Christmas Tamales Recipes

REAL HOMEMADE TAMALES

Steps:

• Place pork into a Dutch oven with onion and garlic, and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 2 hours.
• Use rubber gloves to remove stems and seeds from the chile pods. Place chiles in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then remove from heat to cool. Transfer the chiles and water to a blender and blend until smooth. Strain the mixture, stir in salt, and set aside. Shred the cooked meat and mix in one cup of the chile sauce.
• Soak the corn husks in a bowl of warm water. In a large bowl, beat the lard with a tablespoon of the broth until fluffy. Combine the masa harina, baking powder and salt; stir into the lard mixture, adding more broth as necessary to form a spongy dough.
• Spread the dough out over the corn husks to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Place one tablespoon of the meat filling into the center. Fold the sides of the husks in toward the center and place in a steamer. Steam for 1 hour.
• Remove tamales from husks and drizzle remaining chile sauce over. Top with sour cream. For a creamy sauce, mix sour cream into the chile sauce.

SWEET ORANGE TAMALES

Steps:

• Place corn husks in a bowl, cover with boiling water, and soak for 30 to 60 minutes. Drain, place on a work surface, and cover with a clean, damp towel.
• Combine oranges and 1 1/4 cups sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture starts to turn into jam, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
• While jam is cooling, place lard in a large bowl, add 2 or 3 ice cubes, and beat with an electric mixer until soft and creamy. Beat in 1 1/4 cups sugar until well incorporated.
• Combine masa dough and baking powder in a separate bowl. Knead together for a few minutes. Add masa to lard mixture. Mix in milk alternately with orange juice, beating continuously with the electric mixer. Mix in cooled jam, raisins, and almonds.
• Select 1 wide corn husk or 2 small ones. Spread about 2 tablespoons masa mixture onto the corn husk, filling it up to 2 inches from the bottom and 1/4 inch from the top. Fold sides of husk together, one over the other. Fold the bottom of the husk over the seam of the 2 folded sides. Repeat with remaining husks.
• Place a steamer insert into a saucepan and fill with water to just below the bottom of the steamer. Bring water to a boil. Add tamales with the open side up and cook until filling is heated through and separates from the husk, about 1 hour. Let tamales stand for 15 minutes before serving.

CHRISTMAS TAMALES

Steps:

• Soak the Ancho and Guajillo chilis in water overnight or for 3 hours at least. The seeds should float to the top and are discarded. Go over Chili each pepper and clean off any dirt and remove stems and pods. Meanwhile, saute the onion in 2 tablespoons of Corn oil till translucent and soft, on a medium heat, stirring often. Turn down the heat and add all the Ancho and Guajillo peppers, and saute to bring out the flavors. Keep stirring on a medium-low heat making sure not to burn anything. After the Chili peppers are sizzling, add in the fresh cilantro and saute for 3 minutes more, then add the Ro-Tel, on a low heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Cook the ground beef till browned and drain off the liquid. Transfer the ground beef to a mixing bowl and with a wooden spoon, mix in 2 tablespoons each of Cumin, oregano, dried onion, cayenne, and white pepper, and set aside. Back to the chili pepper mixture: Let it cool, then put it all in the Blender with 2 cups more Chicken stock and blend till it forms a smooth sauce. Combine the blended peppers with the seasoned Ground Beef & incorporate everything well. This filling mixture should sit and marinate in the refrigerator overnight, or at least 3-4 hours.
• Now do the mixing: The first step to mixing the batter is to season the Masa Mix. Open the package and in a large mixing bowl sift together the mix with 3 tablespoons each of the dried onion, cumin, cayenne, oregano, and white pepper. For the actual mixing, start by pouring 3 cups of corn oil into the seasoned Masa Mix, then take an electric mixer on a low speed and as you mix by machine in one hand, use the other hand to slowly pour in a super-small amount chicken stock. You want to keep machine-mixing till it forms a paste. If it doesn't seem to be holding together, add in more oil as you machine-mix. If it's too dry, simply add a larger amount of chicken stock. Once it forms a reasonably batter-like paste, it is ready to be assembled with the filling. Or, it can be folded up and wrapped in plastic, just like a dough, and sit in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, for whenever you are ready to assemble and fill the tamales.
• Soak the Corn husks in water, overnight, or until 3 hours before Tamales are ready to be assembled. The husks should be just slightly damp when ready to be assembled and filled.
• After the filling has sat, marinating in the refrigerator, it needs to be briefly heated to make sure all the flavors have incorporated. This can be done in the microwave, stirring frequently, or on the stove.
• Fill a large stock pot that has a steamer insert, with a small amount of water. The water should not touch the bottom of the insert. Set aside.
• To start assembling, take a damp corn husk and spread the batter over it. Take a large spoonful of the ground beef filling and put in the middle. Now close up the husk, just like an envelope and wrap in parchment paper, cut to size. Place the filled, parchment-papered tamale, upright, standing up, inside the steamer on top of the steamer insert. Repeat these steps until you use up all the filling and the steamer is lined with tamales standing up. You may place a second layer of filled tamales on top of the first layer, as long as they are standing up. If the stock pot is deep enough, and a large enough amount of tamales to be filled, you might end up having 3 or 4 layers going up the sides of the steamer.
• The tamales steam on low for about 3 hours. Check by simply taking one and opening up the parchment to make sure the batter is firm and done. Serve with my Homemade Salsa (see different recipe).