PP Tamales ~ Foamheart

[foamheart]

Yeah you gotta eat like a minimum of 6 per meal lol :D

LOL.... I can do 4 these days, I make some pretty healthy tamales.

 

[tallbm]

LOL.... I can do 4 these days, I make some pretty healthy tamales.

hahaha I find I have tamales with a side of tamales :P
Maybe a side of beans sometimes but often just a bunch of tamales with some homemade salsa on top or tobasco, or chalula, or some hot sauce and that is about what my tamale meals look like hahaha :D

 

[forktender]

Foamheart, those look amazing, but mustard on tamales???LOL...

Dave, you can do it!
Making Tamales is super easy, make the Massa, red sauce and filling the day before or it's a lot of work. There are tons of youtube videos showing you how to roll them and you just steam them until the Massa is not mushy and pulls free of the husks. I make them with smoked pork shoulder and make a red sauce from two big bags of chared California chilies, one head of charred garlic, two large white onions charred . After you char the chilies you throw them into a pot of water and bring it up to a boil then shut it off and let them soak until they are cool enough to deseed. Then you add all of the above to a food processor with a 5 or 6 cups of the soaking water or pork broth and 1/2 cup of lard or corn oil and pulse until smooth. Then you pour it into a large pot and cook the sauce on high heat until it gets nice and dark red and bubbly. I also add a little Mexican chocolate a piece about the the size of a Zippo lighter too it. I make the sauce a day or two before I need it then I pour half of it over the shreaded pork and let it sit in the refer over night and add a cup or two to the Massa. The day you want to make them make sure you take the massa out of the refer an hour or two before you start making them at that time I pour boiling water over all of the husks. I use a tamale spreader which is a little plastic scread that has raised edges, it puts a nice ever layer of massa onto the husks, it's ten times faster than smoothing out massa with a spoon and plastic wrap If you don't have a spreader you can use a 6'' wide joint compound knife. I cover the table with husks and spread the massa all at one time then go back and add a heaping tablespoon of pork and two black olives go into each tamal. Wrap them all up and add them to the steamer with pork stack as the steaming liquid, steam them of 45 minutes and pull one out to check it, if the massa is still soft try steaming for an another 1/2 hour. It's best to have a helper but I often make them on my own, they are a lot of work but they are worth it and they freeze very well, I make about 60 each time so I have enough to share with family and friends.
We eat them with the red sauce over them with refried beans and Spanish rice and crumble Cotija cheese over everything it's amazing.
You should really try making them, it's easy, fun, and like you people go nuts over them.

Best of luck.
Dan

Sorry about all of the spelling mistakes, I'm being lazy tonight it's 3:00 AM here and I'm exhausted.
I'm going to bed now good night. LOL.

 

[daveomak]

Thanks for the support...

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Those look great

I would trade a secret sausage recipe for a few of em.

 

[zwiller]

and two black olives go into each tamal

Mind blown. I will remember that. LOVE black olives in my Mex/Tex Mex. Dan, would you please consider doing a write up on your next run? Or will settle with me pestering you with a ton of questions? IE do you peel onion and garlic before charring?

 

[forktender]

Mind blown. I will remember that. LOVE black olives in my Mex/Tex Mex. Dan, would you please consider doing a write up on your next run? Or will settle with me pestering you with a ton of questions? IE do you peel onion and garlic before charring?

If I remember I will, no problem.
Ask any questions you have it's no problem at all.

No, I don't peel the onion or garlic I just throw them on to one of the burners on my gas stove.
It you don't have a gas stove you could always throw them on a gas BBQ grill or place toss them under the broiler for a few minutes. After they are chared up a bit, I like them pretty dark. I place them into a small Tupperware container with a lid and set them on the counter so the get nice and soft.
My mom used to take the raw onions and garlic and toss them into a smoking hot cast iron pan and char them up that way, but I don't have a very good stove vent fan and it smokes out my house.
It's honestly hard to screw up the sauce there are so many different ways to make it.

When we were kids, my grandma, mom, and aunts would make them for Christmas eve dinner.
And we aren't even Mexican, Sicilian/Irish actually.
They would make one tamal with just black olives in it, whichever family member got the one with olives only in it. Their family had to make the tamales for the big Easter dinner.
My mom was pissed because I ate so many I got the olive tamal 2 yrs in a row and she had to make them for the whole family, which is how I learned to make them.

 

[wbf610]

Foamheart, those look amazing, but mustard on tamales???LOL...

Dave, you can do it!
Making Tamales is super easy, make the Massa, red sauce and filling the day before or it's a lot of work. There are tons of youtube videos showing you how to roll them and you just steam them until the Massa is not mushy and pulls free of the husks. I make them with smoked pork shoulder and make a red sauce from two big bags of chared California chilies, one head of charred garlic, two large white onions charred . After you char the chilies you throw them into a pot of water and bring it up to a boil then shut it off and let them soak until they are cool enough to deseed. Then you add all of the above to a food processor with a 5 or 6 cups of the soaking water or pork broth and 1/2 cup of lard or corn oil and pulse until smooth. Then you pour it into a large pot and cook the sauce on high heat until it gets nice and dark red and bubbly. I also add a little Mexican chocolate a piece about the the size of a Zippo lighter too it. I make the sauce a day or two before I need it then I pour half of it over the shreaded pork and let it sit in the refer over night and add a cup or two to the Massa. The day you want to make them make sure you take the massa out of the refer an hour or two before you start making them at that time I pour boiling water over all of the husks. I use a tamale spreader which is a little plastic scread that has raised edges, it puts a nice ever layer of massa onto the husks, it's ten times faster than smoothing out massa with a spoon and plastic wrap If you don't have a spreader you can use a 6'' wide joint compound knife. I cover the table with husks and spread the massa all at one time then go back and add a heaping tablespoon of pork and two black olives go into each tamal. Wrap them all up and add them to the steamer with pork stack as the steaming liquid, steam them of 45 minutes and pull one out to check it, if the massa is still soft try steaming for an another 1/2 hour. It's best to have a helper but I often make them on my own, they are a lot of work but they are worth it and they freeze very well, I make about 60 each time so I have enough to share with family and friends.
We eat them with the red sauce over them with refried beans and Spanish rice and crumble Cotija cheese over everything it's amazing.
You should really try making them, it's easy, fun, and like you people go nuts over them.

Best of luck.
Dan

Sorry about all of the spelling mistakes, I'm being lazy tonight it's 3:00 AM here and I'm exhausted.
I'm going to bed now good night. LOL.

I like this approach. Last time i made them, i did it all in one day, it wasn’t enjoyable for me.

 

[hoity toit]

i just started a batch last night. will start a new thread in a couple days w some pics,

ht

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Oh man those tamal look awesome.

I remember my mom and her sisters spending a couple days making them. She was spanish so i ate good growing up.

 

[foamheart]

Foamheart, those look amazing, but mustard on tamales???LOL...

Dave, you can do it!
Making Tamales is super easy, make the Massa, red sauce and filling the day before or it's a lot of work. There are tons of youtube videos showing you how to roll them and you just steam them until the Massa is not mushy and pulls free of the husks. I make them with smoked pork shoulder and make a red sauce from two big bags of chared California chilies, one head of charred garlic, two large white onions charred . After you char the chilies you throw them into a pot of water and bring it up to a boil then shut it off and let them soak until they are cool enough to deseed. Then you add all of the above to a food processor with a 5 or 6 cups of the soaking water or pork broth and 1/2 cup of lard or corn oil and pulse until smooth. Then you pour it into a large pot and cook the sauce on high heat until it gets nice and dark red and bubbly. I also add a little Mexican chocolate a piece about the the size of a Zippo lighter too it. I make the sauce a day or two before I need it then I pour half of it over the shreaded pork and let it sit in the refer over night and add a cup or two to the Massa. The day you want to make them make sure you take the massa out of the refer an hour or two before you start making them at that time I pour boiling water over all of the husks. I use a tamale spreader which is a little plastic scread that has raised edges, it puts a nice ever layer of massa onto the husks, it's ten times faster than smoothing out massa with a spoon and plastic wrap If you don't have a spreader you can use a 6'' wide joint compound knife. I cover the table with husks and spread the massa all at one time then go back and add a heaping tablespoon of pork and two black olives go into each tamal. Wrap them all up and add them to the steamer with pork stack as the steaming liquid, steam them of 45 minutes and pull one out to check it, if the massa is still soft try steaming for an another 1/2 hour. It's best to have a helper but I often make them on my own, they are a lot of work but they are worth it and they freeze very well, I make about 60 each time so I have enough to share with family and friends.
We eat them with the red sauce over them with refried beans and Spanish rice and crumble Cotija cheese over everything it's amazing.
You should really try making them, it's easy, fun, and like you people go nuts over them.

Best of luck.
Dan

Sorry about all of the spelling mistakes, I'm being lazy tonight it's 3:00 AM here and I'm exhausted.
I'm going to bed now good night. LOL.

Thank you Dan.

I was first introduced to real tamales (not canned) in college at the local college watering hole. Nicks was open 24 hours a day, and always had two crock pots on the corner of the bar for the real hard core drinkers. One had smoked sausage .50/link, the other had tamales 2 for a quarter. And all the saltines you wanted!!. LOL!

Gonna blame server lag, its my story and I am sticking to it. LOL

 

[foamheart]

Thanks for the support...

Now if you were just an athlete.

 

[foamheart]

Those look great

I would trade a secret sausage recipe for a few of em.

Be careful, for one of your secret sausage recipes, I might fly over and just make ya a pot full!

 

[foamheart]

Oh man those tamal look awesome.

I remember my mom and her sisters spending a couple days making them. She was spanish so i ate good growing up.

Thank you.

This is where I saw them being made. Winter. Around the holidays. West Texas, N.M. & Mexico. There was always family tamale parties. It was alike a right of passage for the girls, a gossip party, a medical discussion of all the new maladies and cute doctors, and bragging on grand and great grand babies!

Guys would stand around outside always having at least two as designated drivers.....LOL If you where lucky there would be cabrito on a open fire and lots of cold beer.

I learned to love Mexican and Tex/Mex, everything but menudo. Thats stuff smells..... LOL