Hot Tamale! {neighborhood Tamale Making Party}

Saturday I spent the day with our neighborhood friends learning how to make 

authentic Mexican Tamales. 

About a week before our Tamale Party we all signed up for different jobs so that there was help during the entire process. The schedule actually began on Friday with a shopping trip to several stores to pick up the needed ingredients and then some prep work such as soaking the corn husks, cooking meat and chopping vegetables. On Saturday there was

more prep in the early morning and by 11am it was time to start mixing the Masa.

The mixing was done by hand and it took three people working together to get everything mixed while our hostess added ingredients. Once all the dry ingredients were mixed well the lard was added. Broth from the meat, which was cooked the day before, was saved and used for the liquid.

The mixing continued until enough air was incorporated so that a small ball of Masa dough would float when dropped in a glass of water. As you can see the first ball sank to the bottom so we continued mixing. It was very exciting to see the mesa float to the top after the second test and we cheered in celebration!

The Masa took 3 people approximately 1 1/2 hours to prepare from start to finish. 

The vegetables were cut, sliced and diced the day the day before and

some early Saturday morning, as well as salsa's, salads and meat. 

Next, a lesson in tamale assembly.

After a quick demonstration and an example placed on the table {below} to remind us how much and where to put everything, we were ready to begin. 

The official assembly time was scheduled for 2:00pm, however, those of us that were there mixing the Masa went ahead and made enough tamales for taste testing later in the afternoon. The first batch we made was put on to cook around 1:00pm and would need to cook about 1 1/2 hours. 

At 2:00pm all the neighbors arrived to begin

Tamale Assembly. 

Once the tamales were wrapped they were placed in a pot in layers. When the filling changed we added foil to serve as a divider in the pot to make it easy to identify the different types of tamales.

Once the pot was full the tamales were covered with foil followed by a kitchen towel to absorb condensation from the lid to keep the tamales from getting soggy.  The lid was put on next and heavy stone was place on top to hold the lid down to prevent steam from escaping.

Around 3:30 we stopped production and took a short break to taste the first batch of Tamales.

They were delicious!!

We also had some cactus salad which I had never tried before and the most amazing tomato salsa.

We made around 300 assorted Tamales on Saturday!

The tamales were divided and shared among the neighbors which means our family now has several yummy meals in the freezer which we will enjoy in the coming months.

And, in case you were wondering about a recipe....

Our hostess does not use a written recipe. Tamale making is something she learned over the years by making them with her family so she knows all the recipes by heart. 

A very FUN and PRODUCTIVE day!