Normales

My heritage is Norwegian and mutt. My dad's family has been here for quite some time. To my knowledge my maternal grandfathers family has been here for a long time too. But my maternal grandmother, was a first generation American. Her parents immigrated from Norway. I spent the first almost 9 years of my life living in San Diego, in Mira Mesa to be exact. Mira Mesa has a large Filipino population and of course being that close to the border, there is a large Mexican influence. I grew up getting to enjoy a VERY diverse menu! When we moved to Our small town, we lost the Filipino influence in our cuisine, but the Mexican influence became somewhat . . . stronger. Over the years one of my favorite Mexican foods has become Tamales. But they are not common, most people don't make them and if you buy them you can expect to pay at least $1 each. Always the economist, I decided that if I can grow and preserve my own food then surely I could make tamales! I will say this, of all the adventures in the kitchen that I've taken, this one worried me the most. Tamales are one of those things that are either SO good or SO bad. There really isn't middle ground. Being a Norwegian kid, I was a little anxious. So I did my homework (thank you bing search!) and found recipe's and tips.

I started by making my meat. I knew, in all reality this was going to take the longest amount of time. I took a large chuck roast and put it in my crock pot fully submerged. I left it on all day and let it cook till it was falling apart. I then made a red sauce. Let me tell you, the smartest thing I did during my tamale adventure was I tasted my red sauce before I added my meat. It was NOT good! So I threw away my red sauce (so much for the recipe on sauces I found). I started to think about flavors I like and went from there. I took a large can of green enchilada sauce, a medium white onion and two cans of diced green chili's. It smelled good so I added my meat. I let it slow cook on my stove top for about an hour or so. This allowed the flavors to really soak in! While my meat was slow cooking (again) I made my masa.

When I told people that I made tamales their first question was "difficult huh?" Me, "um, not so much. Way easier than canning 35 quart jars of pumpkin!" Their second question was "where did you get your masa from?" Me, "I made my own" them "what! Really?!" The answer was yes and of the whole process, I would say this was the easiest part. And again the part that had me the most worried. 85% of a tamale is it's masa, bad masa, bad tamale!

I started with 2 lbs of corn masa


I then added my spices. 1 Tbs Salt, 3 Tbs Chili powder, 1 Tbs Cumin, 3 Tbs onion Powder.



I blended the masa corn and the spices well before adding any liquid. I didn't want to have a "spice chunk" somewhere in my masa. I then added 2 cups of corn oil. I wanted to stay away from lard, because frankly, even though it gives it a good flavor it is SO bad for you!


I then added roughly 2 quarts of beef stock to my mix. I used the water I had cooked my roast in, draining off the fat. This added VERY good flavor. I mixed my masa to a peanut butter consistency. I had my corn husks soaking in water for about 2 hours to soften them up. When they were ready I spread my masa onto a husk, covering about 2/3 of the husk, leaving enough room for rolling.


I then filled the tamale with the seasoned roast


When I got the tamale rolled, making sure the meat was covered with masa I tied the end off using torn husks as ties.


I filled my steamer with the tamales till I ran out of meat (about 3.5 dozen)


And then steamed the tamales for 2 hours, checking the water level and adding water when needed. After the 2 hours, I pulled one tamale out of the steamer and left it on the counter for 5 minutes to set. I then unwrapped it to see if it was cooked. Success!



Since the first time I made tamales I have made two more batches. One additional batch with beef and the second with pork. When I ran out of pork I still had masa so I made about 20 or so tamales with cheese and green chili's. These were such a huge hit, they were gone within minutes!