Sacramento, CA

Okay, I know this is going to sound extremely redneck, but since when do people serve tamales for Christmas? Now don’t get me wrong, I love tamales as much as the next person but I’m having a bit of trouble comprehending what they have to do with Christmas. As such, it was rather befuddling to read the following article in the Sacramento Bee…

Even as customers ticked items off their shopping lists, the out-the-door line at La Esperanza Mexican Food Products in south Sacramento never seemed to get shorter Saturday.

The reason: The Mexican tradition of eating tamales during the holiday season.

“Christmas without tamales is like saying there’s no Santa,” said Maryann Bernardino, 52, of Sacramento, who was buying pre-made tamales to take to a holiday party.

Soon, she’ll return to buy the ingredients for tamales that she’ll make with relatives. Together, as they do every year, they will spread masa on cornhusks, add seasoned meat and then fold once, twice, three times, until 200 of the wrapped treats have been made.

There’s no recipe to refer to, just the knowledge that’s been passed down through the generations by making tamales together, year after year.

“It’s a tradition,” said Emma Delgadillo, whose family has owned La Esperanza on Franklin Boulevard since the 1970s. “For Christmas, we make tamales. It’s like at Thanksgiving, you make a turkey – it’s been always that we get together to make tamales.”

Tamales date back more than 5,000 years, according to Refugio Rochin, a retired professor of Chicano studies at the University of California, Davis. The natives of Mesoamerica used tamales as offerings to the dead and the gods. When the Spanish came to the Americas, they brought Catholicism – and its Christian holidays – and the traditions were married, Rochin said.

Today, with modern mobility and busy schedules, Christmas is one of the few times a year extended families get together. Tamale-making means that rare occasion is even more special, Rochin said.

“It reminds us that we have heritage,” he said.

Plus, everyone gets to share in the work and the reward.

“It’s just as much work to make four or five tamales, so you might as well bring a crowd and make a lot more,” Rochin said. “If you want four or five of them, you go down to the Mexican store and buy them for a dollar each.”

This is the busiest season for the La Esperanza market, when employees work long hours and on weekends to meet the demand for pre-made tamales – which the store asks people to order ahead of time. Spreading masa and folding the husk, spreading and folding, spreading and folding, they create stacks of savory tamales, each wrapped in white paper.

The store also makes masa from finely ground corn, lard or shortening, salt, baking powder and water, and sells it for 65 cents a pound to those who want to make tamales at home.

Belinda Verlod, 49, of Sacramento, was doing just that Saturday. The Siemens warehouse worker bought 60 pounds of masa to make 350 tamales because she gives them to friends as gifts.

“How many each gets depends on how good a friend they are,” she joked.

Esther Gonzales, 63, wasn’t going to make tamales this year because most of her relatives are out of town. But she changed her mind Saturday and decided to downsize from 240 to five dozen.

“It doesn’t feel like Christmas without them,” she said while buying the ingredients.

Josie Melendrez, 63, of Rancho Cordova, is also going the route of fewer tamales this year. In the past, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles all gathered to make tamales, but this year only Melendrez and her son will have their hands in the corn dough.

One thing that never changes however is the recipe.

“We always make them the same way,” she said. “I know everybody says theirs is the best, but ours – it’s like my grandmother used to say, the main ingredient is love.”

This is just so strange to me that I can’t even fathom the reasons for it. At the same time though it is oddly compelling. There’s just something intirguing about other cultures’ holiday traditions. I think it’s that they are so very different from my own and yet somehow still the same…if that makes any sense at all. Whatever the reason, I figured I’d jump on the tamale bandwagon too and give you all a recipe that my friend’s mother shared with me when I was in high school. After all, the lines at La Esperanza Mexican Food Products aren’t getting any shorter and this way you can make your own tamales.

*Making the Dough*

INGREDIENTS:
6 cups masa harina and 5 cups warm water or chicken broth
OR 6 cups of Nixtamal
1 1/2 cups lard or shortening
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chile powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

PREPARATION:
To use Nixtamal-
Prepare corn according to use for masa dough. Add additional chicken broth until it is the consistency of thick peanut butter.
To use Masa Harina-
In a mixing bowl combine masa and warm water or broth until combined. Let the mixture sit for 20 minutes or so to let the masa soften. Then mix it on low speed until a dough forms.
After Masa or Masa Harina is prepared-
Gradually add in the salt, cumin and onion powder.

In a separate bowl, whip lard or shortening until fluffy. Add the lard to the dough a little at a time while mixing until well combined.

The mixture should be about the consistency of peanut butter. If not, add more masa, water or broth as necessary.

Cover and store in refrigerator until ready to use.

*Preparing the Filling*

3 cups shredded beef
8 large roasted chiles- skin, seeds and veins removed and coarsely chopped.
1 white onion- peeled and coarsely chopped.
6 cloves of garlic- peeled and crushed.
1 jalapeno- seeded and diced
3 potatoes- peeled, boiled and chopped into large chunks.
1 cup homemade chile sauce or store bought

Fold these together for a delicious filling

*Tamale Assembly*

1) Sort the husks
Go through the corn husks removing any debris. Separate the larger usable pieces from the smaller bits and pieces. Save the smaller pieces for later.

2) Soak the husks
Place the husks into a large bowl. Cover husks with warm water. Set a heavy item (like a heavy bowl) on top of the husks to keep them submerged.

3) Prepare the husks
Remove the husks from the water and pat dry. Place into a covered dish or a large plastic bag to prevent from drying out. Use only the larger and medium sized husks for the tamales. The smaller ones can be used later for ties or patches. When looking at the husk, they have a narrow end, a broad end, and 2 long sides.

4) Adding the dough
Lay a husk on a flat surface. Place 1-2 tablespoons of dough onto the husk. When spreading the dough, leave a space of about 4 inches from the narrow end of the husk and about 2 inches from the other end. Spread the dough to the edge of one of the long sides and 2 inches away from the other long side. Try to keep the dough approximately 1/4 to a 1/2 inch thick.

5) Filling
Spread about a tablespoon of filling down the center of the dough.

6 )Folding
Locate the long side with a 2 inch space with no masa. Fold that over, slightly overlapping the other side so the edges of the dough meet. Wrap the extra husk around the back.

Then fold the broad end over the top and then the longer narrow end over the broad end.

7) Tying
Create strips of husk by cutting or tearing 1/4 inch lengths off of some of the smaller or unusable husks. Use these to tie across the middle of the tamale to hold the flaps down.

8)Steaming
Set tamales upright in a steamer. You can buy large steamers made just for this purpose. You may have something else you can use to create the same effect. The key is to have a small amount of boiling water on the bottom of the pot and a colander or mesh of some sort to keep the tamales away from the water. They will need to be steamed for about 90 minutes.

I’ll be the first to admit that these can be very time consuming, but the end result is highly worth while. Besides, since Sacramento is the most culturally diverse city in America, we may as well enjoy it and take advantage of the multitude of opportunities this presents to us!

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