pictures of the tamales I made

[htc]

Hi all, I finally made a batch of tamales. Here's how it turned out (pretty good, I thought)...

Up close shot.

Tamale unwrapped.

Evidence that I actually helped make it.

Here is a pic of the head chef. He rated the tamales a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. 10 being how his Mom makes them. I was very happy with how they turned out, as I've only had them at a rest. and those weren't good. I actually liked these tamales they weren't dry and hard like the first time I ate a tamale.

I had a blast and would love to make tamales again. Though not by myself, man, it's a lot of work!

 

[Lugaru]

Congratz! Tamales is one of those things where it's not easy to make so for you to get a 5 on the scale of ten instead of corn mush or corn rocks wrapped in husks is actually great. Tamales is totally one of those things that are 100% technique so no cookbook will give you exelent ones, just practice. Personally I want to start making them (at least my first few really bad batches) but they kinda scare me due to my confined kitchen space and all that.

Btw out of all the tamale recipies you saw which one did you end up choosing?

 

[thumpershere2]

Good going HTC, never made them myself. Guess i wouldn't know where to start.

 

[htc]

Lugaru, we didn't use any of the recipes. My friend was head chef so I just followed him. We bought fresh masa from a place in town that makes tortillas, etc. They said it already had lard in it. So we brought it home, my friend mixed some stock in it . For the filling he made some sort of salsa w/ dried chilies and mixed it into shredded chicken that had already been poached. Then we assembled the tamales.

He had an interesting way of assembling, he didn't tie it. but rather just folded it on the end.

Lugaru, you should just go ahead and make it! I have a TINY kitchen, it was cramped but with organization it wasn't too bad. BTW, this was his first attempt at making a batch w/o the supervision of a Mom or Auntie.

One of the reasons my friend gave it low marks was because a couple of the tamales stuck a bit to the wrapper. He thought that there wasn't that much lard in the masa, so next time we buy this,I think he will end up putting a bit more fat in. For someone who usually doesn't like tamales (me and DH), we thought they were great.