Interesting!


"." > wrote in message
...
On Nov 24, 10:38?am, "Wayne Lundberg" >
wrote:
> Not hot enough. You need steam heat to cook a tamale.

Not necessarily.

The temperature in an indigenous earth *pib* isn't hot enough to boil
water continuously, but there is enough heat in the rocks to get the
water in an evaporated state and that is enough to "steam" masa
adequately.

When I make tamales, there is no point in wrapping the masa in a
corn husk, because I don't plan to sell tamales in a supermarket
parking lot, or try to give them to my neighbors for Christmas.

And I'm not going to carry a bunch of tamales with me for lunch when I
work in the fields, so the wet corn husks used for small tamales are
superfluous.

So I make what could be described as a "tamale pie" in the Tex-Mex
vernacular.

I grease a microwave bowl so the masa won't stick.

I cover the bottom of the bowl with masa, pour my filling in the
center, and cover it with more masa.

Then I put a lid on the bowl.

I microwave it on *high* for 20 minutes, and then let the bowl sit for
45 minutes to an hour, letting the masa steam *from the inside out"

And, if somebody wants to disrespect my humble tamale pie, remember
that Mexicans make much bigger tamales than that and steam them in
earth pibs.

I don't remember the name of the giant tamale that Mexicans make when
they have venison, but no corn husk is going to hold that sucker!