There’s nothing like tamales for the holidays
For many High Desert families, tamales are a Christmas treat that goes back generations.
The time involved in creating homemade tamales can pose a challenge when family groups get smaller, or schedules don’t line up for a big pre-Christmas gathering to make tamales.
These days, however, there are alternatives.
“When I was a little girl, you couldn’t just get pre-made tamales,” Berdy Verdugo Rosenzweig said. “But they sell them everywhere now.”
Stores such as Vallarta Supermarkets and Cardenas Markets sell prepared tamales in a variety of flavors. Local cooks have also made a small business out of selling homemade tamales.
For large groups and tenacious cooks, the time-honored homemade tradition is worth continuing.
“A lot of it is the tradition of a family getting together at a huge table and talking as they prepare the assembly line,” said Renee Sylvester, of Victorville. “Some of these tamale things can turn into a party in no time flat.”
Time-honored tradition
Some of Rosenzweig's earliest memories are of family tamale gatherings when she was growing up in Azusa, California. The family assembly line included eight aunts and their daughters.
Making tamales lends itself to a big team because there are so many steps in the process: soaking the corn husks for the outer wrapping; making the masa spread that serves as a base; making the meatfilling (and there may be several variations); spreading the masa inside the corn husk; adding the meat filling; folding the corn husk; and finally, steaming the tamales.
“It was a lot of fun because we would all get together at my grandmother’s," Rosenzweig said. “We made dozens and dozens because each family went home with two dozen. It had to be at least 100 to 200 tamales. We were there all day.”
The girls in her family started learning the process at about 5 years old, the Victorville woman continued. She remembers opening the leaves of the corn husk and being taught not to spread the masa too thick, “so you didn’t just get a big clump of masa.”
The masa mixture itself, as Rosenzweig describes it, was quite an undertaking.
“I remember them having a really great big bowl,” Rosenzweig said. “They put the lard and masa in there, and they would churn it for an hour.”
On Christmas, Rosenzweig said, the families would get together, bringing any tamales they still had left over.
“That’s what we would have on Christmas day,” she said. “We would go over in the morning, and that’s what we would have after church.”
Now that her children are grown, tamales are more of an occasional treat in Rosenzweig’s family.
“For just my kids, I do about six pounds, which gets me about six dozen," she said. "I prep the day before – chopping, cooking the meat, making the sauces, shredding the cheese, cutting the onions. All in all, it would take me at least two to three days from prepping to cooking.”
Renee Sylvester agrees that it takes a team to assemble tamales. There's just one catch.
"The more people there are, the more tamales you have to make," Sylvester said.
Tamale parties tapered off in Sylvester's family when she was about 19. But her mother, Katie Sylvester, of Adelanto, kept making them – on her own – until just a few years ago, when arthritis made it too painful for her hands.
“Maybe 15, 20 years I made them by myself,” Katie Sylvester said. “I’d make four dozen and that would take me about four to five hours to cook.”
Making memories
If you want to start a tamale party tradition in your family, here is a recipe provided by Cardenas Markets:
Ingredients:
8 lbs. of Cardenas masa
4 lbs. of pork cushion meat
1 bag California or Guajillo chili pods (8 oz.)
2 bags of corn husks (8 oz.)
3 large onions, halved
5 garlic cloves
1 small bag bay leaves
Directions:
Place pork in Dutch oven with two halved onions, six bay leaves, three garlic cloves, and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
Use rubber gloves to remove stems and seeds from the Guajillo or California chili pods (whichever you decide to use for the sauce). Place chiles in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then remove from the heat to cool. Transfer the chiles and water to a blender and blend until smooth. Strain the sauce mixture, stir in salt, and set aside.
In a fry pan, add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, and fry the sauce mixture until it is smooth. Shred the cooked meat and mix into sauce and stir for a few minutes.
Soak the corn husks in a bowl of warm water until they soften. Spread the Cardenas masa out over the corn husks to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Place one tablespoon of the meat filling into the center. Fold the sides of the husks in toward the center and you are now ready to place in the steamer.
Cooking the tamales:
In a 24-quart steamer, cover with water until water level stands with the grill covered with a bed of corn husks on which you can place the tamales on top of each other, then cover and simmer for about an hour. The signal that indicates that tamales are ready is when the husks lift easily off the tamales.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: There’s nothing like tamales for the holidays
