Tamales

[wittdog]

Today was tamale making day�we used a mix of chicken and pulled pork�..
Soaking the husks

The meat

In the steamer

[Mike D]

erm, ahem...excuse my ignorance, but what are Tamales ???

[wittdog]

No Problem...its a mexican dish...basically you stuff a corn husk with a corn meal mix and seasoned meat...roll it up..then steam it...
Its good eating..here is a how to link
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/tamales/

[Mike D]

Thanks for that Wittdog. Pretty complicated to get all the stuff together, but they do sound good. Plenty of chilli, garlic & paprika (I do a sausage with all that in) What would you have them with ??

[Big Guy]

they are very spicy hot!!!! at least the ones I have tried were hot, and I like hot stuff. Approach them with care. Good but hot. Did I mention that they are hot

[Mike D]

Big Guy....reading between the lines on your last post, I'm guessing that they'd be hot then ??

[wittdog]

If you follow that recipe they aren't hot...heavily spiced but not hot...the tamales can stand alone served with some mexican rice...or as a side to something else...I like them for breakfast next to some scrambled eggs

[Zulululu]

do you eat them with the husks, or do you unroll them??

[wittdog]

You unroll the husks.

[vinner]

We make tamales down here a lot, and we have some of the best teachers of different types. Our Salvadoran nanny makes a completely different type(s) of tamales, some with no meat but corn, and is almost sweet. Our Mexican gardener and I make cheese tamales, and for Christmas we make typical pork tamales. we also make them with venison. I went so far as to buy a hand pulled tamale extrusion machine... very nifty. You can see the video of how it works here:

http://www.tamaleking.com/


You can serve them with Mexican rice and refried beans, with cheese and onions crumbled on top as well, but my favorite is plain, just out of the husk.

And they freeze well too!

[Oddley]

Well I've talked to our downstaires maid, and she says the upstairs maid who is Mexican has never metioned Tamales, the Butler and cook agree...

[vinner]

[Mike D]

My head gardener says he can get the corn husks from one of the under-gardeners though ...

[johnfb]

Yeah...with the credit crunch you're probably down to just 5 servants...

[Mike D]

Just down to 5 below stairs, all the others are untouched at present.