Does anyone have a good recipe for making tamales?
Tamales
Jun
6
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Does anyone have a good recipe for making tamales?
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Carolyn says:
I just submitted the recipe I use for tamales. It looks complicated, and it does have several steps, but it’s not difficult to make. It makes 36 tamales which may sound like a lot — at least, it did to me the first time I made it, but I found out that we love them so now I double or triple the recipe in order to have extras for the freezer.
I’ve used pork, beef and venison for the meat and they’re all good. (The original recipe called for pork shoulder only.) What we like best is a combination of pork and beef or pork and venison. That works out well when I want to double or triple the recipe as I can use a whole boneless pork shoulder and then make up the difference with the beef or venison. BTW, you don’t have to use only boneless meats, but take into account the weight of the bones when you calculate how much meat to use for the recipe; you want to have close to 4 pounds of meat after deducting for the amount of bone.
On June 6, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Melinda says:
Carolyn,
I have a question….I’m assuming you cook them and then freeze them. How do you usually defrost? wrapped in foil in oven? I am so excited about this recipe!!
Thanks for your help!
On June 7, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Carolyn says:
Melinda,
If we’re eating them at home, I try to remember to thaw first in the fridge. They’re more likely to try to fall apart if they go straight from freezer to steamer. But if I forget (most likely scenario!) I still just lay them out in the steamer basket and steam. Rice cooker works great for this but I have a bamboo steamer that sits over a pan of simmering water on the stove top that does the job, too.
My DH likes to take them for lunch and rarely remembers to thaw overnight in the fridge first. He just puts them in his bag frozen, then reheats in the microwave when it’s time to eat — he says they’re still showing ice crystals by the time he reheats so it’s probably the same effect as if defrosted overnight.
They’d probably reheat well in the oven if wrapped in foil — it would sort of steam them, I’d think. I don’t store them in foil in the freezer so I’ve never tried it that way. I lay them out on a cookie sheet and “flash freeze” then put them into plastic freezer bags so we can just take out as many as we need. I do leave them tied together, 3 at a time, tho.
On June 7, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Melinda says:
Thank you for the great information Carolyn. I can see a bigggggg tamale cooking coming this weekend!
On June 8, 2010 at 9:53 am