Christmas season also means 'tamalada' season

The tamalada is a tradition as old as -- well, as old as corn. And that's pretty old, considering the experts believe that corn was domesticated at least 5,600 years ago in what are now southern Mexico and Central America.

The tamalada, or tamale-making party, most likely originated out of necessity to secure a food supply during the times when corn and other products weren't available. Corn kernels were dried and treated, then ground to a flour. Mixed with water and other liquids, the corn flour became a dough from which many things were and are made. Tortillas, tamales and enchiladas are but the most obvious and recognizable.

Now, the tamalada is both tradition and celebration, in that it brings families and groups of like-minded people together to prepare food, refresh and rejuvenate relationships and celebrate the season.

Thus it is so that the long-standing -- yet recently dormant -- Oropeza-Martinez family tamalada will be on Sunday at the house of my suegra, Ramona Martinez. Three daughters, three sons-in-law and at least a couple of grandchildren are expected to take part.

A full report on the tamalada will be posted soon.

Deconstruction: pork tamales to tacos, enchiladas

Corn is the foundation of Mexican food.

Whether that corn is roasted on the cob or, in its more common form in Mexican cuisine, dried, milled and turned into masa harina, or corn flour, it is the basis for a vast array of dishes.

That's why I used Mexican food for "The Plate," a research project for culinary school. The assignment in Culinary Foundations II class was to write a paper describing a plate of food and then describing how it could be deconstructed and rebuilt using different cooking techniques and coming up with a different plate.

The idea is to instill in us the ability to think creatively when building menus and learning to use food products in different ways.

I started with pork and red chile tamales and whole pinto beans. I ended with tacos de carnitas, Sonoran enchiladas dipped in red chile sauce and refritos, or refried beans.

The key was corn, more specifically masa harina, the milled corn flour used to make tamales, tortillas and enchiladas. Instead of preparing the masa for spreading onto corn husks and then filled with meat for steaming as tamales, I proposed preparing the masa for making into corn tortillas to be used for tacos and flat enchiladas to be fried and dipped into red chile sauce.

In the original manifestation, the cooking techniques included braising the pork, sauté for elements of the chile sauce, steaming for completing the tamales and poaching for the beans.

For the new plate, the techniques included roasting the pork, roasting for elements of the chile sauce, sauté for making the tortillas, (deep) frying for the enchiladas and a combination of poaching and sauté for the beans.

I will turn in the research paper today. Then will come the true challenge -- actually making the two plates -- tamales and whole beans; tascos, enchiladas and refritos -- from scratch. We don't have to demonstrate that for class, but I plan to do it just for the practice of it.

Same products -- corn, pork, chiles, beans -- but different meals, different tastes and flavors.

Construct a meal; for fun, deconstruct it

Assemble a list of ingredients and give to each of a half-dozen good cooks, and you will get a half-dozen different results. Each will use a different approach, different cooking techniques and different presentations.

Assemble a list of ingredients for one cook and ask for a specific, traditional preparation. Then, ask for a new preparation using the same fundamental ingredients but prepared, cooked and presented differently.

That's called deconstruction, and it is used as an exercise for cooks and chefs to instill thinking along with the creativity that they ought to bring to the prep table. In Culinary Foundations II, we must do a hypothetical deconstruction -- that is, write a paper on how we would do it -- in a project that Chef Dan Fluharty calls "The Plate." The project deadline is Friday.

I have selected a classic dish from my cultural heritage for presentation and then deconstruction -- red chile tamales. It's a propitious time, because they are traditionally made at the holidays in Mexican and Mexican-American homes. My mom and my tias made them by the tens of dozens for Christmas and New Year's Day, and I plan to do the same this year.

How will I deconstruct them? Doing so requires going back to the basic ingredients that make up a tamal. Starting with the basics, I will build a new menu. The results will be posted here by the end of the week, so please come back to take a look.

(Photo credit: www.finecooking.com)

Speaking of Mom's cooking ...

Los Tucsonenses know: The kitchen in heaven is where green corn tamales come from.

The unique, melt-in-your-mouth tamales are among the delicacies of genuine Sonoran cuisine -- along with menudo blanco and paper-thin flour tortillas.

That green corn tamales usually are available only in late summer, when the white corn is ripe and the green chiles are at their sweetest, makes them even more desirable and delicious.

My mom and my tias worked every August and September on big batches of tamales. We kids were the laborers, husking the corn, cutting the kernels and taking them to the molino at the Chinese market down the street. The result was masa, the corn meal that is at the root of all tamales.

From them, my mom fashioned the tamales, with a little manteca, cheese and roasted chiles. After an hour or so of steaming, we were gorging ourselves on the delicious tamales, accompanied by fresh-made beans.

For the first time ever, I tried to replicate that recipe on my own on Sunday, buying white corn, green chiles and good Jack cheese at the farmers' market. A small batch -- just four cups of corn kernels -- produced 10 tamales. They were a bit coarse, but the authentic flavor came through.

Ah, green corn tamales as my mom made them. They come from heaven's kitchen.