Delta Tamales

On the Fourth of July my family had a Mexican-themed dinner instead of a more traditional cookout. Our menu included Chicken Enchiladas, Steak Ranchera, beef tacos, guacamole, white cheese dip, cheese dip with sausage, taco soup and the piece de resistance- tamales. My aunt and I have wanted to make tamales for a long time and never made the time to do it. I love tamales and living so close to the Delta, have sampled truly wonderful tamales many times. Memphis is home to a growing Hispanic community and the tamales offered at local Mexican restaurants are varied and unique. I am partial to the tamales that you buy from little dives all over Highway 61 in Clarksdale, Mississippi and surrounding areas. The following website offers a wealth of information about Delta Tamales http://www.tamaletrail.com/index.html. The Thursday night before Independence Day, we gathered our ingredients and embarked on our tamale adventure. This is the recipe we used although I reduced it by 65% http://www.tamaletrail.com/recipe_howto.shtml.

You begin by carefully washing the corn husks and soaking them until pliable.

Take the cooked pork and chop the meat. I prefer it to be chopped very fine.

Mia and I heated the chopped pork in a little vegetable oil with spices and pork broth until nice and seasoned.

Spread about 1/4 cup of the masa mixture on the corn husk and then top with a spoonful of the meat filling.

Roll the tamale nice and tight making sure that the masa completely encases and covers the pork filling.

We chose to steam our tamales because we only rolled twenty-seven. We froze the remaining pork mixture for a later date.

Here is the finished product. They were delicious. There are a few adjustments that I will make next time. Even though the recipe only calls for salt, I will definitely season the masa mixture more aggresively next time. I think I will boil the tamales instead of steaming to get some of that good, seasoned sauce to drizzle on top. For a first effort the tamales were delicious and everyone enjoyed them.