Have I ever told you about my mom?
She is one incredible lady. Raised six children on her own, born into poverty...the kind of poverty that would make most of us Americans blush with embarrassment over the abundance of things we own...she has worked since the moment she could hold a tray. Her childhood had many happy memories but often there were tragic struggles. I admire this lady named Consuelo. She has lived a strong life and has always shown my siblings and I love. To this day when ever we get a chance to visit she feeds me and my brood until we are stuffed. Hardly ever says no to my kids and is a doting grandmother....very doting.
Truthfully?
I wish we had more moments together, but we live several hours apart. She still works and her life continues to be harder than I think fair at times. But, it is what it is. When we do hang out it usually involves lots of late nights over coffee, chats, tears, and laughs.
I'm rambling here because this post is supposed to be about "tamales". So back on track...
My brother, the one who lives across the
pond Atlantic, has been here in the states since November. He usually comes for 3-4 weeks during Thanksgiving...to cook and spend time with the family. He was here, in my house, to visit for a few days and we took the opportunity to get together and well.....cook.
The ladies of the family get together once or twice a year and spend a whole day in the kitchen. The radio is almost always on with my mom's favorites, HA you would laugh
or be in a state of shock to hear this music. Old Mexican folks songs of love and despair,
Banda music (a Mexican country style of music heavily influenced by the brass based instruments and has it's roots from the polka) oh how I can hear the sounds of El Tambor right now!
Anyhow, imagine the kitchen full of women just laughing it up. Chatting loudly; perhaps a disagreement or two occurs over the technique of wrapping a husk, we are spending time and making memories. From the youngest to the oldest this is what is done in my family. Not as often as I would like, or remember doing as a child. But at least it does happen.
As I mentioned my brother was in the mix this time. On hand taking pictures and taste testing everything. So was one of my sisters but she was on strike. Kidding, she was hanging out with the kiddies. Anyway, he likes being in the kitchen, as you may know. We started a bit late in the early afternoon and ended up with tamales for dinner.
Can you believe we ended up with 130 tamales!
That's a lot of pork...LOL!
I thought I would share some of the days memories from the pictures my brother took. The photo credit goes to him. He has a knack for the camera thing. I'm also going to share my mom's recipe for her pork tamales. As with anything she does in the kitchen, she does not measure. I will do my best to give measurements but really it is done by experimenting and taste. You can google hundreds of recipes on the web for precise measurements but I guarantee you'll change it up a bit as you go anyway.
Enjoy the pictures.
And thank you Mom for your time with us in the kitchen. We love you!!
Soaking the corn husks
Shredding, shredding lots of meat
20 lbs of it
Pureeing the cooked chilies...Lucy is peeling the garbanzo beans. I remember having this job when I was her age too!
Chillies waiting for their turn in the blender
Once you mix the veggies, Chile puree, and meat...
something wonderful happens
Please pass the tortillas for some burritos!
Like my mom always says, "If your masa is tasteless, so will be your tamales...it's all in the masa!"
The wrapping part of this whole process is my weakest ability. Thus I'm in the background packing up to freeze some of the tamales. My mom is very picky about her wrapping.
Now, are you ready to make some Tamales?
There are tons of recipes on the web and various ways to make them. This is our way. So feel free to experiment. It's not that hard...promise. But invite some friends, sisters and make an afternoon of it.
what you need
(yielding 20+ tamales)
for prepared masa
for the filling
1 1/2 to 3lbs of pork shoulder, pork butt, or pork leg (my mom likes to use the pork leg); if possible have your butcher cut up the pork meat into large chunks. Also if you can get the bone from the leg add get it (you'll add it to the pot of water cooking the meat)
1 green pepper
3 potatoes (skinned and cut into strips)
2 cans of garbanzo beans (drained and peeled)
2-3 tomatoes
1 onion
1 head of garlic
salt
chicken bouillon
garlic powder (not garlic salt)
The Steps
(step 1-3 can be done a day ahead)
If the meat is in one large portion, cut it into smaller unified pieces
In your largest pot boil the pork meat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours under a low-medium heat. You'll want the meat to be tender and not over done or it'll come out tough. As the meat cooks skim off the residue that will be floating above the meat.
Add the peeled onion and whole garlic to the pot of meat. Don't worry about peeling the garlic, just toss it in and let it do it's job.
Place your prepared masa in the largest mixing bowl you have, set aside.
During this time begin to soak your corn husks. You'll want to separate the cleanest and nicest husks from the thin torn ones. DO NOT THROW any of the husks away. You'll use them later.
Take your dried chiles and boil them under low heat until they become soft. Once they are soft rip off the stem portion of the chiles. Set aside.
Slice up your tomatoes and green peppers into thin slices. Set them aside.
Peel and slice the potatoes into 1/4 slices. Put them in a bowl of water to avoid browning. Set aside
Drain and peel off the skin of the garbanzo beans. If you have little hands around (or teenagers) this is a job for them. Set aside.
Drain the jalapeno slices and set aside too.
Once the meat is done, take each piece out of the water to cool off a bit. Reserve the water for later.
Once the meat is cool enough to handle begin to shred all of it.
Now, take your soft chiles and put about two cups of them into a blender with enough of the meat water to come up about 1-2 inches above the chiles. Puree them. You want a liquid consistency. Add more of the stock if you need to. It'll be on the thicker side though. Keep doing this until all your chiles are in this liquid form.
Do not throw away the stock that is left.
In a large pan, dutch oven, or pot saute your veggies (pepper and tomatoes only). Season to taste with the salt, garlic powder and chicken bouillon. Note: the chicken bouillon will add salt to the dish too...so use it carefully.
Once the veggies are done add your Chile puree and all of your meat. I would first start off adding the Chile puree little by little. Tasting along the way. This has to be to your taste. If you like spicy then add some more puree. If you prefer a more milder taste then hold off on adding any more puree. Note: The Chile taste will subside as you cook the wrapped tamales. So season well. Set this aside for now.
Now it's time to work on the masa. For a good Tamale you need the masa to taste good. Make a nice size hole in the center of the masa. Add your reserved Chile puree into the masa and begin to mix. Get ready to get a bit messy...this is a hand mix job. Mix until you begin to get a nice reddish color to the masa and/or you like the taste of it. Add the Chile puree little by little. Season to your liking here too. Note: The taste of the masa will get milder as you cook them later so season well.
Now you're ready to assemble
yes, it's a bit laborious
but pop in a good CD, gather some help and have fun with it
This site has great pictures of the whole process and a recipe that looks good, including a recipe for preparing your own masa:
Cooking MexicanThis is youtube video of putting together the tamale. She even has a nifty tip:
video one
Make up an assembly line of your now drained and soft husks, the filling mix, bowl of potatoes, jalapenos and garbanzo beans.
Your husk will naturally want to curl in. This is the side you'll be adding your masa to.
Take your husk add a spoonful, or two, of masa and spread it onto the wide portion of the husk; leaving the pointed side clean to wrap over later. The picture of my mom at the beginning of this post shows a picture of her making one.
A question of thick or thin masa. I like a well made tamales were the masa isn't the star. Thus, I prefer the masa on the thinner side. But this would be up to taste...so experiment.
Add a good 1-2 spoonfuls of filling on the masa towards one side of the tamale. Remember to leave some space for the folding. You want a meaty tamale but you don't want to add so much meat that it'll leak out when you begin to roll them.
Begin to wrap/roll up your husk over until the ends meet. Make sure it's snug fold, then fold over the pointed side up toward the rest of the tamale. You want this to be a tight/snug tamale so that the water doesn't get into the tamale while it's cooking and ruin all your hard work.
Ta-da...you're almost done
Cooking your tamales
If you have a steamer you'll want to use it. Otherwise grab you largest pot.
Add enough of the reserved stock water into your pot to get about 2 1/2 inches off from the bottom. Add a good amount of salt too. Why, well because my mom says it helps the tamales keep its flavors. True or not I do as I am told.
Place some of your reserved husks, making a barrier between the water and your tamales.
Place your individual tamales with the opening facing up into the pot. They are going to be lined up.
Place a few more of the soft husks on top of the tamales. Do not push down. This is just to help keep the moisture in the pot.
Cook on medium-low heat for about 3 hours.
They will be mushy at first. But check one tamale after 3 hours to ensure the masa is cooked and not raw.
They will look more or less like these once they are done.
Enjoy!!
~ Resources ~
the masa
- most Latino markets like Vallartas Supermarket carry the prepared masa
- you want a light masa that has not been saturated with lime, pineapples or what ever seems to be the going fashion.
- if you need to prepare your masa then I highly recommend a bag of Maseca Corn Masa for Tamales, 4.4 Lbs
, the directions will be on the bag to make them. It's a great brand and we use it often. But hey, if I can get it already done then it saves me an extra step.
the husks
- 1-2 bags of El Guapo Corn Husks 16 oz.
- the kind of corn husks you choose to buy is really up to you. My mom uses one brand, sorry I don't have the name for it. But what you want are nice dried husks that are mostly wide enough for a good wrapped tamale. Some brands come with husks that are to torn
and unusable.
This post was longer than I expected. But I surely hope it pays a tribute to that lady pictured in the beginning of this post. Because of her I have life, fond memories of the kitchen, and lots of tamales in my fridge.
(I love the play in words from this book), and little tid bits of this and that.
