Yesterday, We Were Mexican...

I love the good ol' USA, but it seems other cultures promote more of a sense of community. During a trip to Italy in 1999 I noticed that families and friends lived nearer each other and seemed to see each other more often. They get together for no better reason than just to be together and enjoy each others company...no special occasions necessary.

Yesterday, some very good friends of mine came over. Friends I haven't seen in too long. Friends that only live about a twenty minute drive away. We made lots of food, we drank beer, we laughed, we listened to music, we played games with the kids. We were together. And I loved every minute of it.

Now on to the food.

Tamalada!

I have no idea what a traditional tamalada is like, since I've never been to one. In fact, I had my first tamale just three short weeks ago. Like the carnitas I tried for the first time last summer, the tamale was like another revelation. I had eyed these funny creatures on plates at Mexican restaurants in the past, but I never ventured beyond the curiosity stage. I'm glad I finally did.

So it was time to try to make a tamale. Seeing that I had enough trouble making corn tortillas, it seemed a pretty tall order. I brought in reinforcements. In his book, RB's advice is to not go it alone with tamales. He says this not because they're difficult (which is a very relative term), but because it's just more fun to make them with a group of people...to have a "tamalada" or tamal-making party. Once again he hits the mark...he's a pretty smart guy...

On my own, this tamal-making process might have ended in disaster. It would have been stress-filled from start to finish. From being overwhelmed by the size of the banana leaves we used to wrap our tamales, to the timing of preparing the filling and the batter...I might have quit before I started. But bring in some friends to help out, listen to some music, chat, laugh, experiment, learn, and have fun...well, it was an experience I won't soon forget.

I won't post the recipe here because it is available on RB's website here:

http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=118

In that recipe is also a link to the two traditional fillings he discusses in the book...chicken with green chile sauce, or what we went with...pork in a red chile sauce.

Don't be scared by the words 'chile sauce'...it's not very spicy at all. We made the sauce with a mixture of dried ancho and guajillo chiles (seeded, stemmed and reconstituted in boiling water), which on their own are not very spicy but pack bold flavors. Add some fresh garlic, some seasonings, and some water, puree...and there you have a nice red chile sauce.

The pork (shoulder), which was cubed and seasoned with freshly ground cumin, coriander, and black pepper, stewed in the chile sauce for over an hour, became fork tender, and if your mouth isn't watering by now...

The batter was equally as easy to make. Lots of shortening was used, but hey, the recipe makes 18 (we actually came away with 23) tamales.

Once the batter was made it was chilled in the fridge for 1 hour. During this time we played games with the kids and drank more beer. Excellent. After the hour was up we beat the batter again and it was time to form the tamales. There are pictures in the cookbook and I'm sure videos online that will explain how to do it. It was a lot of fun to make these little food packages, all the while wondering how they would turn out.

Note: The final stage calls for steaming the tamales for over 1 hour. Lesson learned, and as they tell you in your high school science lab, read the entire recipe before beginning. If my friends didn't come up with a good solution to this potential problem, we might still be making them.

Opening the first one was very exciting. Out of the steamed banana leaf came what looked like a tamale! So, by appearances only, we had succeeded. Next I grabbed a fork and dug in. The tamale was light and fluffy, and filled with our pork and red chile sauce...and it was, dare I say, delicious. A grand success. But even if they had not been so good, it wouldn't have mattered. What I enjoyed most was the experience of it all. The fact that the tamales were so delicious was just an added bonus to an awesome day spent having a great time with friends. I would encourage anyone to invite some friends over and try this, I for one can't wait to do it again. Tamalada anyone?