Tamales

We moved here armed with 2 Mexican cookbooks and a great determination to learn to cook the cuisine while we were here.  

And we did get an excellent start on it!!  Those who have been following us from the beginning will remember Kevins' hilarious account of using the washroom right after working with chiles.  Yes, he learned the hard way why men here wash their hands both before and after using the washroom!

The honest truth, though is, I lack motivation.  I can get some of the best tacos in the bay right down the street and  the only effort I have to make is to put one foot in front of the other for about 15 minutes.   A 5 minute drive gets us to Valle Dorado where the options to taste authentic Mexican food are endless.   I'm talkin' GOOD Mexican food.  Not the stuff one often finds in the tourist zone, made by people who know they will never see you again so why try anyway.    Made by cooks who know that their business is only as good as their last service because word in a small town travels fast and even a poorly made tortilla could stop people coming to their spot.  And, it is inexpensive.  So why go thru all the effort in my own kitchen?

After 7 years here, our knowledge of Mexican Cuisine is mostly limited to knowing which restaurant or taco stand has "the good stuff".

There is, however, one Mexican Food challenge I have been working to perfect - Tamales.

Even though, every night, there is a truck at our Oxxo, selling Oxacan-style tamales, we have yet to try one.    Our reluctance to do so stems from our first weeks here, when  we would buy tamales from a vendor who passed by our apartment nearly every day.  They were wonderful.  Until the day Kevin bit into one with a whole, uncleaned shrimp hidden inside of it.  So whole, the antennae and shell were still on it.   Thus ended our love of the tamale lady, and tamales in general.

We don't buy tamales anymore, but the flavour still haunts me.  Plus, I love the concept - Little bundles of corn husks, hiding more corn  and filling inside.  They are tasty snacks that are nice to have on hand, and, they re-heat beautifully in the microwave!

Perfecting this particular Mexican food has become my challenge,  and, for the most part, I have had pretty good reviews.

As a matter of fact, my Ecuadorian girlfriend liked them so much, she set aside a whole afternoon so I could teach her how I make tamales.  (Yes, this the truth!)  We made a fairly large batch and she took half home.    In an uncontrollable fit of generosity, she actually shared our hard work with a Mexican woman in her condo.  A couple of hours later, the woman returned.  Not to thank her for the gift, but simply to tell her that they were dry, period.   Suggestions, tips, insider secrets....????   Sigh.

So, today, another try, at less dry tamales.  Armed with a pot full of leftover braised pork shoulder, I tried again.

For todays version of my tamales, I used Alton Brown's recipe on FoodTV.com as a guide.  The braised pork and liquid were from earlier in the week, and the masa recipe I took from the bag of Tamale Masa.

My results while not entirely authentic, are a very tasty attempt, which at the end of the day, is really all we wanted.

The Journey to Casa Madera - We have the house....what the heck do we do now?

August 25, 2011 - I am enjoying coffee this morning on our balcony at Casa Madera Bed and Breakfast in Nuevo Vallarta surveying our front yard and trying to remember what it looked like 20 ago when we moved in.  It is difficult as we have made so many changes over that time.  New iron fence, a few more plants, grass; they all contribute to fogging the memory.  It has been an amazing 20 months since we signed the papers and took over the stewardship of this house.  It was a few more months until we really took ownership of our home....months

December 9, 2009 - We are sitting in the office of Notario #4 with our realtor, the listing realtor, the mortgage company representative and the Notario's assistant.  Our search is at an end.  After months of looking, making an offer and then waiting for all of the paperwork to be completed we are about to sign the final papers.  We were excited but also a little terrified!

[caption id="attachment_371" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Signing the papers. Are those smiles of joy or trepidation?"][/caption]

We were about to take on a project that neither one of us had ever thought about 4 years previous.  We wanted a house that could be used as a Bed and Breakfast and we found it.  It was perfect.  All the guest rooms would be separate from the main dwelling so no one actually had to walk through our living space to get to their room.  The pool was right by the guest rooms.  The rooms had front and back doors.  It looks like the house was designed specifically for this purpose.

After many explanations of the various documents, many photos & many signatures, the deed was done.  The keys were handed over and we went to look at our new abode.

[caption id="attachment_372" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The house that would become Casa Madera"][/caption]

Everybody feels something different when they walk through the front door of their new home for the first time.  For some it is the elation of having a house for the first time.  A house to raise a family in and build their lives together.  For us it was different.

It was the feeling of incredible terror!  We had just walked into a 3,000 square foot mass of concrete that needed some serious upgrading before we could even hope to get our dream up and running.  However, it was now ours.  Two people who had spent the last 20 odd years working in Insurance.  Heather, a gamer who would try anything in a home handyperson kind of way and me, who is anything but a handy kind of guy.  We spent that first 30 minutes looking at our castle and realizing we were about to be taken on the ride of our lives.

Over the next 3 days we moved all of our stuff into the house.  Now all of our stuff is kind of a liberal term.  We moved down with the Toyota Rav 4 filled to the brim but that was all we brought with us.  I still cannot believe it took 3 days to move everything in but apparently we had bought a lot in a year.

Before we could set anything up or put anything away the house had to be cleaned.  It was filthy.  So after buying new brooms, mops and cleaning supplies we went to work.

[caption id="attachment_373" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A rare sight, me with a mop!"][/caption]

The second day our new bed was delivered so we spent our first night in the house.  That was more than a little different.  We had been living in the interior courtyard of a condo complex where you might hear a cat meowing after dark but that was it.  We spent the first night and a few more after that going "what the hell was that?"  Some noises were easy to identify, crickets, frogs, the odd cow but there were others that just defied description.  We don't notice those anymore.

After getting everything moved in and put away it was time to try to figure out what we were going to do and how we were going to do it.  We would sit under the palapa and just stare at everything.  We had no clue of what to do or where to start.

[caption id="attachment_376" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Tearing out the kitchen in room number 1"][/caption]

Do we deal with the green pool first?  Do we deal with a bedroom?  We just had no idea.

[caption id="attachment_378" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The pool, what a lovely colour"][/caption]

It was few days before we started to work out a plan.  The bedrooms had to be demolished.  The woodwork was termite ridden and rotten.  The rooms were dark and dirty.  The bathrooms were disgusting.  They needed a complete overhaul but nothing could be done until we had ripped everything out.

So we started with our back room.  It had a full kitchen which was at least 20 years old and looked 40.  So I started taking out the kitchen while Heather started on the wall unit.  It was difficult figuring out how they had everything installed and removing screws that had been in place for many, many years but it started to come together.

[caption id="attachment_379" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Bathroom sink and vanity"][/caption]

For 3 days we worked on this room.  It was hot and dirty work but we did feel a sense of accomplishment when we were finished.  The problem then was what do we do with it?

[caption id="attachment_380" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The first bedroom after the kitchen tear out"][/caption]

It was that day a friend of ours came by and said he had a fellow working at his house building his wood fired pizza oven.  He was almost finished with and he wondered if we would consider taking him on.  He did concrete and tile work.  He could do other things too but we would need to make sure he knew what we wanted. We needed somebody to help us with this so we said yes.

And thus began the tale the Oswaldo.....