TAMALES!!

OMG! TAMALES!

Okay, deep breaths...

Phew. I think I have myself back under control now. But the excitement was very great. I went to Borough Market this morning, and there was a Mexican stall which, though it was sadly not selling tamales, did have the wherewithal to make them. Well, corn husks and masa, the filling will have to come from elsewhere.

I have had tamales precisely once. Well, on two days, but they were consecutive and so count in my mind as one occasion. I spent a few days in Los Angeles back in 2005, and went to the Hollywood Farmer's Market and had tamales for breakfast from a stall there. And they were SO GOOD! I have been missing them ever since. Sob. If anyone knows of a source in London, please, please tell me. More likely, if you are based in the UK, you are thinking "what's a tamale?" Basically, starting from the inside out, they are some sort of filling - usually meat-based I believe, encased in corn dough/paste all wrapped up in corn husks and steamed. To eat, you open up the husk wrapper, add sauce and eat. Preferably in the LA (or even Mexican!) sunshine, but I'm not going to get finickity about the weather if I've got a tamale.

So anyway, I have corn husks and masa, and now just have to find a recipe, get the rest of the ingredients and find a weekend to make them! I can hardly wait.