Vegetarian Tamales!

Yesterday, I devoted the afternoon and early evening to making tamale from scratch.
Tamales are not easy to make and they're a bit labor intensive, but they're soooo worth it!

They came out pretty damn good. I have to say that I am proud.
Thanks to The PPK's show on tamales, I was well-informed. ;)

First, I bought the ingredients:
* MASECA brand masa harina (special corn flour that's been treated with lime)
* CRISCO (gross, I know, but you need to add some fat ... at least it's vegetable fat [it's actually vegan!])
* Corn husks to wrap them (I bought them dry in a bag)
* Veggie broth (I buy boxed rather than make my own)
and filling ingredients:
* 4 ears corn
* 1 onion
* 1 bag shredded Mexican blend cheese
* 1 can chipotle peppers in Adobo

Then, I steamed the ears of corn for 10 mins and sautéed the onion until it was nice and brown.
Once it had cooled a bit, I cut the corn off the cob and cut up the chipotles.
WARNING: Chipotles are hot. I usually wear gloves to cut up hot peppers, but I forgot this time and my hands suffered badly.
They were in a lot of pain and it took about 5 good washes until they were better. =(

Then I made the dough by combining 4 cups of the masa harina, 1.25 cups of CRISCO,
and 4 cups of heated veggie broth by hand. (It's messy, but I enjoyed it. heh)

Then I boiled the dry corn husks until they were pliable.

Next, I put down a corn husk, put a bit of the dough on top, and then layered a chipotle,
some onions, some cheese and some corn. Then I put some more dough on top
to seal those ingredients in. Then you wrap up the husk. (The PPK show can show you this in detail.)

The results ... A messy kitchen, but a lovely stack of delicious tamales. Mmm Mmm good.