Seven years ago we spent the summer in Benicia. A little town in the Bay Area. Every Thursday there was a farmers market on the lower end of main street. They had pony rides for the kids and all kinds of produce from the region. There were also stands of homemade soaps and jewelry. What I enjoyed the most was the ethic booths. One sold great Indian food. Another sold uniquely flavored tortillas like pumpkin and spinach etc,, Then there was another booth that sold homemade tamales. The lady who made these tamales would wake up at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. to whip out 1 or 2 hundred tamales to sell. Even though they were a little expensive for my budget I had to try them at least once. They were delicious. It was then that I decided if this lady could make a couple hundred in a morning I could surely make 15 or 20 for my family.
I found a great website that gave me step by step instructions on how to make tamales. Rockin Robin's Cooking Mexican Recipes. http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/tamales-recipe.html
She even tells you what kind of pan to cook the tamales in.
She even tells you what kind of pan to cook the tamales in.
Of course I had to go out and buy the correct pan. And you would think that I would follow everything step for step but no not me. The recipe called for Ibarra chocolate. I had never heard of Ibarra chocolate. Ironically I was willing to go out and buy the correct steamer but it was just too much to ask to figure out where to buy Ibarra chocolate. I just used some chili sauce that I had put up the summer before and added it to the leftover pork roast we had for Sunday dinner. The tamales were a smashing success. That was five years ago. I have made various variations of tamales through out the years using leftover pork with what ever seasoning that I had used while cooking the pork. Today I had pork that I had cooked without any seasoning. I decided to look at the original recipe to see how Robin seasoned her pork. When I looked on the website at the recipe I wondered why I had thought it was hard. It looked pretty straight forward to me. Then I compared it with the recipe I had printed from the website before. In the earlier recipe Robin called for Ibarra chocolate but in this new version she has changed the recipe. She has replaced the chocolate with cinnamon. I meshed both the old and new version and used cocoa powder and cinnamon, and it was fabulous.
Putting the tamales together is pretty easy and fun to do.
They cook in the steamer for an hour and a half so this really is a meal that needs to be planned ahead.
They are well worth the time. Check out Robin's website for great instructions. Your family will be impressed. http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/tamales-recipe.html. Robin has no idea that I have written this post.