{"id":3252,"date":"2015-11-28T05:05:06","date_gmt":"2015-11-28T05:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2015\/11\/28\/let-s-talk-tamales-a-holiday-tradition-that-celebrates-the-harvest\/"},"modified":"2015-11-28T05:05:06","modified_gmt":"2015-11-28T05:05:06","slug":"let-s-talk-tamales-a-holiday-tradition-that-celebrates-the-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/let-s-talk-tamales-a-holiday-tradition-that-celebrates-the-harvest\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s talk tamales! A holiday tradition that celebrates the harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the most wonderful time of the year, when visions of ancho chilis dance in one\u2019s head. At least they do if tamales are a part of your holiday celebrations. For members of Elvia Aguilar\u2019s family, the holidays wouldn\u2019t be the same without the annual tradition of making \u2014 and eating \u2014 tamales.<\/p>\n

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Tamales are basically a filling of a seasoned meat and\/or vegetable mixture wrapped in a starchy dough and boiled inside a leaf wrapper. Their history may make them the original \u201cfast food,\u201d as they were eaten by Aztec and Mayan soldiers when heading into battle. They were convenient, quick to eat and easy to transport. So how did they become a staple at the holiday table?<\/p>

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For Elvia, her tamale education began as a young girl in Mexico. She says entire families \u2014 wives, husbands, children and grandchildren \u2014 would get together to make tamales in November and December after the corn harvest. The husks of the corn were saved for later use \u2014 as the \u201cwrappers\u201d for tamales.<\/p>\n

Elvia learned everything she knows about cooking from her mother, who she refers to as a fantastic cook and a bit of a perfectionist. \u201cPresentation was very important to her,\u201d Elvia says. \u201cI also learned from her that a good cook is someone whose food tastes good, but can\u2019t tell you what\u2019s in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job was to remove the silk of the corn. It was work, but it was fun,\u201d she says, describing her early tamale education. \u201cSince it was once a year, it was a real treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Elvia makes tamales with her own children and grandchildren in her East Moline home.<\/p>

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\u201cSometimes the grandchildren even bring friends over to help,\u201d she says. \u201cEach pair of hands has a job. The grandkids are learning what step comes next, and I don\u2019t even have to tell them. The youngest one was even at someone\u2019s house when they were making tamales, and she said, \u2018That\u2019s not how you do it!\u2019 I guess they did something a little different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elvia says she likes to prepare the meat the day before. She uses 5 pounds of pork, which is steam cooked for about two-and-a-half hours with salt and onion, then shredded.<\/p>

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\u201cI use shoulder or pork butt, and a little bit of grease is good,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The chiles (about 10 chiles anchos, seeds removed) are fried and ground, and then mixed with the meat, along with a clove of garlic and salt.<\/p>

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The dough is a combination of 5 pounds of masa, 1 pound of lard, 3 tablespoons of baking powder and salt to taste, all mixed until it\u2019s the consistency of peanut butter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mix the lard like you are making cake frosting,\u201d Elvia says. \u201cYou mix it with the masa until a piece will float in cold water.\u201d<\/p>

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The corn husks must be soaked, cleaned and dried, then spread with the dough.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrab and open a husk. Use about a tablespoon of dough for each. The dough should be spread just like spreading peanut butter on bread,\u201d Elvia says. \u201cThen another person puts the meat in the middle of the husk that\u2019s been spread with the dough. Then you roll it up and put it aside and start all over again with the next one, one by one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Elvia has about 100 tamales ready, she puts them into a steamer that\u2019s already hot and ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut them in standing up, cover and let simmer for about an hour. If you open one up and the husk separates from the dough, they are ready. Make sure you take them out of the steamer when they are hot so they don\u2019t get flat,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Elvia laughs when says she can always tell who has rolled each of the tamales. \u201cI like mine to be round and tight, but you can see which one of the kids made them by their shape,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Elvia\u2019s family members aren\u2019t the only ones who get to enjoy her tamales.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeighbors ask for them, too, and friends have asked me to make them for graduations. I tell them to bring me the ingredients, and I will make them. And I will be happy to teach anyone. Get a group together and come see me!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s the most wonderful time of the year, when visions of ancho chilis dance in one\u2019s head. At least they do if tamales are a part of your holiday celebrations. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}