I need to get my hands on Tamales!

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Since we moved to Japan we have been slowly teaching ourselves how to make what me miss from living in San Diego for so long. After a lot of experimentation we are finding that the flavors we love so much are not from any elaborate spicing but are in fact from some simple and sometimes unsuspected ingredients.

If a carpetbagger and his Washington State wife can make Tamales that make our Mexican friends go "omnomnom", I am sure you can too. I can send you a recipe when I get home.

+1, my wife is Colombian and we were looking for ingredients to make tamales for a long time, finaly, we use Italian corn flour (polenta), French salted bacon, canned chick peas and buy banana tree leafs at a Chinese grocer.
We make a lot of tamales that we freeze and we just reheat them with steam before eating it with a hot chocolate.

 

[David in Boston]

If you haven't hit up Broadway for South American food....do it, often

You really can't go wrong with any of places around there from my experience, but I eat at Maya Sol once a week with some friends so I am partial to there.

I haven't had any of the Brazilian BBQ/buffets around there yet, but that is my next move.

Great, reasonably priced food in Somerville.

Chris,

Just finished lunch. Had four tamales from Maya Sol. Two were chicken and two were corn. Liked the chicken but the corn ones were awful. Right now I'm finishing up with a pint of Cherry Garcia ice cream.

I will go back for the chicken tamales.

 

[Leche]

If you like tamales and live in SoCal you have to make it out to Indio, CA for the annual Tamale Festival. It's insane. Usually the first week of December.
http://www.tamalefestival.net/

 

[aodenkou]

I was just in Sam's Club - and they had some Tamales back in the meat section. I picked up a pack and zapped a couple in the microwave. They were "ok" not th e best but not bad. They were made in TX someplace. I forgot to get the name before I pitched the outer bag in the trash and it's gone.

But they were in a clear plastic bag, corn husk and all - and a bit greasy. I put most in zip lock bags and will pop them out as needed.

All in all not to bad - but homemade would be much better - but then again they were better than I have had in a number of restaurants.

 

[Austin]

All in all not to bad - but homemade would be much better - but then again they were better than I have had in a number of restaurants.

Homemade are always better. Abuelita made some of the best in the planet. I miss that dear lady.

 

[Luc]

Great links up here.

I usually take my Rick Bayless cookbook to make mine.

 

[chris456]

Cool, if you like plantains and chicharron they make both pretty well there. The steak nacho's are also a favorite. I would recommend the taco's also.

Chris

Chris,

Just finished lunch. Had four tamales from Maya Sol. Two were chicken and two were corn. Liked the chicken but the corn ones were awful. Right now I'm finishing up with a pint of Cherry Garcia ice cream.

I will go back for the chicken tamales.

 

[David in Boston]

Had another four chicken tamales on Saturday.

Life is good.

 

[aodenkou]

I have to vote for a bit more practice on making your own. http://www.sonofthesouth.net/tamales/Tamale_Recipe.htm gives you some very good pics on how to make them. http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/tamales-recipe.html has some good pics as well. There are a lot of places on the web giving various recipes, and the thing about learning to make them yourself is you can spice them to your taste and not someone elses taste.

Just think about it how hard can it be to make these things? I make them every once in a while and each time they get a bit better. But, I have yet to get the taste from a tamale that I remember as a kid in Evansville IN where they would sell them from a cart at night. They had a spice I have not been able to figure out even after 50 years! Oh and they were not wrapped in corn husks but plastic wrap! I have have tried that and it works quite well, I can freeze them without extra steps because of the wrap!

Well I had a BIG success the other day. It started with an episode of "Good Eats" and he was doing homemade flour tortillas. The thing that caught my attention was that he used lard and (I don't have this 100%) but lard used occasionally was not that bad for you and - if I remember correctly - was to some extent better for you than butter. Don't remember all of what he said.....

Anyway I was at a local Mexican restaurant had Tamale and I was asked how I liked them. Well, being honest said I thought they were heavy compared to what I remember as a kid. Not light and fluffy and missed the taste they had when I was a kid.

Here is where it got interesting, he said you have to use lard to get the flavor and to heat the lard first to get it to a light brown and to use Chile Guajillo and Ancho. Soooooooo as the lard was at the last bit of browning (I needed to let it go a bit more and did not) I added about a tsp. of Guajillo to the lard and let it infuse the lard. Then I used that in the recipe on the side of "Maseca corn masa for tamales" that I got at WalMart. For the filling I used a recipie for Chorizo I found on the web. http://www.mexican-barbecue-recipes.com/chorizo-recipe.html (Chorizo Autentico) I used the Guajillo chili rather than the Chilies listed and cut down the amount because I wanted my wife to have them as well I mixed the spices first and tasted before I mixed it into the pork mixture, then let it sit for about an hour.

Now to add one more twist I did not use corn husks but plastic wrap, as they had done when I was a kid.

These were just about as close to flavor and texture to the ones I had when I was a kid. They were just plain good, and I have to say in all humility better than any I have had in a restaurant. I made a red sauce with Ancho Chile and topped the Tamale with this sauce and a bit of Mexican cheese and I ate way too many.

I had some left over, so a zip lock bag and the freezer solved that problem. I need a quick lunch, so I zapped one for 1 min in the microwave and they were still good.

Now I think I just have one more thing to try before I end my search for the tamale of my youth - I will try to brown the lard a bit more (sort of like browning butter - that color) the next time I make them and add just a bit more Guajillo chili to the masa mix. I "think" I will then have a recipe that is just about 98% perfected. OK, I may have a tweak here and there but not much, I will give myself 2% for improvement.