Tamales - An Illustrated Guide

Well...almost. I forgot to take pictures of the very beginning.
First, soak pinto beans overnight until thay are plump.


Second, make the green sauce and pull all of the meat off of a cooked chicken.




Third, cook the beans and then make refried beans. Turns out pictures of refried beans are not very apetizing.

Fourth, take the corn(roasted and cut off cob this summer) out of the freezer, cut roasted peppers and cheese into strips, soak the tamale wrappers in hot water.



Fifth, make the masa. Again, not so great looking in pictures.

Sixth, enlist the help of a loved one to roll out the masa onto the now pliable tamale wrappers. We actually use paper wrappers that are a uniform size and shape - much better than actual corn husks and so much easier to work with.




Seventh, fill tamales with good stuff and roll them up. Be careful not to put too much in there!


Eighth, put tamales in a steamer pan, open side up so the filling doesn't come out.


Ninth, steam tamales for 40 minutes. Clean up the mess while they are cooking.


Tenth, BE CAREFUL - Don't try and eat one right out of the pot! They have to cool down first. No picture here - I will leave it to your imagination to picture what happens when you try and bite into a VERY HOT cheese filled tamale.

Here is the basic recipe that we use. We also use refried beans, roasted pasilla peppers, roasted corn, and extra sharp white cheddar as filling. Oh - and I made a few with cream cheese and jalapeno jelly this time - really great. We tried a batch with Crisco and a batch with lard. They have the same consistency, but the ones with lard are so much more flavorful! They are not greasy like you would imagine them to be, just fluffy corn goodness.