If you grew up in a Latino household, chances are it's not the night before Christmas that gets you excited, it's the night before Christmas Eve. The reason? Tamales! For many Latinos, Christmas Eve is known as Noche Buena'and is a big family day. I remember Christmas Eve at my grandmother’s house, tamales on the table, and Christmas presents at midnight. My parents can remember back-in-the-day (pre-kids)going to Midnight Mass, then attending the Christmas dance, and afterward heading back home early Christmas morning and eating a breakfast full of tamales.
Tamales are as regional as road maps.
Tamales may be sweet or savory, wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves. Sweet tamales are filled with fruit. Savory tamales are filled with pork, chicken, turkey, fish, cheese, or any combination of the above. At my grandmother’s house, we had savory somewhat spicy pork tamales wrapped in corn husks. For years I’ve tried to copy her recipe. My grandmother does not make her tamales from any written recipe. She, like most experienced cooks, goes by the touch, feel, and taste as she prepares her culinary masterpiece.
The following is a close version of my grandmother’s recipe for pork tamales. It is time-consuming but well worth it!
5 cups cooked pork broth (drained from cooked pork) To be set aside, used as needed
8 oz. whole chili anchos
5 lb. pork shoulder
3-4 cloves of garlic
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
Directions:
The day before
Prepare the Chili Ancho
Put the ancho pods in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit for 30 minutes or more until soft, then remove the stems and seeds and coarsely chop. Reserve the soaking liquid.
Let cool and carefully transfer the mixture to a food processor and process adding reserved soaking liquid as needed until smooth. Pour blended mixture through a fine mesh sieve and transfer to a covered container and refrigerate until ready to use.
Prepare the Husks
Fill a stock pot with warm water and corn husks and soak overnight. Just before you’re ready to make your tamales, rinse husks and dry well and, if too wide, cut in half. Set aside.
Prepare the Pork
Cut pork shoulder into small (1-2 inch) pieces. Add garlic, pork pieces and spices to a large stock pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook over low heat for about 3 hours or until meat is tender. Remove meat and shred. Let meat cool and refrigerate overnight. Reserve pork broth.
The day of
Prepare the Masa
Beat 1 lb. lard with mixer or by hand until light. Add salt and fresh corn masa. Add in the chili mixture little by little until a dark pinkish color, and to taste. Beat with heavy duty mixer or knead like bread with a little pork broth, until dough is light. The dough is ready when a small amount floats when dropped in a glass of water.
Prepare the Pork Filling
Heat some lard in a heavy saucepan. Add a cup (or more, to your taste) of the blended ancho chili mixture to lard and simmer until sauce slightly thickens. Add some salt to taste. Now add shredded meat and both and cook for about 20 minutes. You may want to add more of the blended chili mixture to your liking.
Fill the Corn Husks
Put some of the masa in the center of the corn husk. With the back of spoon, spread the bottom 2/3 of corn husk evenly to edges. Line plenty of pork meat down center. Fold side of corn husks toward center, overlap. Now fold top (without masa) down and set aside on platter until ready to cook. Continue these steps until all masa and pork filling is used up.
Steam Tamales
Bring 3-4 cups of reserved pork broth to boil in a steamer. Place tamales with folded side down in steamer standing upright. Cover tamales with moist corn husks and a clean moist dish towel. Put lid on steamer and steam for 1 ½ hours or until husk can be easily peeled from the dough. Add more broth as needed to continue steaming being careful not to pour broth on tamales.
Fat is the critical ingredient that separates the masa inside of a tamale from the ingredients used for a tortilla. The secret to getting a soft, plush filling that pulls away from the sides of the corn husk as it cooks is always using a fat.
What Is Masa? Masa para tamales (dough for tamales) is a blend of nixtamalized corn—fresh or dried—with lots of fat for richness, baking powder to leaven and lighten the dough, salt for seasoning, and flavorful broth to bind it all together and hydrate the dough.
If you don't have lard, vegetable shortening is an ideal substitute. Made from hydrogenated vegetable oil, vegetable shortening has the same congealed, gel-like consistency and white hue as lard and emulsifies just as easily into corn masa.
To make sure there is sufficient water in the bottom of your steamer pot when cooking the tamales, put a penny in the water. The penny should rattle the entire time that the tamales are steaming– if the penny stops rattling, you know that you need to add more water.
There are two ways to whip up the masa dough. Some prefer to melt the lard over low heat and pour it and the stock over the masa, stirring together with a large wooden spoon or hands. Others take the lard and whip it in a mixer until it's light and fluffy and then slowly add in the masa a little at a time.
If using a steamer, lay a few soaked corn husks or a wet towel over the top of the tamales before closing the lid. Steamer: Bring water to a boil and once boiling, reduce to a simmer and steam for 1 to 2 hours (or even longer, depending on how many you're making).
Masa for tamales can be made with or without baking powder. It helps the dough rise and it gives tamales a lighter texture. This past year I had an opportunity to eat authentic tamales from two different tamaleras. Tamalera #1 made big beautifully shaped tamales that had a cake-like texture.
The big three ingredients are masa, lard and beef. The masa and lard will make the base of the tamale dough, in a ratio of 5 pounds masa to 1 pound lard. The beef will make the filling, and should weigh 5 pounds before it gets cooked to every 5 pounds masa.
Lard makes tastier and fluffier tamales than other fats do. You can replace the lard with solid fats, like duck fat or shortening, to obtain a similar texture; butter and liquid oils work but will make a denser masa.
Pieces of parchment paper can step up to the task and keep your mixture of fillings and masa dough tightly bound as the ingredients steam and solidify into shape. Like corn husks, parchment paper offers a thin, malleable material that can keep seasoned contents inside the folded envelope.
The main difference between banana-wrapped tamales and those in corn husks is texture: Tamales are moister when steamed in the less-porous banana leaves, and the flavors are more concentrated than the same mole-flavored tamales steamed in cornhusks.
The gold standard of reheating tamales, steaming helps the Mexican delicacies retain their original flavor and texture. Fill your steamer with water and turn the heat to medium. Keep your tamales in their husks and steam for 15 to 20 minutes, adding an extra 10 minutes if starting from frozen.
Even a light dough won't save a tamal from being undercooked or dry and crumbly, so cooking them long enough is important. You may see recipes that call for multiple hours of steaming, but those recipes are often for a LARGE steamer basket full of these gems.
After cooking, have you ever wondered why your tamales are so mushy? This is probably because you're either undercooking them or oversteaming them. If your tamales seem mushy right after cooking, giving them some resting time can make a big difference.
Introduction: My name is Tish Haag, I am a excited, delightful, curious, beautiful, agreeable, enchanting, fancy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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