Homestead mailing list

["Robert Walton" <waltonrp AT gmail.com>]

Nice tamal technique, James. In a lot of places, they use banana
leaves for the wrapping. Some on this list can grow bananas that may
not fruit, but the leaves are useful for wraping tamales and meats for
cooking. Different flavor than corn husks. Here people buy the frozen
leaves and wrap once in that and then in foil.

Another wrapping sub is squash leaves. You can pretty much wrap a
tamal in a large squash leaf. Really nice flavor. All the leaves are
run over hot coals or dipped quickly in hot water to soften them
first.

Here is a good addition to tamal masa that gives a really good flavor.
Render out some pork fat. Take the cracklings and grind them up and
mix that in your masa along with the broth. Learned that in El
Salvador. They also make bean tamales, with beans or lentils cooked
down until thick enough to work with. Good meat substitution.

Rob - Va