Rusty wrote:

> I've been craving tamales for the past month. I remember as a kid
> eating Red's Tamales. Haven't seen any in years. Memories are probably
> better than their actual taste. Have recently tried some from Trader
> Joe's. They were good, but I wanted to try my hand at making homemade
> tamales.
>
> We had some left over chipotle pork that had been cooked in the slow
> cooker. I combined this with 3 cans of Stagg no bean chili. Added some
> additional chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, fresh ground pepper and
> cooking oil as a filling for the tamales. I shredded the pork and
> added some shredded chicken.
>
> I found the corn husks in the international foods section of our local
> Belair supermarket. Also found the masa corn mix in the same section.
>
> Soaked the corn husks for about 2-hours and tried to find ones that
> were not torn. The hardest part was trying to find where the split
> began on the bunch of husks. Kind of like finding the end of a piece
> of Scotch tape when it is stuck on the roll.
>
> I got the Masa part of the recipe from this website. It also shows how
> to roll, fold and steam the tamales:
>
> http://www.sonofthesouth.net/tamales/Tamale_Recipe.htm
>
> My wife had never made homemade tamales, either. We sat down together
> and rolled out about 50 of them. The masa mixture was about as thick
> as peanut butter. I used 2-pounds of dry masa to make about 50
> tamales.
>
> Steamed them for 2-hours. Wow are they good. Now I have to find the
> freezer bags for all of the extras we made.
>
> This was a fun project, but it takes some time. If you are going to do
> it, make plenty.
>
> Rusty
> Sacramento, CA

Y'all ever tried the sweet tamales? Flavored with sugar, egg, anise seed,
raisins, pineapple or nuts sometimes, might be nice with a poppy seed
filling. Last batch at Christmas I bought at new place. Not best recipe.
Dyed vicious cheery pink, flavored with coconut/milk? and lots of vanilla.
Just a little wierd. I'm thinking I'll have to learn to make my own too.
Edrena