I thought I'd start another thread so it could be found easier. I'll describe things as I learned them when I lived in Mexico and on the border. I've been in lots of Mexican kitchens including a very good friend of mine who is an outstanding cook.
To make fresh masa:
Dissolve lime in water and add dried corn. Heat and set aside overnight. Some time the next day....not too early... take up some kernels and rub them between your hands. If the husks come off pretty easily it is ready to rinse. Rinse several times. At least 3 or 4 to remove all the lime. Agitate the corn while rinsing. The husks will get rinsed away. Set up a hand crank grinder so that it will make mush/masa. Sometimes you have to run it through twice. The hand grinder is the same kind you can grind grains with.
To make tortillas with fresh masa:
Mix in a bit of salt and you might need to add just a bit of water to make it a nice cohesive dough. Place dough in a ziploc bag or wrap in saran wrap so that it doesn't dry out while you are making tortillas. Pinch off a piece somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a large egg. Roll into a ball and then flatten slightly. Take a ziploc bag and cut it into plastic sheets a bit bigger than your tortilla press. You will need 2 individual sheets. Place the ball of masa slightly towards the hinge edge of the press since it will push it towards the lever side. Have a sheet of plastic above and below the ball of dough. Press in a firm quick motion. Peel off top piece of plastic, flip tortilla onto your hand and gently peel off the other piece of plastic. Place on a barely smoking hot dry comal/griddle. Cook for about 1 minute and then turn and cook for a minute to minute and a half.
Making tamales:
There are many different types of tamales. Most folks north of the border have never had sweet tamales. They are made just like the more familiar meat tamales except you sweeten the masa and use some sort of fruit or syrup for the filling. I've had vegetarian tamales made with seasoned squash that were really good..
First you take your corn husks and put them in a bowl to soak in warm/hot water while getting everything else ready. Take some masa and hydrate it with broth(pot liquor) for a bit of extra flavor. Get it wet enough so that it will smear easily. Add a bit of salt to the masa. There are many different tamale fillings. I'll give the basics for pork tamales. Take your well cooked pork and season it to your liking. A traditional method is to stew it with dried chili's, onion, some tomato sauce. You can season your meat any way you like. Remove solids from the pot and mince fine. Add pot liquor as needed to make an easily spoonable/moldable texture.
Take a corn husk a bit wider than your palm(or at least my palm...lol) and a spoon of masa and smear it on the husk. Repeat until there is a thin even layer. Stop short of the very edges of the husk. Don't hesitate to tear the husks to get the correct size. You will smear in the middle portion so that the top and bottom can be folded up, so don't put masa on the whole thing. We do this assembly line style with a big group around the holidays. My job is almost always masa smearer Use a small amount of meat to make a line down the middle of the masa. Roll the corn husk in from the side then fold under both ends. You can take a narrow piece of corn husk and tie around it, but we never bother.
These can be frozen to be cooked later if desired.
Tamales are steamed. Tamale pots are common in Mexico and are basically big stock pots with a perforated plate on bottom to hold the tamales out of the water in the bottom that is doing the steaming. It shouldn't be too difficult to rig something up that will work if you don't have a tamale pot. We always made a huge kettle of tamales when we cooked them. Seems like we cooked the big kettle gently steaming with tamales stacked most of the way up for an hour or a bit more.
Tortillas from MaSeCa instant corn flour:
I actually made these for the first time tonight. I've been spoiled to always have fresh masa to work with or an amiga to make me tortillas. These turned out really well!
I used 1 cup of masa flour since I wanted to make a small amount of tortillas. 2 cups would be more of a normal amount. Add a small amount of salt(tells you in directions). Then add water until it makes a dough. I used very warm water as I think it hydrates it better. Let dough set covered for 10-15 minutes. Do not let dough dry out. Next time I will see if using half broth and half water makes a difference. Press out and cook like described above for tortillas made from fresh masa.
To make fresh masa:
Dissolve lime in water and add dried corn. Heat and set aside overnight. Some time the next day....not too early... take up some kernels and rub them between your hands. If the husks come off pretty easily it is ready to rinse. Rinse several times. At least 3 or 4 to remove all the lime. Agitate the corn while rinsing. The husks will get rinsed away. Set up a hand crank grinder so that it will make mush/masa. Sometimes you have to run it through twice. The hand grinder is the same kind you can grind grains with.
To make tortillas with fresh masa:
Mix in a bit of salt and you might need to add just a bit of water to make it a nice cohesive dough. Place dough in a ziploc bag or wrap in saran wrap so that it doesn't dry out while you are making tortillas. Pinch off a piece somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a large egg. Roll into a ball and then flatten slightly. Take a ziploc bag and cut it into plastic sheets a bit bigger than your tortilla press. You will need 2 individual sheets. Place the ball of masa slightly towards the hinge edge of the press since it will push it towards the lever side. Have a sheet of plastic above and below the ball of dough. Press in a firm quick motion. Peel off top piece of plastic, flip tortilla onto your hand and gently peel off the other piece of plastic. Place on a barely smoking hot dry comal/griddle. Cook for about 1 minute and then turn and cook for a minute to minute and a half.
Making tamales:
There are many different types of tamales. Most folks north of the border have never had sweet tamales. They are made just like the more familiar meat tamales except you sweeten the masa and use some sort of fruit or syrup for the filling. I've had vegetarian tamales made with seasoned squash that were really good..
First you take your corn husks and put them in a bowl to soak in warm/hot water while getting everything else ready. Take some masa and hydrate it with broth(pot liquor) for a bit of extra flavor. Get it wet enough so that it will smear easily. Add a bit of salt to the masa. There are many different tamale fillings. I'll give the basics for pork tamales. Take your well cooked pork and season it to your liking. A traditional method is to stew it with dried chili's, onion, some tomato sauce. You can season your meat any way you like. Remove solids from the pot and mince fine. Add pot liquor as needed to make an easily spoonable/moldable texture.
Take a corn husk a bit wider than your palm(or at least my palm...lol) and a spoon of masa and smear it on the husk. Repeat until there is a thin even layer. Stop short of the very edges of the husk. Don't hesitate to tear the husks to get the correct size. You will smear in the middle portion so that the top and bottom can be folded up, so don't put masa on the whole thing. We do this assembly line style with a big group around the holidays. My job is almost always masa smearer Use a small amount of meat to make a line down the middle of the masa. Roll the corn husk in from the side then fold under both ends. You can take a narrow piece of corn husk and tie around it, but we never bother.
These can be frozen to be cooked later if desired.
Tamales are steamed. Tamale pots are common in Mexico and are basically big stock pots with a perforated plate on bottom to hold the tamales out of the water in the bottom that is doing the steaming. It shouldn't be too difficult to rig something up that will work if you don't have a tamale pot. We always made a huge kettle of tamales when we cooked them. Seems like we cooked the big kettle gently steaming with tamales stacked most of the way up for an hour or a bit more.
Tortillas from MaSeCa instant corn flour:
I actually made these for the first time tonight. I've been spoiled to always have fresh masa to work with or an amiga to make me tortillas. These turned out really well!
I used 1 cup of masa flour since I wanted to make a small amount of tortillas. 2 cups would be more of a normal amount. Add a small amount of salt(tells you in directions). Then add water until it makes a dough. I used very warm water as I think it hydrates it better. Let dough set covered for 10-15 minutes. Do not let dough dry out. Next time I will see if using half broth and half water makes a difference. Press out and cook like described above for tortillas made from fresh masa.