{"id":33402,"date":"2022-12-14T02:21:36","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T02:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/familiakitchen.com\/?p=33402"},"modified":"2023-03-28T15:45:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T15:45:34","slug":"bexs-pork-tamales-the-star-of-her-mexican-tamalada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/familiakitchen.com\/es\/bexs-pork-tamales-the-star-of-her-mexican-tamalada\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamales de cerdo de Bex, la estrella de su tamalada mexicana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cMaking pork tamales with family and friends is a way to share a loving cultural tradition, and a way to introduce this Mexican family custom to others,\u201d says Bex Streeper<\/a> of Des Moines, Iowa. Bex is one of our favorite Mexican food and<\/em> Puerto Rican food homecooks, reflecting the two delicioso branches of her family heritage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bex views tamales as a Christmas essential, as important as spending time with family, attending midnight Mass, and gathering over great food together. These traditional tamales are also a way for Bex to incorporate her husband\u2019s cultura into the holiday festivities, since his mother\u2019s side of the familia is Mexican. Another Mexican holiday tradition Bex deeply loves is the celebration of Las Posadas, where family and friends visit each other over food and drink to commemorate the biblical Mary and Joseph\u2019s search for shelter and food before the birth of their child, Jesus.  <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Pork
Bex makes pork tamales for Christmas to honor the Mexican side of her family. She serves them with coquito to honor the Puerto Rican side of her familia. Good combo!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Yet one more holiday highlight for Bex is her annual pre-Christmas tamalada, a fiesta she has hosted for 11 years. The whole family comes over to help make these delicious pork tamales (made extra-flavorful with the pork broth and red salsa infused into the masa dough<\/a>). It\u2019s a full-day event, usually fueled by Puerto Rican coquito<\/a>, but the tamales are 100% worth all the work, Bex is quick to add. Although she and her relatives celebrate the holiday on Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve, the tamalada takes place early in December. It\u2019s an important way for the family to come together early in the season to kick off the holiday celebrations and prepare for the entertaining that will follow all the way through New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Bex
Bex Cooking pork tamales in her kitchen in Des Moines, Iowa for her annual tamalada fiesta every early December.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bex learned to make tamales from a combination of people, she says. When she was growing up in Chicago, \u201cI learned to make the red sauce from my good friend Kristi Elliott\u2019s mom, Candy, who learned it from her suegra in Mexico,\u201d Bex says. \u201cI researched and experimented over the years, which is why I add more spices that the original recipe.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t