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Doc Martian Doc Martian is offline
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Default My Tamales aren't brown like the pictures

"Karisia_Safaris" > wrote in
message ...
>
> I live in Kenya and I'm trying to make Tamales by scratch. I have no
> Latin Grocery around the corner and so I have been nixtamalizing my own
> dried corn with pickling lime i brought back from the US. My tortillas
> seem ok but when i make my Tamales using one of Rick Bayless's recipe
> (lard combined with my masa, cilantro and jalepenos) they do not turn
> out like the nice images in his book. They are very tasty but those
> depicted in the images are nice and brown as if they have seen a bit of
> broiling from above. My tamales are very white. Very tasty but very
> white. Can anyone suggest maybe another recipe or think of what i can
> try differently. When the recipe says fresh masa I assume that they are
> referring to nixtamailxed corn that has been ground after soaking. this
> is what mine is. should i be nixtamalizing then drying , then grinding
> before mixing with the lard???
> many thanks for ideas, jamie
>
>
>
>
> --
> Karisia_Safaris



Are you using hominy corn? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominy There are
many masa variants.

Here's a detailed example of one used in Guatemala.
http://www.all-about-guatemala.com/h...make-masa.html

also, there is yellow and white masa, a yellow masa would come out browner.
I've even seen some stuff on roasting the corn in the process.

Here is a Mexican variant, which is probably more similar to what Bayless
was using.
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Article...-nixtamal.aspx

I'd look around though. There are many variants.