Friday, March 7, 2014

Tamales Part One: Not Tah-Mail, it's Tah-Molly!

Quote du Jour
      Do you want to make a tamale with peanut butter and jelly? Go ahead! 

      Somebody will eat it.  ~ Bobby Flay

Be honest, now...
How did you first pronounce Tamale? 
I remember one of my children sounding out the word Tamale. Using the "it's a long vowel when followed by one consonant then an 'e' " rule...well, tamale became tay-mail. To this day I think of that pronunciation when I see the word Tamale.

My first batch were 
Not so hot Tamales
My first batch of 20 tamales turned out pretty well, but were much too mild for the likes of my husband. Next time I need to amp up the chili flavors and the heat.

Since I'd never made Tamales before, I did some internet research, looked at Wikipedia, watched several YouTube tutorials, which were mostly in Spanish, and scanned countless traditional recipes. Links to these sources are below.


My first batch of Tamales tasted too bland, but they were fun to make. 
They look somewhat Asian!
Lots of parts, but
Simple to make
Truthfully, they're pretty simple. What takes time is making animal-based fillings the traditional way, if using (and I am not) (you guessed that, I bet) then stuffing and tying the cornhusks. 

Working with cornhusks surprisingly enjoyable - something about the tying and making it look neat, gives a certain satisfaction of a job well done.

As I was tying the cornhusks, it occurred to me how many other cuisines cook items the same way: stuffed grape leaves, en papillote (parchment paper), or banana leaves, etc.

Tamales: A Mesoamerican Food
Wikipedia provides the history of tamales which can be traced back 8,000 years. Tamales were a "portable food" made with a cornflour dough - masa - filled with meat or vegetables which have been cooked in a flavored sauce, wrapped in a corn husk, then steamed until firm. 

The original Tamales had no added fat (lard)
The Aztecs did not add any fat (lard or shortening) as is done today. 

Looking through several YouTube Tamale making videos, I'm surprised at how often a cup+ of melted lard is poured into a perfectly delicious pot of beans. Why? I don't think it's needed at all!

A delightful true oral-history-type story
Feed
To feed their hogs, the young men of a very enterprising and hard-working family would get up at 4 am every morning, and head into the closest big city to pick up food waste from several big restaurants.

The food waste was separated into 3 groups, and fed to the hogs according to their age/need

  1. Vegetables: piglets
  2. American food (burgers, etc.): growth
  3. Mexican food: fatten up
Which came first, the lard or the hog?
I hadn't thought of Mexican food as "fattening up" food, until seeing lard poured into pots of beans, etc., in the YouTube videos.

Win-win
Hogware
Any knives, forks and spoons found in the food waste was returned to the restaurants. Many a fine restaurant meal was enjoyed by the family as gifts from thankful restaurant owners...who didn't have to keep replacing table ware that was accidentally tossed out.

Here are a Couple of YouTube Tutorials
The little girl narrating this video is adorable: How to Make Tamales

A Unesco 10:00 video,  Traditional Cuisine of Mexico will teach you more than a few things about the peoples of Mexico, definitely worth watching.

Coming Soon
Plant-based Tamales Recipe
I think I'll try the peanut-butter and jelly tamale, thank you!

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