Gina Kim invites Blanca Estrella, who is opening the Mexican restaurant Sabores in Roseville , to show her how to prepare and make tamales. Recipe link to come soon. Video by Scott R. Craig. To see a higher resolution video, please visit http://videos.sacbee.com

Video Transcription

Gina: Hello, I’m Gina Kim in “In the Kitchen.” We have Blanca Austria who is opening a new restaurant in Roseville called “Sabotas” which means flavors in Spanish, right? Blanca: Yes. Gina: And we’re going to be making Tamales which is a holiday tradition for many families. So, our first step here is to prepare our filling and today we’re doing pork Tamales and what kind of the pork is this? Blanca: This is pork bun. Gina: Okay, and you can buy in that any market. Blanca: At any market. Gina: And store. And how are we starting this off? I guess we’re boiling it. Blanca: Yes, we have a pot-filled boiling water and we add onion, a whole onion. Gina: Don’t cut it up. Blanca: Don’t cut it up just add the whole onion. We used four cloves of garlic and we put this in our pot with the meat and we add salt. We have all these ingredients to store in the pot. We add the salt to that boiling water. We cover it and we let it cook for an hour and a half to two hours. Gina: How do you know when it’s done? Blanca: You check with the fork. If the meat is tender then you know that the meat is ready. Gina: So it should shred very easily. Blanca: While our meat is cooking we’re going to be using our new Mexico chili peppers and we’re going to put them in the pot of water. Gina: Okay and we want to boil that. Blanca: We want to boil that for about 10 minutes. Gina: So now that our chilies have cooked and they’re nice and soft. We put them in the blender and reserve some of the cooking water and we fill it out about half ways or about half cover and what do we do now? Blanca: We’re going to add some garlic to the blender and we’re going to blend it so it’s nice and smooth. Gina: Okay. Blanca: And now we want to strain it. Gina: Get out all the seeds and the chunks. Blanca: Yes. Gina: Okay. Blanca: And you want it to be like smooth Gina: Consistency like this one here. Blanca: Yes, once our meat is done and cools enough to handle we start shredding it by hand, we add our sauce to it, and this is your finish product. Gina: So, this is our filling. Blanca: This is our filling. Gina: Okay. Blanca: Now, that our meat is real cooked. Gina: Okay and we’ve had it in the fridge for about 4 to 5 hours? Blanca: Yes. Gina: And why does it need to be cool? Blanca: It needs to be cool for the consistency of the meat so it will be easier to spread on our “masa”. Gina: Okay. Blanca: We’re going to add a little bit of the chili sauce that we’ve had for our “masa” to give it a little bit of color. Gina: And this “masa” is pre-bought, right. We got this at last Brown’s market. Blanca: We see how it gives it a nice color Gina: And you’ve got to do it by your hands otherwise it’s not quite authentic, is it? Blanca: Yes. Gina: So, this is the fun part. We get to spread the “masa” and the husks and we soaked them for about 10 to 20 minutes. Blanca: We soaked the husks for about 20 to 30 minutes, it won’t matter. Gina: Okay. Blanca: You want them to be soft, soaked there and so let’s start, show me how to do this. Gina: You get your little spatula here. What you do is just spread your “masa” and you start halfway down or? Blanca: I start halfway in the middle and then spread it to the sides. Gina: You wanted the whole thing all the way to the sides? Blanca: All the way down to the bottom of the husks. Gina: And how thick do you want it to be? Blanca: You don’t want it too thick, you need thin because when the “masa” cooks it spreads, it— Gina: Expands. Blanca: Expands, right. Gina: And so you don’t want a mouth full of “masa”, you want more—fun filling Blanca: Right, the meat. Gina: And how much meat do you put in? Blanca: The meat is to your-- it’s up to you how much meat you want to have in your “masa” and you come on. Gina: It’s a kind of pick and cheese now we’re folding. Blanca: Correct, we’re folding and we fold it three ways and two and bring it down and here is what we come up. Gina: So we have one final step here. We’re going to be actually wrapping our Tamales in paper. Blanca: Yes, we are. Gina: And why, what is the purpose of this? Blanca: This is to keep the steam in and it keeps our Tamales more thoroughly. Gina: And so it keeps the filling from falling out, too. Blanca: It keeps the filling from falling out. Gina: And we’re going to steam them? We got our pot here. Blanca: With our pot here, we’re going to steam them. Gina: So, we can throw this in just any all the way just like that? Blanca: No, this you could throw any over, yes. Gina: Yes, but if you don’t have the paper you can also cook it— Blanca: Just like this, open side up. Gina: And just make sure with proper enough set. Blanca: On top of that so they won’t fall out, yes, correct and just lay them down here on the side and what we do is be sure you have your water in here. Then we’ll steam them for about an hour and a half after this part you check it. You get one out and then once you get it out and your husks used this to remove from your “masa.” Gina: You kind of pushed away from it. Blanca: You push away and that’s when you know you’re ready. Gina: Great! Thank you so much for being with us today and showing us how about Tamale making. We’ll be sure to come visit your restaurant. It opens end of January. Blanca: Beginning February, Sabotas in Roseville. Gina: Wonderful, thanks Blanca. Blanca: You’re welcome. Thank you.