Tamales

We learned this technique of making tamales from Mary Ann Tayag’s family cook, Juana Tuazon Miranda, who cooked in Claude Tayag’s beautifully reconstructed old-fashioned Filipino kitchen in Angeles, Pampanga. The word tamales is derived from the Mexican tamal (in the Philippines, it is never referred to as tamal, always tamales), but in place of the corn flour, Filipino tamales are made with ground rice.