Want to learn a lot more about tamales? Check out Daniel Hoyer's new cookbook by the same name, published this year by Gibbs Smith.

Illustrated with beautiful, full-color photos by Texas-based Marty Snortum, the slim volume is packed with detailed information about the necessary equipment and basic ingredients and techniques for making tamales.

There are recipes, too, for whipped masa, cooked masa and sweet masa — the three types that can serve as a base for an almost unlimited assortment of tamales. Recipes for traditional and contemporary tamale fillings and sauces follow — including the Queen's Arm, a Yucatán specialty more than a foot long that's cooked in banana leaves.

Hoyer, who lives outside of Taos, has been an instructor at The Santa Fe School of Cooking for more than a dozen years, as well as a chef and restaurant consultant. Through his company, Well Eaten Path-Chef Tours, Hoyer conducts cooking adventure tours of Mexico and, more recently, Vietnam. He has written three other books about regional Mexican cooking: Culinary Mexico, Fiesta on the Grill and Mayan Cuisine: Recipes from the Yucatán Region.

Tamales ($19.99) is available at local bookstores and over the Internet. Hoyer's earlier books are also available via his Web site, www.welleatenpath.com.



The New Mexican