I live in a neighborhood with a HUGE Mexican population, and TONS of grocery stores and little restarantes, these little stands outside in the summer that sell Tamalis and tacos and all sorts of nummy treats.
I just bought some for a dollar (!!!) a piece, and thought, wow I bet I could make this myself if I knew how.
Does someone have a recipie that's easy? I can get corn husks very easily, and would LOVE to learn to cook my own (hello, delicious lunch!)
Tamales are an all day affair. Seriously, they're freaking difficult. My grandma used to make them for christmas but they're such a chore that she's started buying them instead. If you've found some for a dollar a piece that's pretty good. If it was me I'd just keep buying them. Sorry to discourage you but even now whenever I visit my dad I bring him a cooler full of tamales wrapped in dry ice from his favorite vendor. He doesn't have the time to make them either.
I made tamales once about a year ago. It took along time, but I think the most time consuming part was going through the corn husks to find decent ones. Alot of the corn husks have holes from bugs eating them. I'm really picky about that kind of stuff, I think some people just use the ones with holes anyways.
You can buy the masa from the grocery store and make it yourself or you can buy it premade, which will save time. I bought mine premade from the meat department at a mexican market.
If you have a crock pot, you can buy a pork shoulder (unless you don't like pork) and cook it all night. Then it shreds easy.
You pretty much just spread some masa on the corn husk, put some filling in it (pork, beef, chicken or whatever) and roll it up. Then you steam them until they are done.
BDs sister makes some of the best tamales I've ever had, so I am going to make them with her soon to see exactly how she does it, because mine weren't exactly how I wanted them~ I think mostly because I did not know how to season the meat.
It takes a long time, but it makes alot, so you can freeze whatever you don't eat and reheat them later.
Tamales take like 8 hours to make.
I found a recipe online a few years ago, just by searching on yahoo.