or mea
sure “because she just knows,” is
added and flattened out. Then
the filling is added and the husk is
folded over in order to enclose the
filling with the masa dough.
Finally, it’s wrapped like a bur-
rito and tied with a shred of corn
husk and put in a pot to steam for
about two hours.
“We make about 100-something
per batch, which will last me like
two weeks if I’m lucky,” Godinez
Jr. said.
At El Griton, they’re served
unwrapped, drizzled with sour
cream and your choice of salsa on
the side.
The one thing Godinez Sr. said
you have to order with tamales is a
drink called atole.
It’s a warm drink made with
milk, brown sugar, cinnamon,
vanilla extract and corn flour to
thicken. All the ingredients are
blended and heated in a pot and
served with tamales, especially in
the wintertime.
“It’s not set in stone, but it’s actu
ally a really good idea,” Godinez
Jr. said. “(Tamales) warm you to
the bone and (atole) warms you to
the bone as well, and, somehow, it
works together.”
For a classic rendition of chicken soup, go for the thighs
This classic rendition of chicken
soup starts the old- fashioned way,
by making a from-scratch broth.
But instead of using a whole chicken
we turned to chicken thighs, which
kept things easier; they also added
intense, meaty flavor to the broth.
To cut down on greasiness, we
removed the skin after browning
and before letting the thighs sim
mer along with the chopped and
sauteed onion and bay leaves. Since
most people prefer white meat
in their chicken soup, we simply
poached two boneless, skinless
chicken breasts in the simmering
broth, removing them when tender
to add to the soup at the end.
With the broth and the meat
taken care of, we turned our atten
tion to the soup with an eye toward
keeping things simple and tradi
tional. Onion, carrot, and celery
and some fresh thyme fit the bill. As
for the noodles, cooking them right
in the broth intensified their flavor.
Note that the thighs are used to
flavor the broth, but once the broth
is strained, the meat can be shred
ded and used for chicken salad or
a pot pie. If you prefer dark meat in
your soup, you can omit the chicken
breasts and add the shredded thigh
meat to the soup instead.
Classic chicken noodle soup
Servings: 8-10
Start to finish: 1 hour
Classic chicken noodle soup, November 2018. Broth:
Photo courtesy America’s Test Kitchen I For The Associated Press
4 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken
thighs, trimmed
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
12 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken
breasts, trimmed
Soup:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped fine
1 carrot, peeled and sliced thin
1 celery rib, halved lengthwise and
sliced thin
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
6 ounces wide egg noodles
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
Salt and pepper
For the broth Pat thighs dry with
paper towels and season with
salt and pepper. Heat oil in Dutch
oven over medium-high heat until
smoking.
Cook half of thighs skin side
down until deep golden brown,
about 6 minutes. Turn thighs and
lightly brown second side, about
2 minutes.
Transfer to strainer set in large
bowl. Repeat with remaining
thighs and transfer to strainer;
discard fat in bowl.
Pour off fat from pot, add onion,
and cook over medium heat until
just softened, about 3 minutes.
Meanwhile, remove and
discard skin from thighs. Add
thighs, water, bay leaves, and 1
tablespoon salt to pot.
Cover and simmer for 30
minutes. Add chicken breasts
and continue simmering until
broth is flavorful, about 15
minutes.
Strain broth into large container,
let stand for at least 10 minutes,
then remove fat from surface.
Meanwhile, transfer chicken to
cutting board to cool.
Once cooled, remove thigh meat
from bones, shred, and reserve
for another use (can refrigerate
for up to 2 days or freeze for up to
1 month). Shred breast meat and
reserve for soup.
For the soup: Heat oil in now-
empty Dutch oven over medium-
high heat until shimmering. Add
onion, carrot, and celery and cook
until onion has softened, 3 to 4
minutes.
Stir in thyme and broth and simmer
until vegetables are tender, about
15 minutes. Add noodles and
shredded breast meat and simmer
until noodles are just tender, about
5 minutes.
Off heat, stir in parsley and season
with salt and pepper. Serve.
Nutrition information per serving:
170 calories; 68 calories from fat;
8 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans
fats); 29 mg cholesterol; 234 mg
sodium; 18 g carbohydrate; 1 g
fiber; 2 g sugar; 6 g protein.
By America's Test Kitchen
