Adventures in Tamale Making ~ Part I

Tamales. Every year around Christmas time Husband tells me about how back in El Paso they would all gather at his Abuela Carmen’s house to make tamales. In most Latino families making tamales at Christmas is tradition. It is to them what the Christmas cookie is to us white folk. And like the Christmas cookie there are several different types of tamales. Husband’s Abeula makes the traditional pork tamales and she makes a sweet one too. It is the sweet one that the entire family talks about. I have never tasted one of her sweet tamales but from what I hear it is the stuff of legend. Since Husband and I got hitched this year and don’t have any traditions of our own I decided that we should try to blend the traditions of our respective families. So on Christmas Eve we will have tamales and for Christmas dinner I will make lasagna which is my family tradition (as us Norwegians are known for our mad lasagna making skills). So…yeah…tamales. While I have eaten many I have never attempted to make one. They are a lot of work and I always figured that I would learn to make them from Husband’s family while visiting for Christmas. That isn’t going to happen this year so I am forging into tamale making on my own. And because I am overly ambitious when it comes to food I am attempting four different kinds; two savory and two sweet. I am feeling pretty confident about three of the four as I have recipes for those. It is the third, Abeula Carmen’s sweet tamales, which have me worried. Husband’s mom has asked for the recipe several times and has gotten ingredients, but not how much of each ingredient. Only Abeula Carmen knows that. She makes them like this…a pinch of this and a dash of that…mix it together…and voila the best tamales you have ever eaten. Easy right? So I am going to give the often imitated but never duplicated sweet tamales a go. I have a list of ingredients, no tamales making skills, and no idea what this sweet tamale is supposed to taste like…what could go wrong?