Tamales

I made tamales. that's right i did. Yesterday my dad I went into an adventure of making tamales. We always had other people making it but this time we decided to do it ourselves. Panamanian tamales are quite delicious but it takes lots of work. Believe it or not I was not scared doing tamales mainly because I was clueless in what to do. My dad had an idea but got few more pointers from my great Nonna.

So we started to make the tamales. Everything was looking good. We were excited but at the same time nervous. But once our guiso was yummy and ready, the nerves went out the window and the excitement kick in. Then we cook the chicken in our wonderful sauce and seasonings, then it was shredded (traditional tamales comes with a piece of chicken and a piece of pork) but we made our own version. The olives, raisins, prunes, capers, peas and banana leaves were all ready. The smells were oh so intoxicating. The masa was the hardest part; trying to blend the sauce into the corn was difficult, it really needed some muscle grease. WOW dad hands were so tired........but the effort paid off.


Once everything was ready it was time to assemble them. We put all the wonderful ingredients and wrap them in hojas de tallo (banana leaves)and voila! you have a tamal. we made 50 tamales..... by the time we were doing the last tamal I was so tired that I couldn't feel my legs or arms...

Then you boil them in water and salt for 30 minutes or so.

I was so exhausted that all i wanted to do was go to bed. Today I was able to try my tamales and I must say; not bad for a first time. I'm proud of my dad and myself for taking up the challenge.

I hope everyone enjoy it as much as i did....Good eats everyone!