Go to the Recipe: Tamales
Your comment that Norther Mexico Tamales generally use "dried masa flour", is not correct. "Generally", the masa is made from dried corn kernels processed with sodium hydroxide(Cal) then resoaked and ground to a more grainy consistency than that used for tortillas. You need to do more research when making statements like you did for the type of masa used in the North. This coarse masa is made daily at local grocers and ready to add ones additional ingredients of choice. For sure a quick route for making tamales is to purchase ground corn meals like Masa Harina. Its also important to note that Masa Harina, or Masteca(in my opinion a better product) both provide a masa meal(not flour) that is especially ground for tamales/pupusas/etc. You might consider bringing in Hispanic professionals into your group when writing about south of the border/or border foods. SIDE NOTE: many boarder cooks opt for the Masa Harina/Masteca product for ease of use, but it produces an inferior tamale.
"You might consider bringing in Hispanic professionals into your group..."
Bold statement considering you got both your facts and your spelling wrong.
I've lived for decades in California, from southern California to the Bay Area and now in the Central Valley. I regularly cook Mexican food. (And I'm old enough that I remember when it was considered odd when my mother took a casserole of cheese enchiladas to a PTA meeting. "What is that?" "I think's it's Spanish food.") I would periodically make tamales and fight w/piecing corn husks together in the process. A few years after we moved to the Central Valley, I ended up buying corn husks from a large Hispanic grocery in Stockton. I was a brand I've used before.
When I went to soak the husks I discovered they were huge! They were wonderful; a delight to use. My suspicion is that the company sells different 'grades' of corn husks. I phoned my sister whose husband's parents were born in Mexico. She makes tamales every Christmas. Jenny said that part of her mother-in-law's advice was to buy the husks at a Mexican market. I don't have proof, just suspicions.
While it's cute to tie off the tamales w/thin strips of husk, you can also tie them off easier w/short bits of cotton twine. Better still, make enough tamales so that you can stack them vertically in your pan w/a steamer insert. You want them to be tightly enough packed that they stay vertical but leave room for them to plump up a bit. You want the part you'd tie off at the top.
I recently wanted to take a bunch of tamales to a political fundraiser but really, really didn't want to make a bunch of traditional tamales. I used a variation of a tamale that I learned from an excellent Mexican restaurant near Monterey. Their tamales are steamed in the ceramic cups traditionally served to serve soup in at dinners. Think over-sized custard cups. I used an assortment of old & new ceramic custard cups, silicone individual cups, and a muffin tin. For the muffin tin, I sprayed it w/Pam before filling. I didn't spray the ceramic or silicone cups. I used a medium-sized cookie scoop to portion control the ready-made masa. Using damp fingers, I covered the bottom & sides of the containers. I filled them the recipe for Rajas Poblanas con Crema y Elote (Charred Poblano Strips with Cream and Corn) recently posted on Cook's. Then back to the cookie scoop to plop more masa on top. I then steamed them in an assortment of oversized baking dishes covered w/foil for ~40 minutes. In an effort to make sure that the masa had cooked through, I retrieved one and tested it for breakfast. (It was good. I tested a second one.) I took the tamales out, let them cool, and dislodged them from their containers. The ones in the muffin tins were the hardest to dislodge, but a good whack upside down did the trick. I transferred the naked tamales to half sheet pans and refrigerated them while I went off to work for a short day.
By using commercially-made masa sold by a local grocery in 5# bags, the process for making ~three dozen tamales was 2 hours, which included cooking time. Also, because the masa and the filling were vegetarian, I was able to make something that more people could eat.
I came home from work, made up a fairly spicy salsa that started off w/a purchased jar but then embellished with really good tomatoes, onion, cilantro, & garlic, and drove everything over to the evening outdoor event. The drive over took ~a hour, set up was ~30 minutes. I transferred the tamales to a platter and made no attempt to heat them. We've been having 100 df weather so they were basically room temperature. They were really good.
