Pork tamales are the standard, but Southwesterners enjoy green chili and cheese versions, cooked raisin desert tamales, and others. Here are 120 traditional and innovative tamales by America's top three Southwestern chefs. 75 color photos. Tamales-little packages of corn masa dough typically containing a tasty filling and wrapped in a dried corn husk-are an increasingly popular feature of Southwestern and Mexican cooking. They are inexpensive, easy to prepare, and highly versatile-they can be made with all types of fillings and in limitless styles. In Tamales, three pioneers of America's modern Southwestern cuisine present their imaginative and delicious takes on this exciting wrapped food. The three chefs introduce readers to the many kinds of masa, or dough, with which tamales can be filled. The rich and vibrant flavors range from chipole chiles to red Thai curry. The authors also guide the reader in the basics of tamale making-stuffing, wrapping, and cooking-clarifying the steps and demystifying tamale preparation. The tamales themselves contain worlds of flavorful diversity. There are vegetarian tamales such as ratatouille tamales with rosemary-queso fresco pesto; roasted potato, garlic, and sun-dried tomato tamales; and asparagus and hollandaise tamales. The seafood tamales include the flavors of Caribbean jerk shrimp, lobster Newburg, and smoked salmon with horseradish crema. Poultry is a natural tamale filling. Try arroz con pollo tamales, squab-chestnut tamales with red cabbage chow chow, or chicken tamales with mole poblano. Meat-filled tamales range from coriander-cured beef tamales with barbecue-onion marmalade to lamb tamales with mint, black beans, and blackened tomato and mint salsa. Tamales even make wonderful, innovative desserts; the inspired recipes in this book include ginger-sticky rice tamales with mango and basil, Mom's apple pie tamales, and chocolate bread pudding tamales. Tamales are quickly becoming one of America's favorite wrapped foods. It's no wonder: they welcome any flavoring and suit every occasion. After tasting these outstanding recipes, you'll realize it's true that good things come in small packages.