She Who Must Be Obeyed and I were chatting the other day about how we started the tradition in our family. We made the first batch while living with very young children in Salt Lake City back in the mid-90’s.
We were a bit homesick for good Tex-Mex and realized the only way to get the really, really good stuff was to make it ourselves.
A bit of prospecting, a little luck and some arm twisting led to the early version of this recipe. So we rolled up our sleeves and began a tradition that has continued every holiday season since.
We’ve experimented with many different tamale recipes but keep coming back to this one as our favorite – it’s very traditional (spicy pork filling) and the red chili puree imparts magical flavors that you’ll never taste in a mass produced, store bought tamale.
The recipe looks long and involved – it’s not a tough one at all. My best tip is this – make the red chili puree and the pork filling one afternoon or evening and assemble the tamales the next day.
The tamale assembly line process is a hoot for kids of all ages and is probably one of the things our crew looks forward to most of all. Three or four of us can knock out 8 to 12 dozen in less than 2 hours. You can too.
The recipe as written will make 48 to 54 tamales; this one is easy to double or triple. Be sure to make a few for Santa.
Traditional Pork Filling
4 lb pork shoulder (butt), boned, most of fat trimmed
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 large garlic cloves
1 tbs coriander seed
1 tbs dried Mexican oregano
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 cup chopped and seeded tomato (Roma)
1 cup chopped onion, small
2/3 cup finely chopped green pepper
2/3 cup finely chopped and seeded Anaheim chili
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro sprigs
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onionsRed Chili Puree
3 ounces dried New Mexico chiles
2 ounces dried pasilla chilesMasa
8 cups masa flour
4 and 1/4 cups warm water
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbs salt
2 and 3/4 cups solid vegetable shortening (the original recipe uses lard)
2 cups frozen corn, thawed then oven toastedPut ‘em together
2 pounds dried cornhusks
Large jar pimento-stuffed green olives
2 7-ounce cans sliced pickled jalapenos
Make the Red Chili Puree. This is the key ingredient for your tamale magic. Wipe the dust from the dried chilies, remove stems and seeds. Toast the chilies in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant (yes, you do need to do this). Place in a large pan with a quart of water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer stirring occasionally until chilies are soft (20 to 25 minutes). Drain, reserving the liquid. Let them cool a bit, then blend with 3 cups of the cooking liquid until smooth.
Make the Pork Filling. Place the trimmed pork in a 6 quart pan with roughly three quarts of water; bring to a boil, reduce heat, then simmered covered for at least 2 hours. The pork is ready when it’s fork tender. Drain and reserve the broth, skimming off the fat. Let the meat stand until cool enough to handle, then shred and return to the pot.
In a small skillet over medium heat, stir the flour until a rich tan color; add 1/2 reserved pork broth and add to meat.
Using a blender, blend the garlic, coriander, oregano, cumin and 1 and 1/2 cups of the pork broth until the seasonings are finely ground, then strain into the meat. Discard the strained seasoning remainders.
Now add 2 cups of the red chili puree, along with the tomato, onion, bell peppers, Anaheim chilies, 1/4 cup melted shortening and the garlic salt. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently to mix well, then add the cilantro and the green onions. Cool; you can hold this overnight if desired (we think it gives the flavors time to deepen a bit).
Prepare the husks. Pull the silk and any dirty husks out of the stack. Pick the biggest husks out of the bunch (you’ll need at least 50) and then another dozen to use for tying strips. Place in a large bowl and soak submerged in hot water for at least 20 minutes until pliable. Rinse again before assembly. Tear a dozen or so into thin strips for tying.
Assemble your tamales. Here’s where you’ll need a table and several additional hands. Set out the ingredients in a line more or less in this order – the husks, masa, filling, olives and jalapenos followed by the tying strips.
Lay a large husk flat and spoon 1/3 cup of masa into the middle of the husk , using the spoon to smooth the masa over most of the husk. Leave an inch or so margin clear around the one long edge and both short edges; it’s not as hard as it sounds and can be done with a couple of quick flips of the wrist as you get the motions down.
Then spoon 2 or 3 tbs of the filling into the center of the masa and place 2 olives and a jalapeno slice or two onto the pork mixture.
With the clean, long-edge side of he tamale facing up or away from you, fold / roll the tamale into a cylindrical shape; the goal is to fully enclose the filling with the masa-covered husk. You can patch another husk on to cover the really big ones if you need to.
Tie the ends with husk strips and then tie one more strip around the middle of each tamale. Repeat until you’re proudly looking at a stack of 4 or 5 dozen. Drink a beer.
Cook ‘em up. Tamales are to be steamed over simmering water. We usually cook 12 to 15 at a time stacked in alternating layers. If frozen they’ll need an hour and a half, if not – an hour will do. Don’t let the water boil out of the steamer – that led to an impromptu Italian dinner for my crew one year.
And set a few out for Santa – he likes these much, much more than cookies.
Enjoy.
(As detailed in the post above, I’m on the road and for some reason can’t access my cloud-based server to pull images of the tamales we made this week – revision coming in the next few days. Ho Ho Ho.)
Tags: Friday Feast
