Mag's Pork Tamales

Winter with a Jaimes girl... 

    So it was super cold today AND to make things better, we got.... SNOW! ❄️ ❄️ ❄️

What do us Jaimes girls do when we get snow?.... (probably something every Mexican girls wants to do)

Go to mom's house for TAMALES and hopefully we get stuck there all day. We could talk all day, over each other of course, be making masa, salsas, and topping while obviously eating a bunch of other snack, and we never get tired of it! Maybe even play some dominoes (yep, bring on the extra noise) or sequence for hours. Unfortunately it's not that easy and some of us are a little far from home.

    

    I realized that I now had to tackle this on my own... so my American husband loves to eat my mom and aunt's authentic Mexican food. I had to call mi Mami, she started telling me how to make them SO casually and SO fast, I told her I need the recipe. She said she doesn't have one, and doesn't really measure... check with Juanita (my oldest sister). I call her up, same thing, but she did give me a list of ingredients. She mentioned that Maggie and Rosie (my other two sisters) had written it down once. Yay! On to my next person! I called up Maggie, to get the recipe, and I finally got it... most of it. 

    This recipe is more like for someone who has made it before and it helps them remember the steps and process our moms taught us, then it starts coming back to you. I realized that it would be really hard to make if you have NEVER made them before.  So here it is, if you think there's a better more efficient way for certain steps, girls let me know! Enjoy it!!!!! 

It's a little rough so if something doesn't make sense, please comment below.

Mami Nieves/Juanita/Mag's TAMALES

Ingredients: 

2-4           Lbs Pork Butt (depending on how much u wanna make)

1              Bag of Dry Guajillo Peppers 

2              Boxes of Pork Broth (you will have some from pork but you may need more)

4-6c         Masa (Corn Masa flour. I started with 4 cups then added about 2more cups)

1 1/4tsp   Baking soda (1tsp per 4c of masa)
3c.           Manteca (lard or oil)

2.             Bags of Dry Corn husk

2              Garlic 

1tsp         Oregano

1Lg.        White Onion
salt & pepper

Directions:

Prepping before you Start cooking: First you need to soak all of the corn husks in warm to hot water. Some husks are not in good condition so you may have to toss them. When I use just one bag of the husks I ended up having to get more, we ran out of husks! In separate bowl soak the amount of dried peppers in warm water, as well, I did about 8-10.  Melt some Lard (or just warm up some oil if not using lard) - about 3 cups just to have plenty. I end up using maybe 2cups.

Step 1:

Cut the meat up into cubes or chunks (you can also cut the fat off but you still want to throw it in the pot, for flavor) this will make then shredding part so much easier.  In a large pot/skillet (wish I had a Le Creuset one like mag's. so much easier) add all the meat, 2 cups or so of water, u can use broth if you want. Enough to cover the meat.  Sprinkle salt over all the meat, about 1tablespoon.  Once the meat is ½ way cooked.  Remove the broth, using a strainer, into a large measuring cup (or bowl) you will set it aside for future use. Using 1 cup of the melted Lard (or warmed up oil) pour into the pot with the meat little by little so it can fry. This is the step that can't be skipped. It is what makes the meat have flavor. Let the meat cook for a few minutes rotating the pieces to make sure you get it brown of different sides. Pork is a lot easier to shred when it's cooked through, specially once we add the sauce...

 (I've also seen where u can cook meat in crock pot all day so it's tender, then u fry it. Or u can even make sauce and pour over meat to cook in crock pot all day, but I haven't tested this. Let me know if you do!)***update: this last time I fried pork then added sauce then put it all in crock pot to keep cooking while we prepared everything else.***

Step 2: 

Red Pork Tamales Sauce:

The peppers should be soggy by now.  Rinse them well with cold water, by tearing in half, removing stems and rinsing the seeds out of them (if you wear contacts, be sure to USE gloves) and add to a blender (or food processor) then add 2 garlic cloves, 1/8-1/4 of a medium onion, pinch of oregano and salt to taste.  Add some of the pork broth so it can blend well, add more as needed.  You want it to be a little runny but not watery. **BLEND THOUROUGHLY** This next part is tricky. It helps to make these with a friend or sister! Using a strainer and pour this sauce into the pot where the meat has been frying. Be careful this can be messy and the oil can splatter. *ouch!*

Or you can put through a strainer first so it's not as messy like this:

When u tap of the side of strainer it goes through the strainer faster. you can put the remaining pieces into blender again and add more broth to get all the flavor from the pepper mixture. Then pour into the pot where the meat is still frying. Once it's in there, lower the temperature and let it cook a while so the meat gets really tender. 

In the mean time start prepping the masa (dough)  

Step 3: 
Dough/MAZA:

So this is where you decide if you are making tamales to feed your family or.... to feed the village. I did half of a 2.5lb bag. But if you are making for many, use half of a 5lb bag. Pour masa onto the counter, or if your lazy like me, I used my mixes with the paddle attachment. I did about a cup at a time until I had as much as I wanted. To do in a mixer you can't make A LOT because it's small. But the way mom does it, it's on the counter. After being s pcrubbed clean of course!!  Now you add some salt, Baking And 1 cup of melted lard (or oil).  Mix well dissolving all the little crumbs, this will kinda a little like damp sand.  Add more lard(oil) if needed. Once it's where it needs to be add pork broth to make the dough soft. Adding a cup at a time.

Once the meat has cooked in the sauce. Pour out the red sauce.  Set aside to add to the “Masa mixture". Little by little add to masa by trying to get most of the oil from the pork red sauce. It's ok if some of the sauce goes in. This is so it can get a nice redish/orangish color and it's also for flavor. If it gets too soft add more masa. And so on...Continue to mix and mix until very nice and it doesn’t stick to your hand and counter.  It should form a nice ball. It shouldn't stick to your hands. It should feel light and fluffy! A trick to see if it's ready is to make a little ball and drop it in warm water. If it floats, it's ready!

My mom would always to continue kneading until you are putting them in the husk. 

Step 4: 

Tamales: 
By now the corn husks should be soft. Take a husk and spread a portion of masa on it. 

Add some of the filling, we do a lot. I rather have more filling than masa, but that's really up to you. If you want to make more, you may want to ration out your pork filling.  Place it in the center of the masa.

 Close the husk and let each side meet, finish wrapping the tamale with another husk. If necessary, use 2 or 3 husks to keep the batter in.

Fold one side then the other and then get the bottom flap and fold up so then you have a perfect tamale, and the masa won't fall out.

 Place the tamales vertically in a steam cooker, not too tight (or they won't cook thoroughly). 

Cover the steam cooker and steam for 45min - 1hour.

Serve with a side of rice (if you want). 

You will remove them from the husks and cut them open down the middle. Then prep them by slicing open long ways, top with sour cream drizzled, chunky salsa, and of course crumbled Mexican cheese... basically like a "baked potato" is the way one of my little friends described it!  

Hope that made sense! 

Enjoy!

~L~