Tamale weekend has been an annual tradition in my family for yeaaaars! Alike to many other families, the holidays = tamale time. My family takes it to a whole other level. Usually, at the beginning of November, we will gather together and make enough tamales to last all year. This year we made 1,020 tamales to split between us all. We freeze them and make them throughout the year. We actually almost made 3,000 in one year.
This recipe is definitely a family secret and sadly I won’t be able to share it with all of you BUT I can share some of the memories we made this year. You guys can get a peek inside what this tamale weekend is like.
So this tamale weekend starts long before the weekend. We had to prep everything for assembly. Thursday we started with cooking the beef and then Friday we shredded the chicken.
Next up, we had to prepare all of our vegetables and all the small delicious elements that make our tamales OURS. We slice and dice and then boil them up and set them in water so they don’t brown.
Once we get everything prepared we get it all set up in trays so it's ready for assembly.
One of the last things we prepare is the masa and the husks.
Husks soak overnight and then we dry them in towels so they’re ready to use.
It is finally Saturday and it is time to start getting the tamales made. We had a whole setup and made sure to have food and refreshments, it’s a long day.
My lovely Aunt Diane brought a fun twist on the mimosa. It was rosé, champagne, pineapple orange juice, and blood orange Pellegrino mixed together.
Now it was time to get to work! Our food was ready to go and so were we. We had a few hiccups and extra trips to the store but we got them made! We had to work a couple more hours on Sunday for the last hundred or so. It went pretty smoothly and we ended up making a few to snack on (and keep us motivated).
The completed product 🙌🏼. My family's tamales are by far my favorite. The struggle and long hours we put into them make them even more delicious.
My great-grandma is the reason we even have this amazing recipe, to begin with. She used to make them and sell them in her hometown in Mexico. My grandpa taught my mom and her siblings and it became a family tradition to make them every year.