Slowly Making Tamales in Thailand with One and a Half Arms, Part I

After a long hiatus from any kind of writing, and an even longer break from weblogging, I’ve decided to come back for a few days. I can’t write a travelogue because I’m not really traveling, and I know everyone gets tired of hearing about other people’s daily routines. So what you’re looking at is partly a cooking journal and partly a last-ditch effort to describe this ex-pat’s lifestyle. This type of cooking project is what passes for adventure these days. I have set out to make a tamale feast as authentically as I can, taking as much time as I need to, savoring some final idle days as the number of my weeks in Thailand dwindles toward single-digits.

I need to start using up the dry goods in the cupboard. One of these items is a sack of masa harina for tamales, which I brought here from my last visit to the States.

Some notes about using the slow cooker…. Mine is an Imarflex brand, so I shouldn’t properly call it a “Crockpot,” although I probably will out of habit. The stoves in Thailand are almost always run on propane. The one I have delivers a mighty jet of flame, which is great if you want to boil a pot of water or stir-fry a dish, but not so great for slow-cooking. On the lower settings, the flame is still hot enough to scorch a pot of beans, or else it gets so low that it gutters out. The solution is the electric slow cooker.

Known throughout the world as a convenient appliance for the working family, a slow cooker allows us to toss in a hunk of meat and some seasonings, slog off to work, and eventually return home to a savory-smelling home and a hot meal. Since I moved to Thailand, I don’t have to rush around so much, so for me the slow cooker justifies my aimlessly dicking around the house all day because I can surf the internet, listen to music, drink beer, and still say I’m cooking.

There are already hundreds of thousands of recipes for the slow-cooker, so I don’t pretend that I will contribute much in that area. Instead, I would ask you to consider this limited series of weblog entries as a description of the good life, or at least a version of the good life. This is a siren’s call to my wage-slave friends, to opt-out from the rat race, to sell off your house and your car and if necessary your children, and to abandon yourself to the temptation of sloth, the easiest of all the deadly sins….