I recently attended a program at our local library. It was tamale making. I have always wanted to make one and this was a good opportunity to do so. My daughter and I love tamales and we were so excited to attend the program.
Our local library has a lot of free programs for kids, teens and adults. The tamale making was the first one I attended in adult program. It was popular as there was more than 40 participants with over 300 varieties of tamales made that night. Great job to all the participants including me and my daughter and thank you to our local library for providing us interesting program throughout the year.
Tamale is a Latin dish made up of masa or dough, usually corn-based with fillings and wrapped in corn husks or banana leaf. It is steamed for at least one and a half hour. Fillings can include beef, pork, chicken,cheese, fruits and vegetables. The fillings as cooked first before it is added to the masa. At the program, we used three different fillings. These are chicken with salsa verde (green sauce), beans and cheese, and rajas (sliced poblano pepers) with corn and cheese. Out of all the three fillings, our favorite was the rajas. I have tried other tamales that I bought at different store, my daughter and I prefers the chicken in red sauce fillings.
We were given all the ingredients for the tamale making. These are the following:
A big container of La Guadalapana, original masa for tamale preparation. It comes in a 5 pounds container that can be bought at your local store ( there is one at Walmart). This can make at least 40 pieces of tamales.
Corn husks that was soaked in warm water.
Three different kinds of fillings.
We simply fill the corn husks with a tablespoon of masa, spread in the middle of the husk. Then went to filling stations. Filling should be at least a 2 teaspoons. Then the husks is folded on each side first then folded at the bottom. Each participants are able to make at least 6 tamales, 2 fillings each. We were instructed to steam our tamales at home, which my daughter and I did the minute we came home because we were excited to try it right away. Instruction for cooking were given to us by the library.
Again, I would like to thank our local library for this program. My daughter and I and our friends had fun!
