Tradition

I don't know about you, but I am slightly fearful of loosing some traditions. For instance, Spanish is the primary language of my family, but my generation and the generation after is lessening the amount Spanish spoken and also the amount learned. A really big tradition in my family is cooking. I have some of the best cooks in my family. Serious. And the funny thing is, all the things they cook are in their head. Once I asked my Abuelita to teach me to make homemade tortillas...the recipe went something like: 4 handfuls of flower. 1 handful of lard. 1 pinch of salt. a little bit of water. They just know how much of whatever, but there are no such things as "cookbooks" in my mom's family. I've been wanting to make some tamales for a while, so I talked to my aunt Abby, and we made it happen. I can't tell you the recipe, but here is the gist:
soak corn husks. Deseed and boil about a trillion dried red chili peppers. blend with oregano, onion and garlic. Sift through fine sifter to keep out seeds and skin. Buy the maza from a Mexican store. Mix with lard and oregano. Cook shoulder of pork, shred. mix pork with blended sauce. spread Maza mixture onto corn husks, spread a fair amount of pork and sauce onto maza. Fold, wrap in parchment paper for less mess. Layer it all into a big pot with water in the bottom (do not let tamales touch the water) steam for about an hour. Eat the most mind blowing tamales ever.
Sadly, pretty much no one in my generation cooks (I can't speak for the ones in Mexico, maybe they do) but us ladies here might be doomed. I am trying though. I made me first batch of Chile Verde the very next day...it was a success!


My aunt said "plan on about 4 or 5 hours." What she should have said..."plan on 8" It was a long day, but well worth it. I asked my aunt, did you just make these so often you remember by heart? She said whenever Abuelita Margarita (my great grandmother) would come into town she would make Rosita tamales. My question was what makes Rosita so special to get her own batch of tamales, she is my mom's cousin, and apparently she was the spoiled one. I hope Rosita doesn't read this or else I just started a family feud. Really. But ANYWAY every time she came into town she enlisted my aunts to help her make the tamales. Things don't quite happen like that anymore...being that everyone basically lives in the same town around here:)