COLUMN: Tamale traditions - Learning to make tamales

My mom didn’t make tamales. She was the youngest of 11 and told me her older sisters and mom kept her out of the kitchen, so she didn’t learn how.

So during the holidays we’d go visit one of my aunts who made tamales. I always felt like somehow I missed out because even though I grew up eating tamales, I didn’t learn how to make them.

That all changed when my mom remarried. My stepfather was from Michoacan and an amazing cook. I loved his potato taquitos, his beef guisado and his homemade salsas that he made with peppers from his garden.

So one Christmas around 20 years ago I suggested we all make tamales. Ruben, my stepfather, and my mom, Santa, yes that is her name and she’s a saint, happily agreed.

Ruben prepped all the ingredients and we decided to make chicken tamales with a salsa verde and pork tamales with a salsa roja. He and my mom cooked the meats and Ruben made the salsas, of course.

We invited my siblings and a few nieces and nephews and we had an assembly line ready to make the tamales. We soaked the corn husks. Two people spread the masa in the husks. Two people added in the meat. Two rolled and folded the tamales. Then we put them in a big olla to steam.

Around 45 minutes later, I ate a pork tamal. It was delicious, perhaps made more so because I helped make them.

Red pork tamales are still my favorite. I prefer them thin without too much masa. In my travels to Oaxaca, Mexico, I also fell in love with chicken mole tamales wrapped in giant green banana leafs.

In my most recent trip to Oaxaca, I had the most authentic tamal I’ve ever tried. It was called tamal de barbacollita from an amazing restaurant called Levadura de Olla. They specialize in slow food and use indigenous recipes and cooking techniques.

The tamal was served in a clay pot with burning corn husks around the rim. It was an open faced tamal with a type of masa crumble, chicken, pork and spices. When the waiter served it to me, the husk embers glowed and then he poured a rich red sauce over the tamal. It was incredible.

There are so many varieties of tamales from the traditional to what I’d call nuevo tamales.

I’ve tried some of them at the Long Beach International Tamales Festival in past years.

They’ve included tamales with pork belly, sweet tamales made of sponge cake with chocolate and strawberry and vegan tamales in a banana leaf.

Tamales date back to 8,000 B.C. in Mesoamerica, where corn is a staple. The indigenous of Mexico originally cooked tamales over hot ashes. The Spanish conquistadors brought pots and pans and then people started steaming them. Today, tamales are part of our culture and holiday traditions.

One of my fondest tamale making experiences was in December 2020. My stepfather passed away in 2015. So my mom was living alone and so was I. We tested for COVID and then isolated together for several months during the pandemic. We decided to make tamales for Christmas, just the two of us.

I had the ingredients delivered to my apartment and we made chicken tamales with chile ancho, cheese and poblano tamales and sweet tamales. We spread the work out over two days and we wound up making 12 dozen tamales. That’s a lot of tamales for two people.

We couldn’t possibly eat them all. So I made tamale deliveries to friends. I dropped tamale bundles off at their front doors. Then we ate tamales on Christmas Eve and zoomed with the rest of my family around the country. After eating tamales for days, we froze the rest.

Next week, I’m going to Chicago to see my mom and family for the holidays. One thing I know for certain. Tamales are on the menu.