Making Tamales

Today my neighbor Luisa showed me how to make tamales. It was quite a process and I’m certain I could not repeat it alone but it was really fun learning from her and working along side her. (I do find it a tad amusing that during our two winters in Mexico I never learned to make them, but I’m happy to be learning now.)

Here’s what we did:

Yesterday we went to La Tapatía, a Mexican grocery store in Portland, and she picked out the ingredients I would need. Chicken, chilies, tomatillos, onion, garlic, anise, and masa of course. 

Last night we cooked the chicken in a large pot with a few garlic cloves and half an onion. After it was cooked, I removed it, shredded it, and put it in the fridge. The broth also went in the fridge to use the next day to make the dough, but since it needs to be cold, it makes more sense to do it the night before.

This morning I placed the corn husks that my neighbor had given me into a bowl of hot water so they would soften.

She arrived around 9:45 in the morning and we started on the salsa. 

We removed the husks from the tomatillos and boiled them in a small pot of water with some seasoning. Then we set the pot outside to cool before straining and saving the liquid.

At the same time we boiled the tomatillos and the green chiles in a large pot of water and once cooked, we removed them from the water and blended them up in the blender. Then we poured the green salsa into a pan a cooked it with some oil.

Luisa made the masa dough by hand, adding liquid and stirring, first with a spoon and then later by hand until it was the perfect consistency. I should also add that we would periodically taste test the ingredients to make sure they had the right amount of flavor.

After all the ingredients were prepared it was time to assemble the tomales. We had planned to do this step outside on a large folding table but it started raining (June in a Oregon 🙄) so we squeezed everything onto my kitchen counter instead.

She worked much faster than me but eventually we got them all filled and placed in a large double boiler pot. The final step was to cover them with a plastic bag, and then the lid, and let them steam for about an hour.

A very long process indeed but the result was delicious! I gave them to everyone I could think of and still have a bunch left over. 

Thanks Luisa!