Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Tamales!

Ok, this has nothing relevant to knitting, but let me tell you...after 20 years of pursuing the perfect real tamale recipe....I DID IT! Finally...all the years of trying to get the little mexican ladies to divulge their tamale secrets, trying out any recipe that remotely sounded like it might be the one, and Eureka! The masa is perfect! The meat is perfect! And my family is very pleased! There was none of that ,"Ummm, yeah mom...uh, they're ok." It was, "Wow, Mom, you finally figured it out.

You would think it's a simple thing to try out different recipes, but you'd be mistaken. A batch of tamales is a labor intensive process requiring the recruitment of every kid you own that you can trick into spending a few hours spreading the masa on corn husks, and rolling into the tasty treats I so crave! I absolutely love a good tamale! The first batch I made, the masa was too dry. Then there was the batch that had the masa too thick. I admit I don't try to make tamales very often, thus why it's taken me so long to figure out the secret.

Why the little mexican ladies are so secretive with their tamale recipes, I just don't know. After all, I offered them my best eggroll recipe. I'll even toss in a sushi lesson. But no, they just smile in their little knowing way, and say,"oh, I don't know...a pinch of this, a little of that..." Makes me feel like publishing the recipe across the net! " Tamale secrets revealed! What the little mexican ladies won't tell you!" By the way, here's your first clue...don't buy the dry masa. Get the fresh masa at a mexican supermarket like Fiesta. Makes all the difference in the world!

So that's my blog for the day. I'm going to go have a great tamale now!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

there is one place in brisbane i know of that makes tamales. they have to use banana leaves.
we love tamales. named our dog tamale.

have you ever had a chocolate-filled tamale? oooh, try it!

Mary said...

I'll have to try a chocolat tamale one day! It sounds intriguing! I had a place that made perfect tamales, and they quit selling them,sigh... I guess I'll just have to learn how to make smaller batches for those spur of the moment times you just have to have one.