I haven’t made tamales in 15 years. Let me rephrase that…. I have only made tamales once in my life in 2001. Sure, when I was young, I would assist in the preparations. But being young and inept in the kitchen, my job was to wash the hojas. Maybe, I would be put in the assembly line, adding the olive. That was my tamale-making experience.
It was in 2001, a girlfriend of mine and I decided to undertake tamale making. I was in Central Illinois. We were both ‘low man on the corporate totem pole,’ neither of us would be going home for Christmas that year.
My Abuela, mom and aunts would take a whole day making the tamales. But we were young, efficient, modern women. It shouldn’t take us more than a couple of hours, right? So my friend Maria came over after work and we got started. We had a lot of nuanced debates. Beef? We are making them with beef?! No you have to put more masa in that. An Olive?! What do you mean you put an olive?!
We were done at 3 a.m. And I learned a very important lesson. I don’t remember the lesson because I was so exhausted, but I had gotten the cockiness kicked out of me.
The tamales were good but different from what I was used to. (Which is bound to happen when you try to meld your family receipt with someone else’s.) Maria eventually took some to her mother who was so very proud of her. I ended up giving most of mine away to unsuspecting white folks who had never seen such a thing, but seemed to enjoy them.
Fast forward to 2016, and I feel this need to make Tamales. Now I have kids of my own, and it just seems like the responsible thing to do.
But I am not feeding a tribu of family members, so emerges my hipster-melding-with –traditional-culture.
Small Batch Artisan Tamales
I present to you Small Batch Artisan Tamales. In my last year of learning to cook, a couple of times I have found myself thinking…. This would be good in a tamale. So here was my tamale selection:
For dessert – Sweet Tamales
The standard with Abuela was adding sugar to the masa and a can of crushed pineapple and raisins. I worked on making it fancier.
It was in 2001, a girlfriend of mine and I decided to undertake tamale making. I was in Central Illinois. We were both ‘low man on the corporate totem pole,’ neither of us would be going home for Christmas that year.
My Abuela, mom and aunts would take a whole day making the tamales. But we were young, efficient, modern women. It shouldn’t take us more than a couple of hours, right? So my friend Maria came over after work and we got started. We had a lot of nuanced debates. Beef? We are making them with beef?! No you have to put more masa in that. An Olive?! What do you mean you put an olive?!
We were done at 3 a.m. And I learned a very important lesson. I don’t remember the lesson because I was so exhausted, but I had gotten the cockiness kicked out of me.
The tamales were good but different from what I was used to. (Which is bound to happen when you try to meld your family receipt with someone else’s.) Maria eventually took some to her mother who was so very proud of her. I ended up giving most of mine away to unsuspecting white folks who had never seen such a thing, but seemed to enjoy them.
Fast forward to 2016, and I feel this need to make Tamales. Now I have kids of my own, and it just seems like the responsible thing to do.
But I am not feeding a tribu of family members, so emerges my hipster-melding-with –traditional-culture.
Small Batch Artisan Tamales
I present to you Small Batch Artisan Tamales. In my last year of learning to cook, a couple of times I have found myself thinking…. This would be good in a tamale. So here was my tamale selection:
- Traditional pork: I dug out the instructions I got from my Abuela. They are very cryptic, “Now add the chile” but it doesn’t say how much. There is always an element to winging it in old receipts, but they turn out good.
- Pot Roast: Making a traditional pot roast, and then stuffing it into the masa. It would be the same as taking a pot roast and serving on a bed of polenta. Except now I have found a way to make pot roast portable!
- BBQ pork: hmmm… Why not! My brother and I did the taste test. It was surprisingly delicious. But something was missing. This is not a tamale that you can eat by itself. It really begs to be served on a bed of baked beans.
For dessert – Sweet Tamales
The standard with Abuela was adding sugar to the masa and a can of crushed pineapple and raisins. I worked on making it fancier.
- Caramelized Pineapple: I ditched the can and opted for the real thing. But first, I caramelized the pineapple, which made them super tasty with a freshness and crunch.
- Banana Nut Bread: Adding mashed bananas and pecans. They tasted like a stockier version of Banana Nut Bread.
- Peanut Butter & Jelly: I did these at Tim’s suggestion. I made two small samples, one using peanut powered, one using creamy peanut butter. Then I filled them with store-bought strawberry jam. The ones with the peanut powder where a fail. Not enough peanut taste. The ones with peanut butter where better, but no quite right. I think the key may be to use all natural peanut butter and homemade jam.