Tamales Part 1

A while back I was able to get some banana leaves; a neighbor brought some back from Anchorage, and I brought some back from my last trip home.  Some time after that I made nacatamales and shared them with some people here.  The Hogans really liked them.  This week they had some friends visiting, friends I had met before.  They used to teach together in Elim, AK.  Barbara and Huston, their friends, had been told about these tamales.  Being fans of other tamales, they were interested in trying some and the process of making them.  So, I had them all over Saturday evening, wrapped Zona and Barbara in aprons, and turned them into tamaleras.

Since making tamales usually takes a big part of the day with several people helping, I had done some of the prep, but it still took us about 6 hours to put them together, cook them, eat, have dessert, and socialize just a bit; however, I think they really enjoyed it.

Zona stirring the masa

Barbara washing the leaves

I make tamales so infrequently these days that I'm not the best teacher, but they hung in there and did a really good job.  Zona was quite adept at building and folding the tamales.  Barbara was a little insecure with the tamales but was a rather good tortillera.  (I thought I would throw in tortilla making while we were waiting for the tamales to cook.)  Ron and Huston seemed to entertain themselves well...I think I heard a football game on at one point.  Every once in a while they'd wander in and see what we were up to.  The quote of the evening was, "You gals have quite the production going on in here."  They both seemed to get into the process well enough when the tamales were ready for unveiling.

 

I have a few more pictures, but I'm trying to publish right  now from the road...I started this post on Sunday, and it's now Tuesday.  I'll edit it or add another later.