About a month ago I got a bee in my bonnet and decided to make tamales for the first time. I’ve talked about it for years, trying to get someone else who had already done it to help me, but as usual my destiny seems to be all about DIY so I finally went for it. Also typical of me, I didn’t just start with making one variety, I had to make 3 different ones.

I am happy to report that I learned a lot and the tamales were quite tasty. Many thanks to my daughter Ella who helped me with rolling the first batches and to my friend Kim who agreed to come over and make tamales with me. Even though Kim and I have cooked together before she is still brave enough to come over and be part of my over reaching plans.

I started my research on tamale recipes online. Then I turned to this cookbook

that I discovered via Naomi Andrade-Smith’s blog. If you are interested in traditional Mexican cooking, dishes and flavors this is the one cook book you should have.

In preparation for the tamalada I bought some masa harina

lots of dried chiles, mushrooms, jack cheese, poblano chiles, dried corn husks, AND a pork shoulder roast and lard from Bob’s Quality Meats in Columbia City. They are really nice people and they have any kind of meat or meat product you could think of or want. If they don’t have it they can probably get it for you. When I was there a man came in and purchased some head cheese and I learned about leaf lard while I waited for my order. I have used lard in my cooking before but it was the sterile store bought kind that is on the grocery store shelf near the Crisco.

The lard from the butcher shop was a completely different thing. Even when refrigerated its consistency was that of slightly softened butter. The smell of the lard was quite rich and strong and at first Ella was a little put off by it.

I had already made the red chile pork filling the day before.

Despite some moments of doubt during the cooking process, I was really pleased with the way the pork turned out. Just like the tamales I used to get in Tucson. With Kim’s help I prepared a mushroom, onion, garlic and tomato filling mixture as well. Preparing for the cheese and chile tamales was probably the easiest part – just roast, peel, seed and slice poblanos and cut the cheese into sticks. I used the same kind of tamale dough for all three kinds of tamales.

Next, it was time to roll and steam the tamales. The rolling goes rather quickly – it’s the preparation and the steaming that take some time.

Before steaming:

After steaming for a little over an hour:

At the end of the day we had made 63 tamales, many of which we gave away to two new moms. My husband said the tamales were the best he ever had. I said “That’s just because they’re so fresh”. He laughed and said “Oh yeah, it couldn’t be because you are a good cook.”