Tamale Class

Two weeks ago, (December 14th), I signed Dave and I up to learn how to make Tamales!!  About 4 years ago we were the lucky recipients of a plate of hot homemade tamales from our Hispanic next door neighbors when we lived in our West Jordan house.  They we SO GOOD !!  We were tempted to ask if we could join them for their Christmas eve dinner of traditional tamales.  When I saw that the Harmon's Cooking School was offering an authentic class in tamales, I told Dave I was going to take it and he said he'd join me.

 OH BOY !!  Maybe we can make Tamales for our neighbors this year!!  And look - we're going to get the recipe for real Mole' sauce, (yea).

 Here we are, all excited for class - poor fools.  We have no idea exactly what lays ahead of us.  There are a total of 15 in our class and it's a lively group for a Saturday afternoon.  Well Let''s dive in.  We have a 4 hour class a head of us.

 Here is our instructor, Chef Kimberly Larsen - if you've ever watched Utah television, you've seen her doing lots of cooking demonstrations on all the local stations.  Next to her is the Harmon's Cooking School Coordinator, Casey Boethorpe.  He is a "gas" to have in class, so funny and entertaining.

 Lucky for us our chef pre-made the first 2 batches of Masa Dough and the Mole Sauce - or we would have been there all day.  We discovered that the mole sauce is an "all day" project.  and judging from the recipe it is one that I will definitely want to do in the fall when my garden is producing all the wonderful fresh produce.  And there are an arm's length of items needed to make the sauce!!!  It only takes a small amount of each item, but it takes so many items, (it's like cooking Chinese food!!).  But we did have to make our own corn and poblano filling.  This stuff is yummy.  It would be delicious in a burrito or an enchilada.  And 2 class members volunteered to make 2 more batches of dough during class - it takes about 1 1/2 hours for the dough to sit and be processed.  The chef also cooked up the chicken and pork to save time.

 Here are some of the chilies that we used in our tamales.  We learned that chilies have one name when they are fresh and a different name when they are dried - hmm learned something new.  Some of these babies were real tongue burners, I learned that the hard way - Dave loved them!!

Here a look at some of Dave's tamales and next to mine.  When and if we ever make these at home, I told Dave that I will do the cooking and the make all the dough, sauces, and fillings - he can do the tamale rolling, since he does a better job.  We each make 10 chicken, 10 pork, and 10 corn and poblano, (the mole sauce is mixed in with the chicken and pork fillings).

Here's our little babies in the steam bath getting ready to cook.  Another hour and we'll get to taste our creations!!

 OK - so here's one of the finished products!!  Time to open it up, put it on a plate and see how it tastes!!   OH MY GOSH !!!  These things are DELICIOUS !!  Dave and I each eat about 5 of our tamales and then realize that we have to stop, or we won't have any to take home for supper.

As a surprise for the class, our instructor made a dessert for us.  It is called "Tiger Butter".  It's basically a layer of chocolate with a layer of peanut butter on top.  It's very rich.  It taste very much like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup, Dave's favorite candy - so he of course loved it.  Me, not so much.    Well time to box up our tamales for home!!

Just in case your wondering - NO we did NOT make tamales for Christmas and our neighbors.  It's rather expensive to buy all the ingredients and it's very time consuming.  So the next time you pay your $1.00 or $1.50 for a tamale - be grateful.  That's a cheap price for the amount of work that goes into making a very delicious meal.  But there's still hope that I will slowly gather the items I need and make these wonderful delicious little bundles.  I'll start with the mole sauce, which I can make in the large batch and freeze this fall then I can purchase my corn meal, lard, corn husks, etc. Then one Saturday I'll cook up some meat and mix up some dough and by night fall I'll have a freezer full of these little guys.  And if your lucky I may even share with you!!