suzieQ came to the rescue on my tamale quest. she is shown here making it all look pretty damn simple, which she insists it is. ok, putting it all together didn't take that much time, it wasn't all that messy, they steamed for about 45 minutes and they turned out delicious. if you want to make your own, the basic recipe is on the bag of masa. i will outline the magic she performed and you will learn that a tamale can be almost anything you want it to be. she used Falling Sky chicken, found at the Argenta Farmer's Market on Saturdays, for these chicken tamales. the ingredients are few, cooked meat or the veggie filling of your choice, masa, canola oil (the masa bag suggests lard, she didn't do that), dried chile peppers, corn husks and a few of your favorite seasoning, in this case, cumin & salt. she de-stemmed and softened the dried chiles in hot water and whizzed them with a hand blender to make a chile tea, she used the tea in the masa mix and also added it to the shredded chicken filling. the masa was made following the recipe on the bag, except for the canola oil substitution for the lard and she added some chile tea to give it a bit of a kick. the filling is a free for all, use what you have on hand and season it how you like it. pat the prepared masa out on the corn husk that has been pre softened by hot water, add a dollop of filling and roll, this is where experience is nice, suzieQ's tamales looked professional while mine were a wee bit sad. stand them on end in a steamer basket and steam for 45 minutes or until they come away from the husk easily. it's that easy. i normally end these with the address of my subject, i will refrain here, suzieQ might not like that.
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