INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

NONE
I've made tamales a couple times before and find that the masa you can get
at, for example, Super K to be quite usuable. It comes in a large plastic
bag and is ready to go with just a snip of the scissors.
First, I get a small package of dried corn husks and let them soak in water
until they are pliable.
Meanwhile, I get a good cut of beef, steam until able to shred easily, or
you can saute small pieces of beef in water or tomato sauce (keep juicy)
with chopped onions, hot peppers, sprinkle of garlic salt, cilantro,
pimento or a touch of red sweet pepper, or any other flavoring you like.
Saute until very soft. If you steam or boil your meat instead, saute the
other ingrediants on the side to be ready.
Mix all if not mixed. It should have a creamy consistancy--easy to bite
into with no large chunks.
Take you softened husk, lay it with the curly part up (husks have an inside
and an outside by how they grew on the plant), thinly layer the masa
inside, then spoon in a good (but not too much) of the meat mixture. If you
used red chile, you might want to also include a black olive. If you've
used green chile, you might want to also include a green olive.
Now here's a little bit of a difficult part, and it doesn't work if you've
overfilled. Turn up the bottom of the filled leaf over the mixture about
1/3 of the way. Coat that exposed underleaf with more masa (but not the
meat. the meat is done.) Turn in one side of the leaf over the meat
mixture. coat that exposed underside with masa. Turn over other side of the
leaf. Don't coat that. [You can turn down the top inside, but we prefer to
leave ours open on top.]
Now for the steaming. It's really easy if you have one of those chinese
bamboo layered steamers, the kind that look like a wooden column in several
layers going up. you just place all your raw tamales inside (I lean the
tops of mine against the inside rim then keep placing getting closer to the
centr until each layer is covered. It's just important that the mixture
doesn't come out the open end if you left it open.) Continue until all
tamales are inside. Them place whole steamer unit over a large open-top pot
of steaming water. I use my big wok. As the tamales steam, you need to add
more water to the Wok/pot.
That's it! Not hard at all, especially since you got the ready made masa.
Tamales freeze well, so you can go to the mess once for several meals.
Serve with salsa or whatever.
Just remember that well-cooked meat (juicy and flaky) with tastey seasoning
makes the tamale. Yum.
Kasin Hunter. Art/writing/gourds/chiles/adventure link:
http://www.geocities.com/~kasinhunter
Recipe by: Kasin Hunter. Art/writing/gourds/chiles/adventure
By "The Meades" <kmeade@idsonline.com> on Jun 14, 1998, converted by
MM_Buster v2.0l.

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