[Gabz]

With a recipe like yours, you are definitely a step above amateur.

I love making sauce from the dried chiles, but it never comes out the same way twice........I have a basic recipe, but I never seem to have the same chiles from batch to batch.

However, I usually make enough of it to last about 6 or 7 tamale batches and various enchilada or burrito dinners as well.

[snopercod]

The real secret to the homemade chili sauce (which I am still working on) is NOT to use the bitter water that you steep the chilis in. It took me years to figure that out.

I am going to try scraping the "meat" out of the chilis next time, and discarding the skins.

[FITZ]

Some of the Mexican tamale places here --- not really restaurants because they only sell tamales and masa make chile-queso tamales -- strips of green chili and some kind of white cheese --- with the masa and lard in the husks --- those are very nice.