Tamales are a tradition in my family (yes I'm Mexican, ssshhhhh don't tell anybody). As a child I remember going to my grandparents house in a small migrant farm town in central California (Cutler) where the family would get together and make tamales for Christmas. The women cooked, the men prepared the masa and the kids played.
Now that my grandparents are gone and I'm a grown man now I decided I wanted to carry on the tradition so now we do tamales at my house and I love it. I never feel more connected with my family than when we're all in the kitchen laughing and telling stories while the assembly line of tamales chugs along. So here's how we roll...
1. You gotta have a few essential ingredients: Masa, your mole (we do pork), and corn husks.
2. It's an assemnbly line from there. Coat the husks in masa, fill with mole, wrap then steam.
3. As mentioned before be sure to let them cool for 5 minutes after heating so they firm up.
This year I'm smoking a pork butt then adding the smoked meat to the mole to see how it goes. Not sure on this one, my mom says it won't work, I say it's worth the $5 butt to see if it will.
Pics:
The Stuff:
Masa:
Mole:
Husks:
Fill husks with mole (I like to add a black olive):
Wrap:
Getting ready to steam:
Steam. I use foil to make a good seal to keep as much steam inside as possible:
Done and resting:
That's it. Google recipes for mole and how to prepare masa, get some friends and family over to your house and have fun. Merry Christmas everybody!
