Tamale Feast!

I was talking to neighbor from Mexico City about tamales yesterday morning as we were shoveling our driveways. Next thing I know, she came over and gave me some of her homemade chicken and pork tamales. It is a tradition to have tamales at Christmastime in Mexico, a tradition which carried over to my native Texas.

As a result, we had a delicious tamale feast last night, which I complemented with tacos made from leftover chicken that I cut up and stewed in some chipotle chilis in adobe and a teeny bit each of chicken stock and bbq sauce. Then I charred corn tortillas on my gas burner and topped the tacos with roasted poblano chili strips ("rajas"), a Mexican queso fresco, sour cream (always drain the watery stuff of the sour cream), chopped cilantro, razor-thin, chopped cabbage (very Mexican), and chopped red onions. To round out the meal, I spiked up some canned black beans. That is, I drained them of their canning liquid and replaced that with a bit of chicken stock then added cumin, oregano, garlic powder and the stems from the chopped cilantro. All in all it was a delicious dinner, thanks to the inspiration of my lovely neighbor, Adriana.

-- Jo