High Rises to Hiking Boots: The Inner Secrets of Tamales

Last month I went back to Houston for a friend's wedding and to visit my family. While I was there, mom and I decided to try tamale-making for a second time. I've been perfecting the art of tamales here in El P with my best friend A. Mom has only made tamales one other time and we deemed it a 'learning experience".

Now I wanted to try some new recipes because I've been asked to give a cooking class for the Vegetarian Society of El Paso focusing on vegan tamales. Some of you might be thinking "what the F--- are vegan tamales!?" while others may be wondering "what the F are tamales?!" Tamales are amazing Latin American comfort foods! Anything you desire can be mixed with cornmeal and wrapped in a corn husk (recycling!) for steaming. I didn't truly understand the desire for tamales until I was almost 30, but for the last 4 years I've been a tamale-eating machine. I've even bought tamales out of the trunk of an old Mexican lady's car in a supermarket parking lot in Joshua Tree, CA. True Story...

This is my chosen tamale-making guide. I love it!

So I decided that I should document the process along the way to help me with my cooking class this coming spring... and if I can kill 2 birds by also blogging about it, rock on!

First you need to let the cornhusks soak for a bit, say 30 minutes. Don't buy cornhusks from your local English-speaking grocery. Head over to the nearest Spanish-speaking market and pick up all your ingredients.

Cooking our ingredients...

Roasting some green chiles...

Most recipes will call for lard but I'm using Crisco to keep these guys vegan. Ask me sometime about my mother dropping this huge heavy Crisco can on my little girl toes. Only one nail came off and I forgave her once I was able to walk without a limp again. I relive this moment every time I pick up a Crisco can. :-) Hi mom!

Now I forgot to take a picture of the masa we were using. Masa is the cornmeal used for all tamales. Again, Spanish-speaking grocery (la tienda), not English-speaking grocery. I guess you could make your masa from scratch but really... what decade is this?! I'm cool with store-bought masa.

Mix the veggies and chopped green
chiles, simmer and let cool

Whipped shortening looks like
whipped cream but tastes terrible!

You'll also need a large steamer for steaming - in El P we use A's big turkey roaster. It is perfect! Alas, in Houston we had to create our own thing. Introducing the recycled tamale steamer! We needed to make a space between the water at the bottom of the pan and our little roaster thing (not seen).

Nothing says "Texas" like a football
Dr Pepper can... and nothing says "Kristi"
like a Pepsi can.

Alright, now we assemble the tamales...

Spreading masa onto open corn husk. I use a spatula
because they're bendy.

Cheese or vegan cheese - it goes on top of your veggies

There are many ways to roll but I chose this one for my
vegan tamales. Even added a little bow to hold the thing closed.

And if a bow doesn't work, say Fuck It! and
use ye ole traditional rubber bands.

Here's mom rolling her tamales. Did I mention that this
is a group activity? Making tamales solo would require way
too much wine and boredom. Get some friends or relatives
and have a tamale-making day!

Except for grandma.. grandmas doesn't do
tamales. She's never even had a tamale. In her
defense, she's German. I bet there's a
saurkraut tamale out there somewhere.

Stand the tamales upright in the steamer
so they don't spill out...

The cans are doing their job!

We also decided to try some dessert tamales... I've got dark chocolate tamales in my freezer right now and they are amazing! However, on this day we tried pineapple for my dad who loves all things tropical.

We followed the recipe but the filling was very soupy.
On the bright side, it was pretty good to eat out of the bowl!

We decided to pour the tamale soup into a pie dish and bake
it like cornbread. It was super tasty! Even grandma tried it.

Once your tamales are out of the steamer (1 hr-ish), bag them up in freezer bags and freeze them overnight. They will last a very long time in the freezer and are great for work lunches. Just be sure to label the bags as frozen tamales offer no secrets to their contents.