I made about 2 dozen tamales the other night as I helped my son (the professional cook) learn how to make the little beauties. I laid the tamales in the steamer in a layer, then stacked another layer on top but facing perpendicular to the first layer, then did the same with a third and fourth layer. I steamed them for 20 minutes and had 16 tamales done.
Do you need to cook all of them, or can some be frozen for future meals?
Additional note: I rolled my tamales in parchement paper instead of corn husks. It works wonderfully and lets go of the tamales like none other. Plus, I don't have to soak the parchment paper. After all, you don't eat the corn husks, so why not use an easier wrapper? Of course, when you are trying to show off your cooking skills, the husk wrapped tamales are fancier, at least until the tamales are unwrapped. But when you unwrap the tamales wrapped in parchment paper, you get these beautiful, tubular tamales with the filling all nice and even inside. Bonus - corn husks are a seasonal thing. Parchment paper is available year round.
Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
