This Year's Tamale Tweaks
 

I've scaled down everything having to do with the holidays this year, even my tamale making. I made up a batch of only 25 tamales this morning and plan to bring them to our outdoor decorating thing tomorrow. (Masks on, at last 6 feet apart, staggering the 5 or 6 people that are coming and going during the day.) I'm going to leave them on the table for my kids to come by and pick up.

I figured that since there are not that many tamales to take home, they'd better be special. I made only roasted pork tamales, no vegan ones this year, since pork is their favorite. To keep things simple, I roasted the pork with a big can of red enchilada sauce in a dutch oven until it was easy to shred...so easy. For extra yumminess, I cut off the kernels of a fresh ear of corn, pan roasted them and added them to the masa dough. I also used marinated olives from the deli, instead of canned olives to put in the center of each one. Plus, I added the left over, oil/vinegar marinade to the pork sauce. (That made a big difference in taste.) I haven't steamed them yet, but the sauce is incredible with that olive stuff in there.

Making only 25 tamales was a lot easier than making 125. Roasting the pork the day before made it super simple to assemble the next day.

I love really good tamales and you sound like you have figured it out. Covid and the lockdowns has changed so much about the way we live.

I really love homemade tamales and haven’t had any since we left Arizona. I hated them for years as when I was a kid I was camping with my grandparents and grandma served canned tamales. Yuck three times over!!! They were and still are horrible.

Anyway, I’m interested in what would be in a vegetarian tamale. My DIL is a vegetarian and I would really like to learn how to make ones she might like. Sure hope I can find the corn husk wrappers here in the middle of NC😊

Sandy in Mooresville, NC

I forgot to say that your pork tamales sound fantastic.

Sandy in Mooresville, NC

Yum! I lived in the Rio Grande Valley for over 30 years. Delia's Tamales are legendary. Christmas tamales must be ordered a month in advance! Last year, they had a security guard in the parking lot to handle customers that had to be turned away!
My favorite: cream cheese and jalapeno!

I love tamales...when I lived in California, my girlfriend and her family always invited me to make a boatload of tamales for the holidays. Do you have a recipe to share?

I love green corn tamales but they are hard to find. My friend usually makes me a dozen for the holidays and they are yummy

Saving this. Thank you for sharing. My husband has been asking if I will learn to make tamales. I do my own enchiladas, mexican rice and a copycat version of barbacoa.

My friend from Indy keeps telling me that the next time she comes she will bring me some tamales from a famous place there where you have to get in line to get them. She has never brought even one. Your roasted pork sounded scrumptious. Guess I'd better learn to make some myself.