Welcome to Elisa's Blogosphere!: Tamales, tamales & more tamales!

A couple of weeks ago, I presented to Liz the idea of making tamales - again, to have at Christmas. Although every year since we've made them, I've swore never to do it again, I promise I will probably keep to my plan for next year.

We got together this past Saturday at her place to do this madness that quite frankly has become somewhat of a tradition. I remember growing up when mom used to make us help her when she made them, that I hated it with everything in me so honestly I cannot believe I would be THE ONE suggesting we do this exhausting meal.

We did things a little different this year which actually helped a whole lot. Instead of waiting until the day off to cook everything, I cooked the pork on Friday night and Liz took care of the beans. We put the chicken to cook while we got started.

The fun began at exactly 12:30 p.m. I seriously attempted to keep everything real simple with still some complexity to it since we still were making 3 different types of tamales instead of say, one.

Well, I suppose it was around maybe 4:30 or so when we (Liz, Erica - who by this time had shown up to help - ready to pop a baby out, and myself) decided to take a break and get some nutrition into our systems to continue the tamale making trend. Ruth was kind enough to bring us some chicken and after about 30 minutes or so, it was back to business.

Lala, my sister-in-law showed up to bring AJ to play with the other kiddos and ended up staying to help out as well. It actually worked out that she did because she also helped us cook some of the tamales that were made to see how they turned out. You see, you'd seriously think the hard part to tamale making is getting everything together and making them, BUT for Liz and I, the trick has been in figuring out how to cook them. What you basically do with a tamal is steam it. I know as simple as that may sound, it has become quite a feat for the both of us.

Anyways, I guess it was around 8 or so and we took yet another much needed break to eat some of our nice and warm tamales. I must admit, they turned out pretty yummy - a little on the "hot" spicy side thanks to a salsa mix we added to the meat and chicken - especially the chicken, and the beans, but overall they were pretty good.

After our little break, Liz and I continued the trek and at around 11 p.m., yes, 11 at night, I suggested to Liz we call it a day. You see I had been up since 4 a.m. that morning to be in Plano and after making those tamales, this little woman was worn out - BEAT.

We decided to finish off the last dozen to complete the task. We still had some masa and pork meat left, but at this point I told Liz for all I cared it could go in the trash - NOT ONE MORE TAMAL would be made.

Can you believe how many dozens we ended up with? Guess....okay since I know you won't because you are probably thinking like 5, I'll spill.

40! Yes you are reading right.....40 dozen tamales. That = 480 tamales.

Now I don't know about you, but this is wild although 20 dozen less wild than last years tamale making - we set a record at 60 dozen.

Anyway, I decided when we started this little adventure, I would take some snaps of the process along the way so that you peeps that have no clue what all it takes to make a tamal, learn, and the next time you pop one of those into your mouth in 2 bites, you stop to think of poor us and all the hard work it actually involves - well, this is if your not some huge company that has the help of industrial machines!

This is the very beginning of the process, making the masa that will basically constitute a tamal. Ingredients (artery clogging, but good nonetheless): maseca, lard, boiling hot water, salt, and chili powder to give the masa the red color.

This is the masa once you've mixed everything together. Like the cooking of the tamales, this is the other hard part of this whole ordeal, finding the right consistency of ingredients to make it just right - not too mushy and of course not hard so that you can "roll" the tamal up.

This is the little "bun" to make 1 tamal. If you will notice, it is resting on a little gadget called a "tortillera" which translates to tortilla maker. I think we are only a few families that use a tortillera to make tamales. Most people will "spread" the masa directly unto the corn husk. I can't tell you were my mother got the idea to use a tortillera, but that's just the way we grew up making them - kind of helps make the tamale look "pretty."

A little "thump" to help it get pressed.

This is the tamal once it has been pressed by the tortillera and of course the beans as the stuffing to make the tamal. If you will notice, the beans are off to one side and what you'll do after this is basically roll the tamal into a little straw of sorts.

The next step is to place the finished tamal on the corn husk to serve as the outer layer in preparation for cooking. Of the entire process, this is what I had to help with when my mother made tamales. I will confess that all I had to do was sit there and hold the corn husk when she placed the tamal and then roll it up and stack it, but seriously, after 80 dozens, even this would wear me out.

This would be our little stack. Along the way we'd pack tamales by the dozen, as obviously if we attempted to leave them (all 480) stacked in one pile, we'd have a big mess.

This part here is a little out of place as far as my pics go, but nonetheless, this is the part where I'm grinding the pork meat using yes, a grinder so that we can place it into the tamal. The grinder is not the one we usually use which is the one that belonged to my mom, but I think after this year, that little "molinito" will be retired - it was giving me way too much trouble on Saturday. I'll keep it as a memory of my mother and her tamale making tradition.