Tamales, malemalemale, TAMALES!

Every morning, about 8am, I hear a deep-voiced announcement coming from the street in front of our apartment:  "Tamles, malemalemalemale, TAMALES".  I know to grab some coins from the dish, and head to the front gate.  The dude makes his rounds in centro historico daily, pedaling his three-wheeled bicycle, the kind used all over central and south American to haul people and goods.  He pulls tamales out of the deep pot, they are still steaming hot, and asks if you want  a bolillo, a roll, to make a sandwich with your tamale.  I get mine sin bolillo, without the roll.  He usually has chicken/mole, rajas strips of chile poblano, onions and tomatoes,  and quesillo, the local fresh, salty string cheese. Eight pesos each, about 75 cents.Tamales are fast food here.  No drive through window, no fake ingredients, freshly made in some tiny kitchen very early in the morning, and pedaled to street corners all over the city.  As I walk to school every day, I pass a dozen street corner "fast food" stands, people standing around the steaming  pots.

I love tamales, and for several years have thought I'd make them while I'm in Oaxaca.  The corn is different here, and if I can get the feel for it, perhaps I could make them in Wilmington, too. I never have gotten around to making them.  So, when my spanish school, Oaxaca Spanish Magic announced a tamale making class this past week, I was the first to sign up.  Flor asked which day would be best, and I said any day!  Marguerite would be our teacher tomorrow, and of course, it would be taught in spanish.  As soon as I got home, I put my apron in the backpack for the next day.

Catalina, Diana, Jessica and I put on our aprons, and Flor joined us to help if we needed translating.  We didn't, but she's so fun!  At 1:00, we began chopping the tomatoes, onions and jalapenos, into the pot they went.  We boiled the banana leaves, and soaked the corn husks in cool water.  We prepared the mole negro, adding tomatoes and a cup of caldo de pollo, chicken broth to the Mayordomo  mole pasta she'd bought. We picked the chicken from its bones, Marguerite had cooked it earlier in the day. She also had the black beans cooked and mashed.  She had two bowls of masa, partially ready, she measured out a fistful of manteca, lard, some baking powder and a healthy ration of salt into the bowl, and one of us dived in to mash and knead until she pronounced it done.  She showed us how to carefullycarefully separate and tear the banana leaves into the correct size, and how to patch it if we tore it.  Then she showed us how to spread the masa onto each leaf, very thinly.  We each tore and spread, getting the feel for how thickly to apply the masa.  A handful of chicken, and spoonful of mole.   Then, fold here, here and here, and neat packet is made!

picture left:  Catalina, Flor (the director of Oaxaca Spanish Magic), Diana (partially hidden), Jessica and our maestra, teacher, Marguerite

  Next, we spread masa on the corn shucks, which we'd carefully divided into piles of grande and medio. We spread a thin layer of masa on both sizes.  Into the medio size, a heaping spoon of rajas, then we folded.  This packet when inside the large cornshuck and we folded it closed.

picture left:  rajas in the medio shuck.

The frijoles con hierba santa, black beans with a savory herb leaf was next.  Again, a thin layer of masa in two sizes of cornshucks.  The hojo de hierba santa, the herb leaf went in first, then a big dollap of frijoles.  OK, I'm getting the hang of this:  the smaller bean packet goes inside the larger cornshuck.  These, we tied with a strip of cornshuck, in order to identify them.

Marguerite had a huge pot, with a little water in it ready.  A rack keeps the tamales above the water, and we loaded the pot, filled it completely with the three kinds of tamales we'd assembled so far.  Then, she tucked a plastic grocery bag over the top of the tamales, then a wet kitchen towel.  Finally, the lid went on it.  It will take about an hour, after the water comes to a boil.  About this time, Flor broke out the mescal, we each had a couple of shots, to celebrate our success.  All four of us were thrilled with our new skill, and our complete comprehension of Marguerite's teaching.
  

picture left:  the medio packet tucked into the grande shuck

So, we began making the sweet tamales, the dessert tamales.  The masa  for the sweet tamales was mixed with water, the other had been mixed with chicken broth.  Marguerite added some sugar, salt and baking powder.  Then, she added the chopped pineapple and a handful of raisins.  And, yes,a fistful of manteca!  Again, one of us kneaded until it was well mixed.  We tasted it, to adjust the salt if necessary.



picture left:  final assemblies of the chickn/mole and rajas tamales, before cooking, and a pot of leftover rajas.

picture left:  hierba santa leaves.  They're BIG!


The sweet tamale mixture went into the cornshucks just like the rajas and frijole tamales.  Marguerite had a separate, smaller pot ready for the sweet.  You surely don't want to mix the chicken flavor with the sweet pineapple!  The pot was covered with a plastic bag and wet towel, and the lid. 



While the tamales cooked, we finally sat down, after three hours of prep.  This is not difficult, but it is not fast, either.  Flor gave us each a beer while Marguerite went over the printed recipe sheets she'd prepared.


We each ate TWO tamales, with great glee and approval all around the table.  The dessert tamale was the big surprise:  the sweetness of the pineapple was delicious with the corn.  The red you see is from the sprinkle of cochineal we added to each one before folding it.


Marguerite and Flor packed up the rest of the tamales in bags for each of us.  I walked down the street, warm tamales in my pack, the aroma making people look at me and smile as I passed them on the sidewalk.  These are surely the best tamales ever!



Marguerite, our terrific teacher!