"The fillings include stewed meats in red and green sauces, mushrooms, and rajas con queso, but the one constant of all the fillings is that they are fully cooked beforehand, no matter the type. When making tamales with a vegetable filling, it's crucial that they aren't raw, and the best way to cook vegetables for tamales is to roast them."
"This gentle cooking process ensures that the masa is cooked all the way through but still soft and tender. The steaming process, while heating the fillings and fully cooking the masa, is not enough to cook raw vegetables all the way through. Just like you wouldn't fill a tamal with raw meat, vegetables need to be cooked first, too. The only exception to this rule is cheese, which melts beautifully as the tamales steam or reheat."
Every December la tamalada brings tamal-making with masa made from scratch using real lard and guests contributing a variety of fully cooked fillings such as stewed meats, mushrooms, and rajas con queso. Vegetables used as tamal fillings must be cooked beforehand because steaming in the tamal pot is not sufficient to cook raw vegetables through. Roasting vegetables before assembling tamales extracts excess moisture, prevents soggy or leaking fillings, deepens flavor through caramelization, and allows spices to penetrate. Cheese is the only common exception because it melts during steaming or reheating and integrates with the masa.
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