Tamal Making

Photo: flickr user *Noema*

Preparation

Tamales can be an intimidating food for the beginning Mexican chef. They are time consuming and difficult to taste test and alter half way through. The good news is that there are so many variations, it's really hard to go wrong with tamales.

Here's a step by step guide through making tamales from scratch. The recipes are on separate pages-they tend to be the easy part the first time most people make tamales.

Prepare Corn Husks-Choose largest corn husks available and soak Decide whether you will make your own masa or buy it prepared.

You can use a spoon to spread the masa, shortcut with a tortilla press or use a tamale spreader made specifically for this purpose (win one here).

Follow Masa Spreader instructions, or use a spatula to evenly spread masa over corn husk. Stop spreading about 1/4 inch away from the side edges and 1/2 inch away from top and bottom edges. Spread thick or thin according to taste and recipe. Masa will expand.

Spoon approximately two teaspoons of filling in a line through middle of masa.

Fold over one side of corn husk allowing masa to drop off to cover filling.

Place the husk (now with no masa attach flat again.

Fold over opposite side overlapping the masa attached to this side with the masa just dropped.

Fold free side of husk over top.

Fold in both top and bottom ends of husk.

Place gently in steamer with folds down.

Steam 1 1/2 hours for most recipes-you will need to add water at least once to your steamer. Of course, you will need to test for doneness!

Serve wrapped in corn husks and enjoy!

Tamales are best fresh with a large group-but they can be frozen and served after reheating in a steamer.