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>From: (Just Me)

>What can i use to steam the tamales in to cook them..I dont havve a double
broiler so i wanted to see if anyone knows of a easy way tosteam these tamales
to cook them?

You probably didn't run across my message about how tamales were steamed in an
earth oven long ago, before colanders were invented...

Tamales were originally wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves for two reasons.
The first, and most important reason was that the tamales were steamed in the
corn husks and the cooled tamales could be carried in the corn husks...

But, when you go to a Mexican restaurant and order tamales, you don't usually
get corn husks served to you on your plate, they'd be messy and what would you
do with the greasy, chile sauce-covered corn husk at the table anyway?

I contend that corn husks are obsolete, and superfluous,
that they are mainly used so the tamales can be steamed in the traditional
manner, and wrapping tamale ingredients in corn husks is what makes home made
tamales a labor-intensive proposition...

So, I say, eliminate the corn husk!

Many years ago, my Mom (who was German/Danish) loved Mexican food and couldn't
find any tamales where we lived used to make what was called a "tamale pie"...

Authentic Mexican ingredients like masa weren't available from supermarkets
like today, Mom used what she could find...

Moist cooked corn meal mush was poured into an oven proof glass casserole dish,
the chile sauce and whatever pre-cooked meat was to be used was poured in
there, some hominy or cooked corn was added, and a top layer of moist corn meal
mush was poured on top...

The dish was *baked* in the oven for about an hour, the tamale pie was cut and
served like---pie...

I think I might make a quick tamale pie using instant masa, red chile sauce and
pork around Christmas time, but I won't need any corn husks at all, they are
superfluous...

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