Tamales

I was fortunate enough over the weekend to make tamales with my grandma! I've always wanted to know how to make them because they are so good. They have been a family tradition passed down from when she was a child, and I wanted to learn so I can keep the recipe in the family and not let it die.

When I go to Mexican restaurants I don't think I've seen tamales on the menu, except for Las Golandrinas, which is where we usually purchase them from around Christmas time. I can understand why many restaurants might not make them is because they are very time consuming. My grandma told me that her mother would make everything from scratch, even down to the chili powders, and because of this it could take a few days just to get all the ingredients ready. It was her job, and the other kids in the family to go to different farms to collect the ingredients such as corn stalks, cheese, and chilies.

She started the beef boiling a little before I arrived at her house at 10am, and we worked all day long (including making a trip to the Mexican market). I left about 5pm and we had only steamed half of what we made, and we wrapped at least 100 tamales. So, you can see that was at least 7 hours and we didn't even cook them all up! We had over 12lbs of beef and 20lbs of masa (corn dough). Not mention a variety of powered chilies, whole chiles, red and green sauce, cheese, and hojas (Corn husks).

I'll show you some pictures, but as for the recipe, I think I'll keep that one in the family.