I always feel like I need to put an exclamation point after tamales! for some reason. Maybe because I think of the “Too Hot Tamales!” or just “hot tamales!” or because of the tamale! vendor. For the purpose of not being too distracting in this post I will refrain from using the exclamation and refer to tamales! from now on as simply tamales. I think that the pictures and video of this traditional Mexican food will be all the emphasis we need.
There are many foods I can think of that I normally don’t think of preparing at home. They are typically once-in-awhile specialty foods that are usually eaten outside of the home. Deep-dish pizza, for instance, is something I usually leave up to the specialized pizzeria equipped to prepare such an undertaking. I used to make this at home many years ago, and it was an all day affair.
Chelsea and I always have such a great feeling of accomplishment when we put our heads together and tackle a new project. There is something exciting about trying a new recipe or technique and having to research it and source the ingredients. I should say that the tamales were Chelsea’s idea, and she did all the legwork. I told her where she could buy the best fresh masa to make tamales–and that evening I came home to a 10-pound bag in the refrigerator! A word of advice: 10 pounds of masa is probably enough to make hundreds of tamales. We used about a quarter of that.
Just the simple sourcing of the main ingredient, fresh masa, was a bit of an adventure and a learning experience. First, you can’t be intimidated to speak in Spanish. Second, you have to specify whether you need masa for tortillas or masa for tamales. Then a trip to the local Mexican market for corn wrappers, fresh lard, and interesting fillings for the tamales is a bit of an adventure. Chelsea also consulted a number of different recipes and came up with her own tweaked version, which I am more than confident in saying was dee-liciosa!
Recipes to follow
Here’s a video of the process with soundtrack by the legendary Vicente Fernandez:
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