Homemade tamales

Made tamales with a friend this weekend -- so much effort, but so

Made tamales with a friend this weekend — so much effort, but so much fun (and the end product was worth it — lighter and fluffier than commercial tamales).

* Tamales: Top layer is pork carnitas and mole sauce, bottom layer is fresh corn, Oaxaca cheese and tomatillo sauce
* Chontaleño blanco cheese, and tomatoes
* homemade guacamole, salsa verde, and Salvadorean crema
* grilled flap meat finished with a sweet and sour chipotle sauce (recipe from Cook’s Illustrated)
* white cranberry, peach and apple juice cut with water

All packed in my Lock & Lock bento set here and here.

Tamales in the steamer. Corn on the left, carnitas on the right. Yum!

 

Covered with the extra corn husks before steaming, aluminum foil loosely wadded and stuffed into the gap between the two sets of tamales:

 

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