A tamale jolly Christmas

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Dec 15, 2004 by TERESA J. FARNEY THE GAZETTE

Ah, the mouth-watering foods of Christmas: Gingerbread. Sugar cookies. Prime rib. Goose.

Tamales.

Yes, tamales. Although you might not find them in a Norman Rockwell depiction of a holiday feast, those corn husk-wrapped staples of many a Mexican restaurant do, indeed, have a place on the Christmas table, at least in the Hispanic community.

Each year during the Christmas season, extended Hispanic families gather for a tamalada -- a tamale-making party -- that starts early in the morning and lasts until dozens of corn husks are coated with masa (a corn-based dough), topped with a filling and rolled up for steaming.

Tamaladas are where Dorothy Russel learned to make the tamales that would become the backbone of her food-vending business in Hartsel.

And they're an annual event for Mario Montao, an associate professor of anthropology at Colorado College who gathers family, friends and students every December to make batches of tamales. Montao says the roots of the tradition go back centuries in Mexico, where Aztec women would make a version of tamales in the marketplace.

"It was generally thought of as women's work -- an assembly line process with a divi- sion of labor by age," says Montao, an expert on Mexican cuisine. "The youngest little girls would learn how to spread the masa in a very thin layer to within about an inch of the edges of corn husks. The next-older ones would put on the meat filling, and teenagers would fold or tie up the tamale. The mothers and grandmothers were in charge of being sure the sauce was cooked and seasoned just right."

But the Aztecs didn't celebrate Christmas, so how did tamales become associated with the holiday? Montao says it has to do with the Spanish conqueror Hernando Corts. In November 1519, Corts and his army visited what is now Mexico City and saw tamales being made at the market. Montao believes that, since it was near Christmas time, the Spaniards may have linked tamale making with the celebration of the holiday.

There is another theory, however, told partly in jest. Carla Navarrete, who makes tamales with Russel, says, "The reason Mexicans eat tamales at Christmas is that, so often, the families were so poor that at least they would have something to open -- like a present."

Whatever the reason behind the Christmas tradition, the result is the same: mouthwatering bundles of flavor painstakingly made over the course of a day -- or even longer.

When we talk about tamales, let's get one thing straight: Fresh tamales, properly made, are a far cry from the gluey, heavy examples often served in Tex-Mex restaurants or found in the frozen food area of the grocery store. The goal is to make light, tender and deliciously fragrant tamales that melt in the mouth.

That's why it's so important to master spreading a thin layer of masa on the corn husks. The texture of the masa is key.

"You want it to be like thick pancake batter," says Russel, who has been running her successful tamale-making business since 1999. Inside a bright blue semi-trailer in Hartsel, she and her employee, Navarrete, make at least 40 dozen tamales a day and sell them roadside to people driving along U.S. Highway 24.

Like most Hispanics, Russel and Navarrete learned to make tamales as little girls. Russel would make them for her family's tamalada as a young girl growing up in Denver. It was a time-consuming affair.

"It takes three days to make tamales -- one day to roast the meat and shred it, another day to make the sauce and another day to roll the tamales," she says. "When my mother first let me spread the masa on the corn husk, it took me forever. She would have 10 done before I could finish one."

Now that she has a business, however, she's streamlined the process and multitasks in order to keep her tamale production going. She makes tamales daily from meat and sauces that are cooked about once a week or as needed. She and Navarrete start making tamales at 5 a.m. with the premade meat and sauces. On weekends, Russel's daughters and grandchildren get in on the process. But smearing the masa on the corn husks is done only by Russel and Navarrete.

"I want to end up with 4-ounce tamales," she says. "We know by looking and feeling when we have scooped out 2 ounces of masa. And we can spread it fast because we have been doing it so long and it keeps our production time up."

She uses masa harina, a cornmeal-like substance, to make tamale masa. Masa harina is made from a special type of large-kernel corn, grown specifically for this purpose. It is dried and cooked in a mixture of water and calcium oxide (lime-water). Then it is drained and dried again and ground into fine cornmeal.

At least Russel doesn't have to make her own masa harina; she uses the Quaker brand, which can be found in grocery stores.

"I use the tamale recipe right on the bag," she says.

However, she does not make her masa with lard, which is often called for in tamale recipes.

"That's because I make vegetarian tamales in addition to the pork and bison ones," she says. "I don't want to get the masa mixtures mixed up. I add some garlic powder to my masa for flavor."