12/14/09

9 A Family Tamale Tradition

Tamales are traditional around Christmas time, especially for my friend of Comemos, Let's Eat and her extended family.

She called me one day last week and invited me to be part of her family tradition.  I was so honored!

Here, she is thanking her dear friend, a French chef who teaches classes at this facility, and the owners, who are standing behind her.

What is fabulous about this place is the amount of space and the large stainless steel tables that were available for tamale assembly.
Everyone, cousins, uncles, aunts, grandma and granpa pitched in and helped.  I love this shot of the boys on one side...

A group of girls on the other side...
Here is one of the aunts, checking to see which side of the corn husk to place the masa.  It should always be put on the 'smooth' side of the husk.  Each family brought their own pork, while my friend bought the rest of the supplies.

Let's check and see how the boys are doing.  They seem to have the hang of it...just the right amount of meat on top of the masa!  Excellent job, boys!

The girls are doing great, as well, arranging the folded tamales on a baking sheet.

Even this youngster has the process down~  look at that beautiful tamale!

I just love this picture.  Grandpa, grandson, my hubby and good friend.  All making tamales and having a great time ~
Each family was asked to bring five tamales to the steamer to cook.  We couldn't wait to taste it...

Here's a young tamale chef in training...mixing up the masa and chicken broth.

Yummy ~ the tamales are steamed and ready to eat!

Grandpa is first in line to test out this melt-in-your mouth goodness ~  all the tamales are quickly eaten up and several are given to our kitchen facilities owner and French chef friend.
With so many people willing to help, cleaning up was done in only a short time...

Gotta love a guy and a power tool!

The tamales are easily steamed and then frozen for future quick meals.   This is a wonderful tradition and I was so glad to be a part of it.        Thank you!
Pork Tamale Recipe
 

There is still time to enter in the Pillsbury Crescent Rolls & Holiday Plates giveaway...enter here!








9 comments:

  1. I've never made tamales but I really want to! Looks like so much fun. I will try to come up with a veggie version:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maria, let me know how your veggie version turns out and share ~ Ü

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a fun tradition and how cool that your friend invited you to participate! They look delish!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've been wanting to make tamales, what a good idea getting lots of help!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Many hands make light work! What a great tradition and it looks like everyone really enjoyed themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  6. How neat! I've never made tamales either. Sounds like fun. Glad you were able to share in the tradition. Thanks for sharing with us.

    ReplyDelete
  7. How fun! I bet they would taste good smothered in your enchilada sauce.;)
    (I don't know if that's allowed with tamales...but you know how much I like your enchilada sauce!)Anyway, that French chef sure looks like someone I took classes from a few years ago. Her name is Victoria, but she was from Switzerland and not France. Looks just like her!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cindi, we used homemade enchilada sauce on the pork and used them in the tamales. They were amazing!

    You are RIGHT!! That is Victoria, and pardon my goof, she is from Switzerland. She commented on how lard is better than shortening because your body can process it more naturally. She is one smart lady~

    ReplyDelete
  9. So that is Victoria! I haven't seen her for a few years. I just love her! She IS a smart lady. Very knowledgeable about food. She is absolutely right about shortening being bad. It's hydrogenated. Lard is natural, but it freaks out a lot of people! I learned a lot about nutrition in the classes I took at her home. Just ask her about sugar! It's not good at all for our bodies...wish I could stay away from it! It was sure fun seeing her on your blog!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Pin It button on image hover