I totally did not plan to make a Cinco de Mayo themed post today.  I had tamales all lined up to go, and I woke up and was like…hmmm today is Cinco de Mayo...  crazy!  We made these because Mandi was scouring the internet for other things to steam.  Once we bought the steamer she decided that she wanted every meal steamed from that point on.  The thing about tamales is you are supposed to use a metal pot steamer.  This is because they take over an hour and a half and the bamboo starts to get really soggy at that point.  This is fine, it still dries out and everything, you just have to be careful with it.  They came out great for us and we even got some nice bamboo flavor in the tamales that was delicious.  In a totally unrelated side note to TFIMB fans, check out the web comic xkcd from today and also from Friday.  They are both food related, slightly nerdy, and hilarious as usual.  Be sure to mouse over to see the alt text.

We wanted to have our tamales with Guacamole.  The same as we always make, seen here.

These are Bermuda onions.  They have a nice sweet and not sharp flavor.  I thought they would be good in the Guac for this reason.

This is some leftover pork from the dumplings.

I cooked it the way I cook taco beef.  Brown, drain, add water and spices, and cook off water.

Let the dried corn husks soak for a half hour or so in hot water.

Masa Harina.  We used this when making tortillas a couple weeks ago.

Add salt pepper cayenne paprika chili powder and cumin to the corn flour.

And garlic powder.  We didn’t have garlic powder so we grated a clove.

This is after adding oil

Then adding chicken stock slowly.

We will smash these corn kernels a bit next time.

Spread the corn flower mixture on to a corn husk.  Then add some of the pork in the center.

Roll it up

Then put them on top of another husk and into the steamer.  You need to have some boiling water in another pot sitting next to the steamer so that you can refill the bottom steam water every 15 minutes or so.

After about 45 minutes, I swapped the top and bottom sections so they would cook evenly.

Mmmm   tamale goooood

Amy gave us some beans that were leftover from Cuban night.

We got the recipe / method from this page for the most part.  I had to cut the proportions way down though.

½ lb of masa harina.

¾ tbsp paprika
¾ tbsp of salt
¾ tbsp chili powder
¾ tbsp garlic powder (or a shredded clove or 2 like I did)
1 tsp cumin

Mix

Then add half cup corn oil

Then slowly add warm chicken broth – about 2 or 3 cups   it should feel like peanut butter