Tamales

I finally made tamales by myself.  I have always been afraid to take on such a big task.    I cooked the pork and chicken on Thursday.  I soaked the corn husk and made the masa on Friday.  It was such a disaster, everything went wrong.  It was probably one of my biggest cooking nightmares.  When I was measuring the masa I couldn't remember how many cups of corn flour I put in the bowl, so after that I was just winging it. I added more broth,  that didn't help, now I have to add more corn flour.  The mixture still wasn't right, so I added more lard.  I just couldn't get the consistency right, and never did!   So, I was having a hard time spreading the masa and then the meat juice was dripping all over.  I was just too tired to deal with it.  At 8:00 p.m. I had decided to just make the one batch (about 12) and throw the masa and husk away.  And I don't throw food away!I   That is just how bad it was.  I just couldn't roll one more tamale.
  

The first batch was steamed and ready to eat.   They were sooo delicious after I  made a couple Rhondafications.  This is the problem I had,  the meat mixture was runny so I couldn't put enough meat in the tamale.  So, I just put some of the left over meat on top of the tamale and added sour cream.  Who doesn't add sour cream and cheese to Mexican recipes.   

So, I refrigerated the masa and meat mixture and put the corn husk away until Sunday.  Sunday I had to soak the husk again.  I had no problem spreading the masa on the husk and the meat wasn't as juicy.   I don't know what happened.  But working with the  cold masa and meat mixture was much easier.  Who Knew? I don't know if that will always be the case but it was that day.
The corn flour I used was Meseca Masa Harina.  I have a lot left over so you know I will be posting pictures of my homemade corn tortilla's soon.  I just need a couple weeks to recover from the tamales.  Click here for the tamale recipe.  I did make a lot of Rhondifcations but that is because I can't help myself.