quote:

Originally posted by IndianaMike:
PIPE SMOKER
Are the Tamales under the Red sauce ?

They are, indeed – four of them, 2x2. The sauce by itself is delicious. The tamales by themselves are delicious. Together, a gastronomic delight!

The flavor of tamales is very distinctive – quite different than any other food that I know of. I’d like to know what produces that flavor.

Pretty sure cooking in the corn husk imparts the distinct flavor.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

quote:

Originally posted by IndianaMike:
PIPE SMOKER
Are the Tamales under the Red sauce ?

They are, indeed – four of them, 2x2. The sauce by itself is delicious. The tamales by themselves are delicious. Together, a gastronomic delight!

The flavor of tamales is very distinctive – quite different than any other food that I know of. I’d like to know what produces that flavor.

Mrvmax is right, if a tamale is dry and mostly masa, you’ve been had. That Houston Chronicle reporter probably hadn’t ever had a decent tamale.
Thanks for the update.

My wife, coming from Honduras, presented me with Nacatamales. These are common in that area of the world and differ a bit in that they use Plantain leaves instead of corn husks and often have raisins or olives in the mix. Rice is usually in the center along with various veggies to accompany the meat.

Though I love Olives I'm not the biggest fan in the Tamale.

Overall though, VERY good in both the pork and chicken variety.

Why would you add olives to something sweet?

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
Why would you add olives to something sweet?

What sweet tamales you been eating???

Normal tamales are not sweet, only ones prepared specifically to be sweet are so.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
My wife, coming from Honduras, presented me with Nacatamales. These are common in that area of the world and differ a bit in that they use Plantain leaves instead of corn husks and often have raisins or olives in the mix. Rice is usually in the center along with various veggies to accompany the meat.

El Salvadoran tamales are like that too... Wrapped in plantain leaves, with thinly shredded veggies in the middle along with the meat.

No rice, raisins, or olives, though.

I don't see any tamales though?

I just see a big puddle of sauce.

quote:

What sweet tamales you been eating???

I misread that as "raisins AND olives".

I've been told that there are right ways and wrong ways to make tamales. If I remember right you have to have pennies in the steam water and can't leave the room while they are steaming or they'll come out bad. I also remember something about getting a prize in your tamale around Christmas time. Something they add to just a couple of them, but I can't remember what it is.

I personally would pick something else on the menu. Don't get me wrong, I'll eat a tamale, but would rather have something else.

Talk about memories. My dad came here from Mexico when he was seven years old. My mom is from TX. I was raised in southeast Fresno. Everyone in the neighborhood made tamales. Some of my earliest memories was friends and family coming over for Thanksgiving to make Tamales all night long to the wee hours of the morning. They would make about 100 dozen tamales. They only cooked what they needed for the night and the rest were distributed to everyone who made them and were immediately frozen. We would eat tamales between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Almost everyone who helped make tamales in my childhood are dead now and I haven't hand-rolled a tamale in 15 years.

Cheers,
Tony.

More tamales and beans from Carmen’s yesterday. This time there was more sauce on the beans, less on the tamales. That enabled me to see that there were two large tamales, rather than four smaller ones, as I originally thought. Still wondrously delicious! Lots of pork in them. And those chips are so crispy!

Damn PS, that looks awesome.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
My wife, coming from Honduras, presented me with Nacatamales.

Next level tamales!
I had a co-worker from Honduras, I would buy a dozen from him every holiday season, so good.

Every culture in the world has a tamale or, version of meat, wrapped in starch, slow-cooked in leaves. Always hilarious reading comments about 'real tamales' never mind, Mexican culture isn't monolithic, lots of shared ingredients or, preparations but, differing flavors. Then when it hits the US, it takes a further evolution.

Yup, bad tamales are heavy on the masa and light on the filling, you get the gipped feeling half-way through

Thanks to this thread, I picked up a dozen pork tamales Friday, and have fixed some the last 2 nights for dinner.

Just 30 minutes in the steamer, and some salsa on the side. I don’t send them swimming like Carmen’s.

You can never have enough sauce.

Two more pork tamales from Carmen’s yesterday! By default they come with sauce, but this time I ordered them without. Much better. Lordy, so good! I’ll get ‘em this way from now on.



I have to watch my weight, so I limit my visits to Carmen’s to once per week. But a few days ago I noticed “Amy’s Black Bean Tamales” in the frozen food section of my grocery:

www.amys.com/our-foods/black-bean-tamale-verde

I love tamales,and black beans too, so I bought a package and had it for lunch today. Tasty, but I don’t plan to buy it again.

I don't know PS, that red sauce looked awfully good to me. I'm a hot sauce and salsa kind of guy anyway, so there you go.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
I don't know PS, that red sauce looked awfully good to me. I'm a hot sauce and salsa kind of guy anyway, so there you go.

Jim

You’re in good company with Bassamatic:
“You can never have enough sauce.”

Man that looks delicious!!

I may have to travel down south and find this place.

I to not a big rice eater and usually order refried beans in place of the rice.