Lobolita

Last week, in my ongoing pursuit of a full freezer, my Mom and I made tamales. We used Tamales 101, which is a great book with lots of options, and nothing too fancy or fusion. No sushi tamales here, just tasty Mexican and South American goodness.

We made 84 tamales altogether, a pitifully small number compared to more traditional tamale-making parties, but plenty for our two households. Red pork and green chicken tamales were the savories, and apple pie and pumpkin tamales the sweetes (or doces, as my Portuguese-tuned brain still wants to call them).

Forgive the blurriness of the photos–most were taken gingerly with masa-encrusted fingers. We actually forgot to take pictures until the very end, when we were making the sweet tamales, so what you see is the making of the pumpkin ones. It’s not difficult to make tamales, just labor intensive. Soak your husks really well, make sure your masa is fluffy, and don’t stress over messes. They will still taste great, even if there’s a little sauce leaking out. We steamed these for an hour in the oven on a roasting pan with water in the bottom and airtight foil sealing them in. They are delicious.