Our culture is built on "Me"... "What do I want?" We go to a restaurant to eat with family and friends and take half the time pouring over a menu with more options than any human needs. Then we stuff our faces, complain to the staff, stiff our server, and head home to stare at a tv.
In most cultures the experience is in the people. Women spend all day in the kitchen together pouring their heart, soul, and sweat into making a meal that, unlike ours, doesn't last 5 minutes, but sometimes 5 hours. The best meals I remember from my time in Mexico are the ones I helped make, learning so much language in the kitchen, and spent hours at the table conversing about the day, the country, politics that I really didn't understand, and the way they feel about life, love, and God. And of course, food.
Food is the manifestation of the cornerstones of some cultures. Other factors are already built in. Say, family. Mexicans don't even question whether family is important. Your entire family is going to be at every single event in your life. But what's going to be at the center of the celebration? Mole? Tamales? Tia Tere's special tamales wrapped in banana leaves? One's culture is wrapped up in a nice little packet of food. I could go on and on, but I'm going to leave it at that.
I would like to say thank-you to that friend who spent hours in my kitchen today making tamales! I hope I didn't confuse you too much with my mistakes =)
Ok... Want to learn how to make tamales? Let's get one thing straight first... Many tamales, one TAMAL. It's not a tamale, I don't care how the menu at your local TexMex place spells it =)
So with tamales, you can fill these little packets o'joy with a lot of different ingredients - meat, cheese, sweet fillings - but today I'm sharing with you how to make them with meat. I would say pork is most popular in Mexico, but I don't eat pig anymore, so I went with beef.
WHAT YOU NEED:
For the meat:
1 lb. roast pulled [beef, pork, chicken] per 3 dozen tamales
1 bag of Especies Para Tamales (a bag of tamal spices) easily found at any good Mexican tienda
1/2 cup dried minced white onions
1 TBSP. sea salt
Organic Celery, rinsed well and the ends cut off
For the dough:
2 batches of Masa Para Tamales (special corn flour for tamales), made according to the directions on that package (each one differs a little)
*Note that for the Masa you will need lard/butter/or oil, water, and salt
Corn Husks, soaked for 30 minutes prior to making tamales, also easily found at the local tienda
HOW TO:
**I'll warn you now -- these take 3-4 hours to make, IF you know what you're doing! If it's your first time, allot for more time... Maybe all day** Enlist a friend so it's more fun =)
Make roast ahead of time, say the night before. Pull meat the next morning. I always use my crock pot, because I think it produces a better roast than I can achieve in my oven =)
Fill bottom of crock pot with one layer of celery.
Place meat on top. Salt meat, then add dried onions and packet of tamal spices.
When you go to pull the meat, save the juices and spices.
**Here's another cultural tidbit -- no Mexican kitchen would run at all without two main tools, a skillet and a blender!**
Heat the juices and spices in a skillet and let reduce. Then blend well, and strain out any left-over chunks that your poor old crappy blender (like mine) just didn't get.
Make masa. You want it more wet-ish than dry! The directions on the packages never include enough water! Make it like it says, then add a little more water at a time, until it looks more and more like any other loose biscuit/cookie dough - smooth, not lumpy.
Take corn husk and fill with only a couple tablespoons of masa. You do not want to over-fill tamales.
Thin layer of meat on top of that.
Then add a bit of the spice/juice mixture.
Fold in half, tuck one side into the other. Then, from the top, fold husk down, and fold bottom up as well. (If you want to make them look even prettier, tear a corn husk up in several strips and tie one around each end of each tamal.)
Tamales are traditionally steamed. I have one tiny steam basket, so I fill that one up and get it going, then bake the others in casserole dishes. The trick to baking them is to cover the filled-up dish with a near-soaking kitchen towel, tucked INSIDE the dish, then foil covering the top really well. I bake this at 350 for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. And golden! In my opinion, these generally have a nicer texture to them, and taste a bit better than the steamed ones.
COST: Around $9.50 for 36. That's... 26c/each.
FEEDS: If all you're serving for dinner is tamales (with some good salsa -- maybe that's my next post!), one person might eat 4. My husband would eat 6 =) That's only $1.04-$1.56/person!!
I would like to say thank-you to that friend who spent hours in my kitchen today making tamales! I hope I didn't confuse you too much with my mistakes =)
Ok... Want to learn how to make tamales? Let's get one thing straight first... Many tamales, one TAMAL. It's not a tamale, I don't care how the menu at your local TexMex place spells it =)
So with tamales, you can fill these little packets o'joy with a lot of different ingredients - meat, cheese, sweet fillings - but today I'm sharing with you how to make them with meat. I would say pork is most popular in Mexico, but I don't eat pig anymore, so I went with beef.
WHAT YOU NEED:
For the meat:
1 lb. roast pulled [beef, pork, chicken] per 3 dozen tamales
1 bag of Especies Para Tamales (a bag of tamal spices) easily found at any good Mexican tienda
1/2 cup dried minced white onions
1 TBSP. sea salt
Organic Celery, rinsed well and the ends cut off
For the dough:
2 batches of Masa Para Tamales (special corn flour for tamales), made according to the directions on that package (each one differs a little)
*Note that for the Masa you will need lard/butter/or oil, water, and salt
Corn Husks, soaked for 30 minutes prior to making tamales, also easily found at the local tienda
HOW TO:
**I'll warn you now -- these take 3-4 hours to make, IF you know what you're doing! If it's your first time, allot for more time... Maybe all day** Enlist a friend so it's more fun =)
Make roast ahead of time, say the night before. Pull meat the next morning. I always use my crock pot, because I think it produces a better roast than I can achieve in my oven =)
Fill bottom of crock pot with one layer of celery.
Place meat on top. Salt meat, then add dried onions and packet of tamal spices.
When you go to pull the meat, save the juices and spices.
**Here's another cultural tidbit -- no Mexican kitchen would run at all without two main tools, a skillet and a blender!**
Heat the juices and spices in a skillet and let reduce. Then blend well, and strain out any left-over chunks that your poor old crappy blender (like mine) just didn't get.
Make masa. You want it more wet-ish than dry! The directions on the packages never include enough water! Make it like it says, then add a little more water at a time, until it looks more and more like any other loose biscuit/cookie dough - smooth, not lumpy.
Take corn husk and fill with only a couple tablespoons of masa. You do not want to over-fill tamales.
Thin layer of meat on top of that.
Then add a bit of the spice/juice mixture.
Fold in half, tuck one side into the other. Then, from the top, fold husk down, and fold bottom up as well. (If you want to make them look even prettier, tear a corn husk up in several strips and tie one around each end of each tamal.)
Tamales are traditionally steamed. I have one tiny steam basket, so I fill that one up and get it going, then bake the others in casserole dishes. The trick to baking them is to cover the filled-up dish with a near-soaking kitchen towel, tucked INSIDE the dish, then foil covering the top really well. I bake this at 350 for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. And golden! In my opinion, these generally have a nicer texture to them, and taste a bit better than the steamed ones.
COST: Around $9.50 for 36. That's... 26c/each.
FEEDS: If all you're serving for dinner is tamales (with some good salsa -- maybe that's my next post!), one person might eat 4. My husband would eat 6 =) That's only $1.04-$1.56/person!!