Hot tamale!

My mom has been making tamales for a year or two now and gave me the recipe. I haven't had the need to make them yet though because when she came to visit, she made a big batch and put them in my freezer. Well the other day I decided to attempt making them myself and I have a disclaimer - you need to have time dedicated to this process and you need to have a lot of patience. I do not have a lot of patience. I got very angry at my tamales.

The original recipe is here. The only thing I really changed was what goes inside. It's really whatever veggies you have on hand.

Need:

-1 package Corn Husks

FOR THE DOUGH:

-2 cups Masa
-1 teaspoon Baking Powder
-¾ teaspoons Salt
-2 teaspoons Cumin
-2 teaspoons Chili Powder
-2-¼ cups Veggie Broth
-1/2 cup butter

FOR THE FILLING: (this is what I used. Look at the original post to see what she used, or just mix a bunch of veggies together and call it a day.)

-1 frozen bag of tomatoes and onions
-1 frozen bag of peas and carrots
-1 small can of corn

My mom found corn husks at Walmart, but I had to go to a specialty grocery store to find mine. You may have to do a little research to get them

1. Start off by soaking your corn husks in water for at least 30 minutes.

2. Grab a bowl and add in the masa, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and 1 teaspoon of both the cumin, and chili powder.

3. Now add 2 cups of the veggie broth to your mixture and form a dough.

4.Whip up the butter and add the masa dough in and mix it up well again. Set your finished dough aside and make the filling.

5. Add a little oil to a pan and sautee up those veggies. Add the last 1/4 cup of veggie broth and any additional spices you'd like.

My husband has a really weird habit of buying random frozen veggies, then never using them. So, I always seem to have a stockpile of mixed veggies in the freezer

6. Now, it's time to make the tamales. This is where I had issues - Grab one of your soaked corn husks and smooth some of your Masa mixture on it. Don't get too close to the edge because you'll have the dough spilling out when you wrap them.

7. Now, take a spoonful of your veggie filling and place it down the middle third of your tamale. Again, make sure to leave a bit of space at the ends.

8. This is the second place I had issues, wrapping them. The original post says, "Wrap it up like you would a burrito and tie off the husk. I used another corn husk to tie it up." This was not as easy as she says. I had dough everywhere.

9. Grab a steamer pot, add about 2 quarts of water and steam the for about 90 minutes on medium high heat then check them. They may need some more time. The dough should be firm. If you don't have a steamer pot, you can do like the original post and I use a large stock pot and place a noodle strainer inside of it with the pot cover over the top. Make sure that your tamales aren’t touching the water. Periodically check your water level to ensure you don't boil it away and burn your pot.

Once they're done you have a couple options - 1. Throw some lettuce on a plate, unwrap a couple tamales, throw on some hot sauce and sour cream and dig in! 2. Let them cool and then freeze them. When you're ready to eat them, just steam them again till they're cooked. I ate on mine for a week.