As mentioned before, a little labor intensive, but not hard. There are good recipes out there, for sure. Hardest part if you’re living outside of the southwest would be finding the dried corn husks to wrap them in.
Some grocery stores will carry tamales that are wrapped in paper, with a small scrap of corn husk to add a tiny bit of flavor. This is NOT an adequate substitute.
I’ve never eaten a tamale but wonder if you’re supposed to eat the corn husk?
No. I mean, I guess you COULD, and there are people who eat shrimp shells (from peel-and-eat rather than some of the salt & pepper fried shrimp where it may be appropriate) but no.
No.
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No, you don’t eat the husk.
So, with tamales, this is what I have encountered and researched in my time on this earth:
There are three basic enclosures for them: corn husks, banana/plantain leaves, or paper (wax paper/parchement). This depends on where in North America you come across them. I have also heard of them being wrapped in hoja santa leaves, a leaf that is sometimes known as “the root beer plant” for its flavor being similar to the beverage. (I used to grow hoja santa in my backyard years ago.) But it seems if you can find something big enough to wrap the contents in, go for it.
For the fillings: basically, some corn product. Fresh masa is typical, but you can also used masa harina (masa flour) and reconstitute it with water. For Delta tamales or Chicago style corn roll tamales, you will sometimes find regular ol’ corn meal being used. (Masa is corn that has been treated with lime [calcium hydroxide] in a process called nixtamalization. That’s what’s used to make corn tortillas. You’ll also see nixtamilized corn in pozole.) I could imagine there being starchy tubers of some sort like yuca or something like that in a tamale, but I think at that point we might be drifting more towards Puerto Rican pasteles. That said, Mexico is a big place, so I would hesitate to say anything definitively.
Last night I was watching the TV mini series The Tourist, about a criminal suffering amnesia. He is taken for a Mexican meal because he doesn’t know if he likes Mexican (as if…) and perhaps it will stir a memory. This exchange takes place:
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This one? This is so good. What’s this one called again?
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Mm. That, my friend, is a burrito.
Fun fact alert: it means “little donkey” in Spanish. -
Hold on, am I–
am I eating a fucking donkey? -
No.
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Because I’m not okay with eating–
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No, no, no, no, no.
It is of course, 100% cat meat.
My parents once lived next door to a woman who, they said, made the best tamales in Santa Fe. Unfortunately, she got shut down, because the health department found a bunch of cat heads in her garbage can.
I was amazed to learn how many calories were in a plain 8" tortilla. Forget the number, but it was about 4x what I would have guessed
Oh, yeah. Lo=Cal they ain’t. Back when I used to get an Epic Scrambler from Del Taco for breakfast, I’d always just use the wrapper as a plate and dump the fillings and eat them with a fork. Damn tortilla was 400 calories!
According to Gerald Ford … yes.
Thanks for all of the answers about eating tamales. As for the OP, I recommend they visit Chipotle Mexican Grill, if they can find one nearby. They serve mission-style burritos similar to the ones you’d get in San Francisco. Probably not as good as many independent California taquerias but at least more widely available.
Also Detective Robinson when he’s grabbing a tamale from a food truck in the opening scene of Bosch S3E4. Actually, when you’re having tamales as street food, eating them straight out of the husk isn’t a bad strategy,
FWIW: Mission Carb Balance tortillas. Calories, 70. Carbohydrates: 19 g (less 15 g fibre = 4 g net). Granted, they’re not the 12-inch tortillas we grew up with.
First time I had one of those was in Spain, made by a Spanish woman I was seeing. Delicious.
The tortilla, or the woman?
Indeed.
FTR Rick Bayless says that it’s one tamal, two tamales.
Alternatively, see if there’s a Baja Fresh around. I routinely make two meals out of one Enchilado® style burrito (any of their standard burritos with tortilla chips on the side and the whole thing gets covered with enchilada sauce & shredded cheese).
