C Is For Corn Husks.

As you may or may not recall, I've decided to work my way through the alphabet with foods I haven't eaten before. Today's letter is C for corn husks. OK, OK. Don't get all techie with me. I actually don't eat the husks, but I do use them.

Now, I happened to have Food Network on in the background the other day and Guy Fee-ye-tee was on with his sister and his band of homies. He was making tamales.
And, never having made tamales before, I said to myself, "Self, you should try that."
I could kill two birds with one stone here and have T for tamale too, but Rosie don't do no stinkin' shortcuts.

Now, remember the other day when I made my notpuffytacos?
I still had some of the bean and country rib mixture left over so I decided to use that for the stuffing. I did, however, use Guy's seasoned sour cream.

Here are my corn husks and masa harina.

I soaked my husks in warm water for about 45 minutes.

Here, I've mixed the masa, salt, and a cup or so of water and am adding 2 tablespoons of butter.

I added enough water to make a nice dough.

And, by the way, remember how my notpuffytacos were not puffy?
It might have had something to do with the masa harina.
I bought a new bag of masa for these tamales and had a bit of the old masa left.
When I compared them, the new masa was much whiter than the old masa, so perhaps the masa I used for the notpuffytacos was just too old to work right.

Meanwhile, I'm making Guy's seasoned sour cream. And those of you who know me, know that it pains me to say that, 'cause I just hate that freakin' tool.

All you do is mix the sour cream, salt and pepper, lime juice, minced garlic, and cilantro.


In the meantime, Mr. Hawthorne decided my leftover bean and pork rib mixture needed a boost, so he browned up some on-sale $1.78/pound ground chuck and then added the bean/pork mixture.



Mr. H. added some V-8 juice to the mix. He deemed it necessary to add some spicy-tomatoey something-or-other.


Next, I pressed some of the masa harina dough onto the corn husk.

Added the meat mixture on top.

Then I wrapped up my tamales.
Guess which tamale Mr. Hawthorne made.
It must be very difficult being Mr. Hawthorne.

I put the tamales on a grate to steam them for about 45 minutes on the stove top.
Cover and steam.

45 minutes later.

Open up the corn husk, add some sour cream, and this was quite good.

Now, I had a bit of the masa harina mixture left.
I couldn't find my tortilla press so I used my great-grandmother's pizzelli iron.

Isn't this pretty?

When I fried the taco, the design went away.
But LOOKIE , LOOKIE.
It's a PUFFY TORTILLA!

This was the best taco I've ever had in my life.
Hands down.
I ground some kosher salt over top while it was still hot.
Then I picked off a piece and it was DEE- LISH- US.
It was sweet.
And DEE- LISH- US.
You should try this.