Each new day contains the chance for a new experience. Each upcoming minute you can try something you haven't done before and also the chance for do-overs. I challenged myself to make a new recipe called a gordita. It was a recipe on the back of the bag. I thought why not? Usually the recipe is kitchen tested so that all who try the recipe may experience the same results. So I made a batch of the dough and it was a fairly good amount. I cooked up a few gorditas just enough for two and had lots dough remaining. Here I was left with a big ball of dough and I hadn't really enjoyed the taste enough to want to eat it again. What could I do?
A light bulb popped over the top of my head from my creative energy, why not make tamales with it? I researched the Internet to see if anyone else might have ran into the same problem. I found recipes and techniques for tamales handy but I just had to try with my adaptation. I stopped by the store and picked up corn husks. I had left over tri-tip that I chopped up with a little sauce. (Still working on this part of the recipe-- the inner stuffing.)
As I started preparing the outer part of tamales, my son's girlfriend was over for dinner and she watched me pat the gordita dough into the corn husks. She was eager to help. Next thing I knew we had prepared at least 14 tamales with the dough and a meat & cheese stuffing.
My technique for steaming the tamales was a little challenging. I had on hand a bamboo steamer that would fit into my wok. Yes- I decide to adapt an Asian cooking method for Mexican cuisine. I made sure to rotate my bamboo boxes to make sure the tamales all cooked equally. Finally when I thought they were almost done, I pulled one out to try. We each had a fork in hand ready to take a steamy bite of tamale goodness. This bite was enough to erase our thinking on how hard it was to make tamales in prior attempts. Definitely we both learned that we could make tamales and make them taste good. We just needed to try with leftover gordita dough and a bamboo steamer.
Have fun cooking!
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