Tamales by Paco

Tamales 

The first year I made Tamales, I didn't have a Tamale steamer so I used my Roaster Oven. I liked how they worked out.

We've continued, and now we have a tradition of making tamales fresh for us to eat.

Masa Mix
1 cup of lard 
1/3 cup butter - unsalted 
3 cups of cornflour 
3 teaspoons baking powder without aluminum 
1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 cup of pork juice
1 cup of chicken broth *only if you do not have enough pork juice

Filling
2 pork butts, 10 to 12 pounds each
1 whole onion, finely diced
5 to 7 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican Oregano
1/4 teaspoon cumin, adjust to preference
3 cups of red chili sauce

Additional Supplies
Tamale pot with a raised platform to steam
About 4 to 6 dozen corn husk
Dough or Bowl Scraper  *Wide Plastic Paint Scrapper works well too!
Family to form an assembly line
Favorite Beer for toasting

Preparing the Pork

1. Cook pork butts in a slow cooker until it falls apart, about 8 hours on low. *do not add water.
2. Pick out meat from fat and skin, saving the pork juice to cool.

Making the Masa

1. Whip up lard and butter in a stand mixer bowl until creamy and fluffy, about 5 minutes on medium speed.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix corn flour, salt, and baking powder. 
3. Add in pork juice and chicken broth (if you have enough pork drippings, use all of the pork juice, if not - space it out by subbing in chicken broth) and stir with a fork until a crumbly mixture. 
4. Note, do not use hot pork juice or hot chicken broth. 
5. Add crumbly corn flour to stand mixer bowl. 
6. Mix until incorporated and fluffy, about 5 to 10 minutes. 
7. If necessary, and more juice. 

Meanwhile, soak the corn husk in hot water.


Fixing the Filling

1. Saute onion in olive oil until translucent. 
2. Add in garlic and continue to saute until aromatic.
3. Add pepper, cumin, salt, garlic powder, oregano, and chili sauce.
4. Mix with shredded pork.

Assembling the Assembly Line

I find it more fun to make these with family or a friend. You'll have one person adding the masa to the corn husk with a paint scraper and another adding the filling and rolling them onto a cookie sheet. 

Once you have enough assembled, you'll want to add them to your pot on your stove that is already boiling, folded side down, open end up. You'll want to steam for about an hour and a half, or until the masa starts to stick up above the open end of the tamale. Keep an eye on the water level, make sure it doesn't run out. 

The first year I made Tamales, I didn't have a Tamale steamer so I used my Roaster Oven. I liked how they worked out.

 

We've continued, and now we have a tradition of making tamales fresh for us to eat. 

This last year, we ran out of room in our tamale pot, so we decided to try it in the pressure cooker. It was definitely quicker, but the tamales were not as pretty

We also fell in love with making a Cheese & Green Chili Tamale.

We'll saute a whole onion and a whole head of garlic and add it to about 4 cups of green chili and about the same amount of Cheddar Cheese.