New Orleans style Hot Tamales
New Orleans style Hot Tamales are a little different than Mexican hot tamales, the meat mixture is raw and coated with cornmeal, wrapped in paper or aluminum foil and simmered in a pot with tomato base sauce and water for about 2 hours. Recipe below.

Tamales
For the Tamales:
5 lbs of ground beef (ground chuck)
4 medium sweet yellow onions, quartered
4 teaspoons kosher salt
3 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup chili powder
1/4 cup crushed red peppers (optional) we like it spicy
1 8oz can tomato sauce

1½ cups of yellow cornmeal
tamale papers or aluminum foil
Piping bag
 
For the Sauce to add to pot of water to cook tamales in..
 
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon cumin
¼ cup chili powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup Crushed red peppers
 
For the Sauce
 
Combine all the ingredients in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add seasonings, Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and set aside.
 
For the Tamales
 
Put the onions, the seasonings, the tomato sauce, in a food processor or blender. Process until the onions are finely chopped. Place the ground beef in a large mixing bowl and pour the seasoned tomato and spice mixture over the meat, if meat is too dry add a little water if meat is to wet add some cornmeal or favorite shredded cheese to tighten it up..Using your hands, mix well. Place cornmeal in a shallow dish and set aside. You can roll it by hand about a cigar size or take a cake decorating piping bag and fill with meat mixture and pipe it out on a wax or parchment paper, then cut into desired lengths, roll each piece in the cornmeal to coat. Wrap each one in a tamale paper, or foil folding over the open ends to completely close in the beef. Repeat this step until all the tamale mixture is gone. In a large roasting pan, or crockpot stack the tamales in layers. Cover the tamales with water, then add the seasoned tomato sauce. Cover bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours. Check occasionally and add water as necessary to keep the tamales covered. When done take out of water and let cool, the cornmeal will set up, reheat in microwave and serve.

I'm Gary,
A retired firefighter from WMFD in West Memphis, AR. I moved to the sunshine state a couple of years ago and we love it in Florida. I enjoy cooking and I usually did the cooking at the fire stations, mainly because the cook didn't have to clean up, lol. Most of the recipes I shared on here I've cooked at the station. I hope you enjoy these videos. Thanks for watching