Tamales With a Twist

Like many who make a name for themselves in Southern California, Robert Cortez came here from someplace else--El Paso, Texas, to be exact.

He is a personal chef. That means his chances of becoming a celebrity chef are slim, but his clients are as rich and famous as any Spago regular. When Eddie Murphy was shooting “The Nutty Professor,” it was Cortez’s cooking that the star went home to.

“Being a personal chef isn’t as hectic as restaurant work, where everything is ASAP,” Cortez says. “But it’s just as satisfying. I have more time to plan parties--and I get to cook everything. In a restaurant, if you’re a pastry chef, you do pastries and that’s it.”

Recently, Cortez left Los Angeles for Seattle to cook for the third-richest man in America, Microsoft co-founder and rock groupie Paul Allen. The most Cortez will say about Allen’s tastes: “He loves ethnic food.”

Cortez, then, seems like the right man for the job. In addition to studying French cuisine (at the Cordon Bleu and Paris’ Ecole Lenotre) and working with three-star French chef Roger Verge, Cortez has studied in Italy, traveled extensively (ask him about Czech cooking sometime) and journeyed to what he calls “deep Mexico” to learn about the regional Mexican cooking that is difficult to find even here in Southern California.

In Mexico, he gained a deeper understanding of the dishes his mother and grandmother made when he was a kid. It was his grandmother who first taught him to make tamales, one of the great party foods of Mexico. But it was his French chef training that gave him the brass to start messing with tradition.

“I always found tamales one-dimensional,” Cortez says. And so he began experimenting. Among his successes: a Moroccan-style tamale; a Texas version with shredded pork, caramelized onions and cinnamon-coffee barbecue sauce; and his favorite autumn-season version, a sweet pumpkin spice tamale.

Sweet tamales are not new to Mexican cooks, but they are most often made with sugar and raisins. Cortez wanted something that played up the flavors of fall instead. The pumpkin tamale is so good it is included in the just-released “Cocina de la Familia” (Simon & Schuster), a collection of Mexican American recipes by cookbook author Marilyn Tausend and Texas chef Miguel Ravago.

Of course, the cookbook version is easier to make than the one Cortez serves for parties--he says he usually serves the pumpkin tamales with a walnut creme anglaise or homemade walnut ice cream.

But the real question is this: Does his grandmother know what he’s been doing to her tamales?

“She knows,” he insists. “And she’s very proud of me.”

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SWEET PUMPKIN SPICE TAMALES

(Makes 12 to 14 tamales)

Cortez uses fresh masa (available in tortilleras and Latino markets); look for masa refregada, masa molida or masa sin preparada on the package. Do not buy masa preparada, which is premixed with lard.

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30 large dry cornhusks

1 cup butter, room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/4 cups fresh masa

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 to 1/4 cup milk

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Rinse cornhusks; soak in hot water until pliable, about 15 minutes.

Cream butter and sugar on medium-high in mixer until fluffy, about 12 minutes. With mixer running, add salt, cinnamon and cloves after first few minutes of mixing.

Thoroughly mix masa, pumpkin puree, baking powder and milk in separate bowl. Mix masa mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, into butter mixture until ingredients are incorporated and texture is airy.

Drain cornhusks and pat dry. Spread 2 tablespoons dough on half of each husk, leaving margin on all sides. Fold sides of husks to enclose dough and bring up pointed end of husks even with cut ends. Tie tamales.

Place tamales vertically, folded side down, in steamer basket covered with a few unfilled cornhusks. Place basket in large pot with 1 to 2 inches simmering water. Cover tamales with some of remaining unfilled cornhusks and clean towel, then add lid. Steam, without uncovering pot, 50 to 60 minutes.

Tamales should be firm when prodded with fork after being unwrapped and allowed to sit 5 minutes.

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Food stylist: Donna Deane; Vermont maple wood bowl and napkin from Williams-Sonoma, Beverly Hills