Anyone making tamales this holiday season? Care to share any tips or
recipes?

Lynne

WHAT HOLIDAY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???????????


"King's Crown" > wrote in message
k.net...
> Anyone making tamales this holiday season? Care to share any tips or
> recipes?
>
> Lynne
>

I am. Pork and bean. Gonna take them home for the holiday to Iowa.

"pamjd" > wrote in
oups.com:

>
> I am.

You are what?

> Pork and bean. Gonna take them home for the holiday to
> Iowa.

Good.

How about quoting while you're at it.

Thanks

King's Crown wrote:

> Anyone making tamales this holiday season? Care to share any tips or
> recipes?
>
> Lynne
>
>

Tamales have been a part of the Christmas and holiday season at
our house for many years, but this year I doubt I'll have the
time. Unfortunately, my elderly mother broke her hip a few days
after Thanksgiving. Helping her recuperate and come to grips with
the fact she can't live alone anymore is taking up a great deal of
my time. Here's the URL to a page in my collection of food related
web pages that I've devoted to tamal making. Have no fear, it's
a legacy pacbell.com site with no adds or pop-ups.

http://home.pacbell.net/macknet/tamales.html

We will be having Huevos con Chorizo on Christmas Day. It's been
a family Christmas breakfast tradition for over 25 years. However,
as my children have all married and now have their own children, it's
been difficult getting together as a family on Christmas morning over
the last few years. This year, we'll be having Huevos con Chorizo
for Christmas dinner. I'm in charge of bringing the fresh eggs and
Mexican-style chorizo...

http://home.pacbell.net/macknet/saus...tyle%20Chorizo

Rich McCormack > wrote in
. net:

>
> King's Crown wrote:
>
>> Anyone making tamales this holiday season? Care to share any
>> tips or recipes?
>>
>> Lynne
>>
>>
>
> Tamales have been a part of the Christmas and holiday season
> at our house for many years, but this year I doubt I'll have
> the time. Unfortunately, my elderly mother broke her hip a
> few days after Thanksgiving. Helping her recuperate and come
> to grips with the fact she can't live alone anymore is taking
> up a great deal of my time. Here's the URL to a page in my
> collection of food related web pages that I've devoted to
> tamal making. Have no fear, it's a legacy pacbell.com site
> with no adds or pop-ups.
>
> http://home.pacbell.net/macknet/tamales.html
>
> We will be having Huevos con Chorizo on Christmas Day. It's
> been a family Christmas breakfast tradition for over 25 years.
> However, as my children have all married and now have their
> own children, it's been difficult getting together as a family
> on Christmas morning over the last few years. This year,
> we'll be having Huevos con Chorizo for Christmas dinner. I'm
> in charge of bringing the fresh eggs and Mexican-style
> chorizo...
>
> http://home.pacbell.net/macknet/saus...can-Style%20Ch
> orizo

Nice site.

King's Crown wrote:
> Care to share any tips or recipes?

Originally, tamales were steamed in an earth oven which was filled with
hot rocks.
Water was poured over the rocks and steam resulted. The oven was
covered with brush or leaves and dirt to trap the steam and cook the
masa inside their corn husk
wrappers.

The resulting tamales were easily transportable and could be eaten out
of hand, just peel the corn husk back and munch away.

Nowadays, local Mexican women will put up a "Se Vende Tamales" sign in
their front yard and sell them for $0.75 each to make some extra money.
That's a good deal for them, $9.00 a dozen, and each tamale only takes
a few minutes to make, once the masa has been mixed, the corn husks
(hojas) have been soaked, and the beef, pork, or chicken has be boiled
and then sauteed in a large frying pan until it shreds.

You can add about 2 ounces of red chile powder (or you can use
commercial canned chile sauces, I like Knorr's sauces) to 2 pounds of
meat, and mix in however much water you want to make a rather dry
filling or a wet, soupy filling. You can add garlic and onions and
comino and epazote, whatever you want.

The filling doesn't have to be meat, either. What about a shrimp tamale
or a lobster tamale, using a chile verde sauce instead of a red sauce?

The Mexican Indians make tamales with *anything* you can imagine,
whether it's from the animal, fish, insect, or vegetable kingdoms. If
you want a bell pepper or asparagus
tamale, or one made with fresh yellow corn or cooked kidney beans, you
can do that too.

Since I do not plan to sell or transport my tamales, I make the filling
wet. Then I
do something absolutely heretical to the minds of the traditional
tamale makers:

I put a layer of masa in the bottom of a microwave-safe bowl, I pour
the filling into the bowl, and cover the filling with another layer of
masa, and I *microwave* it on high for 20 minutes and then leave it
set, covered for 45 minutes, so the masa will be steamed.

When scooped out of the microwave dish onto a hot plate and covered
with a red mole or whatever other mole you want, nobody can tell it
from a corn husk-wrapped tamale made in the traditional fashion.

In fact, I ate tamales for 25 years before I ever *saw* a corn
husk-wrapped tamale being sold off of a lunch wagon that catered to
Mexican laborers. Like I said, the corn husk is for convenience and
transportability. If you order a "combination plate" in a
sit down Mexican restaurant, you will never see the corn husk, it will
be removed so the tamale can be drizzled with mole.

Americans expect the mole, but a Mexican who might buy a tamale off of
a street vendor's wagon wouldn't. He could just walk down the street,
eating the tamale out of the husk like an American might eat a hot dog.

The corn husk-wrapped tamales do keep well in the refigerator, though.
I can't tell you how many cold tamales I've eaten when I needed to grab
something to munch on while continuing some urgent project.

Do we really need a reason to make tamales?

Lynne

"John Doe" > wrote in message
...
> WHAT HOLIDAY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???????????
>
>
> "King's Crown" > wrote in message
> k.net...
>> Anyone making tamales this holiday season? Care to share any tips or
>> recipes?
>>
>> Lynne
>>
>
>

I spent last evening preparing the pork. Today I'll make the mole' and
tomorrow the assembly line will begin. My friend and I start out thinking
we know nothing about tamales and can't remember what to do, but we usually
get about 8 dozen made in an afternoon or so and they always taste good. My
father says, "They look like real tamales." hahaha So, thank you all for
tips and the web site sent was very good. I really want to make the green
corn tamales. They sound SO good.

Lynne

"King's Crown" > wrote in message
k.net...
> Anyone making tamales this holiday season? Care to share any tips or
> recipes?
>
> Lynne
>

>>> Anyone making tamales this holiday season? Care to share any
>>> tips or recipes?
>>>
>>> Lynne
>
>> WHAT HOLIDAY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???????????
>
> Christmas is the holiday.
> Tamales are the food of choice is many homes.

Thank you Ann!
I knew that but am tired of politicaly correct people!!!!
Buck

"CK" > wrote >
<snip>
> Americans expect the mole,
<snip>

Why do you think you can lump all Americans in the same group? That is very
presumptuous.

To answer the OP, I have given up making my own tamales and purchase them
locally. In my family Christmas Eve is our main festive meal. We always
have tamales and beans. They are Cal-Mex tamales with whole black ripe
olives in them along with a beef filling. We tend to eat them with some of
the bean liquid over them.

Charlie

Charles Gifford wrote:
> "CK" > wrote >
> <snip>
> > Americans expect the mole,
> <snip>
>
> Why do you think you can lump all Americans in the same group? That is very
> presumptuous.

Get real, Charlie. When did you *ever* get served a dry tamale in a sit
down Mexican restaurant? Maybe you didn't get any mole if you bought a
tamale off a lunch truck, but the guy who sells you a dessicated dry
tamale out of the display case at a Mexican delicatessen will always
ask you if you want hot sauce to put on it!

On 18 Dec 2005 17:31:50 -0800, "CK" > wrote:

>
>Charles Gifford wrote:
>> "CK" > wrote >
>> <snip>
>> > Americans expect the mole,
>> <snip>
>>
>> Why do you think you can lump all Americans in the same group? That is very
>> presumptuous.
>
>Get real, Charlie. When did you *ever* get served a dry tamale in a sit
>down Mexican restaurant? Maybe you didn't get any mole if you bought a
>tamale off a lunch truck, but the guy who sells you a dessicated dry
>tamale out of the display case at a Mexican delicatessen will always
>ask you if you want hot sauce to put on it!


Funny how you persist in acting the ass, ck. By now, there are very
few here who doubt your status as such.


jim

ensenadajim wrote:

> Funny how you persist in acting the ass, ck. By now, there are very
> few here who doubt your status as such.

How presumptuous of you to speak for others! I am appalled!

So, how many of you taconeros are together on this issue? Can I see a
show of
hands on how many want this group to be renamed "Taco Talk", instead of
alt.food.mexican-cooking?

Do not rename this group for your own use; many of us have chosen this group
for information for years. Create your own group, but don't rename this
group!

SW in AZ

On 19 Dec 2005 05:46:32 -0800, "CK" > wrote:

>
>ensenadajim wrote:
>
>> Funny how you persist in acting the ass, ck. By now, there are very
>> few here who doubt your status as such.
>
>How presumptuous of you to speak for others! I am appalled!
>
>So, how many of you taconeros are together on this issue? Can I see a
>show of
>hands on how many want this group to be renamed "Taco Talk", instead of
>alt.food.mexican-cooking?


In case the obvious went roaring past you without notice (usually
caused by one having their head up their ass) it is about your
attitude. Get it? Probably not, but there may be some hope.


jim

No doubt about it, Tamales, when made right, are a real culinary treat!
Once a friend of mine at work brought in at least 150 Tamales on a big
tray that his wife made.

They were the best I ever eaten in my life, the pork evidently cooked in
a red sauce, was just so tender, juicy, and tasty, and the Masa just
melted in your mouth, tender, moist, not dry, and hard as a rock like
some Tamales I've had.

I was eating them practically with two hands, and after eating a full
dozen, and still gorging myself, to return for another few, they were
all gone! (Evidently my buddies all must've thought the same thing) I
never seen food disappear so fast!

While I lived in Chicago, I used to frequent a good little hole in the
wall place on Blue Island called El Milagro. There, they made pretty
good Tamales also, and I'd buy a doz to take with.
Great with a bit of Salsa on top, and a beer to wash them down! Wish I
could find a place-someone down here in Southern New Mexico who makes
them like that. Mark

"CK" > wrote >
> Get real, Charlie. When did you *ever* get served a dry tamale in a sit
> down Mexican restaurant? Maybe you didn't get any mole if you bought a
> tamale off a lunch truck, but the guy who sells you a dessicated dry
> tamale out of the display case at a Mexican delicatessen will always
> ask you if you want hot sauce to put on it!

I have never been served a "dry" tamale as they have a lot of moisture in
themselves when fresh from the steamer. I have never been served a tamale
with "mole" or any sauce. I never have eaten anything from a "Mexican
delicatessen" what ever that is! Nor have I eaten a tamale from a lunch
truck. When eating tamales at a restaurant or at home, they are always
served plain. I have never been asked if I want "hot sauce".

I use a tamale as part if my test for any new Mexican restaurant I try. If
they can do a good tamale it is a good indicator for me. Again, you are very
presumptious in your assertion that you know my eating habits.

Why not try to be a good person and play nice. The recipes you have posted
have been very interesting though lacking in attribution which bothers me.
If you contributed in a polite way you might be an excellent contributer to
this group.

Charlie

Mark D wrote:
> No doubt about it, Tamales, when made right, are a real culinary treat!
> Once a friend of mine at work brought in at least 150 Tamales on a big
> tray that his wife made.
>
> They were the best I ever eaten in my life, the pork evidently cooked in
> a red sauce, was just so tender, juicy, and tasty, and the Masa just
> melted in your mouth, tender, moist, not dry, and hard as a rock like
> some Tamales I've had.
>
> I was eating them practically with two hands, and after eating a full
> dozen, and still gorging myself, to return for another few, they were
> all gone! (Evidently my buddies all must've thought the same thing) I
> never seen food disappear so fast!
>
> While I lived in Chicago, I used to frequent a good little hole in the
> wall place on Blue Island called El Milagro. There, they made pretty
> good Tamales also, and I'd buy a doz to take with.
> Great with a bit of Salsa on top, and a beer to wash them down! Wish I
> could find a place-someone down here in Southern New Mexico who makes
> them like that.

When I visit CHI I eat Mexican every day. Seems like there are a
hundred little "hole in the wall" places where you can get a great
burrito with even greater salsas. Still, Southern NM neans great food.
http://www.nmchili.com/hatch_chile_fest.htm
Heck, all of NM means great food.

> Mark

--Bryan