Learn how to make tamales - assemble and cook your tamales in this video with Merrilee Jacobs, founder and CEO of 3 Hot Tamales.

Video Transcription

Hi! I am Merrilee Jacobs with the 3 Hot Tamales. And we have been showing you how to make tamales today. Now, we have gone through all the segments, preparation of the masa and the fillings. Now, the fun part comes where we actually get to start rolling. So, we are going to take the cornhusks that we soaked a little earlier. See how pliable they are now. And I have drained them so that they are not dripping wet. Take the masa that we prepared about a quarter of a cup and put it on our cornhusks, just like that. I need a flat spatula of some kind to kind of spread it out. Now, the trick is, that you want to spread this out kind of like a 4 x 4 square to one side of the cornhusk. That takes a little time. By the way, this whole process is a little labor intensive, which is why if you find a good tamale you wont let it go, have somebody else make them and just buy them. But anyway, so 4 x 4 square, take about two tablespoons scoop or a measuring spoon. Anyway, two tablespoons worth of filling, place it kind of here in the center. This is a tablespoon per scoop here. Place it in the center there. I am going to want to take the edge that has the masa on it and fold it over to meet the other edge, kind of scoop it towards you a little bit, so you get that nice rounded look. Flip the tail in, and there you are, all rolled and ready. That’s potato green chili. We will do one more for the burger style and we will find a nice wide one that makes it looks so much easier. Again, a quarter of a cup of masa, spread that masa out nice so it totally encompasses the filling. Now, you know why traditionally people wait of a holiday time to make these because it’s one time when they can rope all of their family members into it because it requires so much time. Kind of shake that off a little bit. Again, we will do the scoop of the burger right here, right there in the center. Fold this over. Roll it towards you, flip in the tail and there you go, alright. Now, you know how to assemble these. Now, the fun part is this. Before you put them in the tamale pot which I will bring over here to show you, the tamale pot or a stockpot with the steamer basket has a mechanism in the bottom by which it keeps them out of the water. This is especially made for tamale. So, that’s what that looks like. But if you have one of those little metal steamer baskets, that’s really helpful too and just to start pot works. I use a tamale cloth because while it’s cooking it maintains the steam. It doesn't let all the steam to escape. So, they stay nice and moist. A little trick is don’t heat your water on the stove in your tamale pot until after you have loaded it with your tamales because if you do, you are likely to get burned by the steam. It’s a little trick I learned after some bad experiences. So now, you load your tamales in the pot standing straight up, and fill the pot, and then you are ready to steam. You want to steam at a good, in a medium steam, not boiling rapidly, but a good medium steam for about one hour. And then after one hour, you can take them out, let them cool just a little, and either eat them immediately, or you let them cool a little more, maybe about 20 minutes or so. You can pop them in some freezer bags and throw them in your freezer. So, the next time you get a craving, you are all ready to go. So, now that we have showed how to assemble and how to cook your tamales, we are going to take you into the very best part and that is how to garnish and some serving suggestions when you’re ready to sit down and enjoy eating them.