New Mexican Tamales (Traditional) by franciepad

[BakerAunt]

New Mexican Tamales (Traditional)
Submitted by franciepad on September 17, 2005 at 1:25 pm

This is a traditional New Mexican Tamale recipe. It's lots of work and we only do it once a year. I make enough to have for Christmas Holidays and to freeze for the remainder of the year. It's a 2 or 3 day job. Spread it out however you wish. I wash the corn husks, and I make the meat and Chili sauce on the first day. I shred the meat and combine with the sauce, make the Masa and fill on the second day. If there's time, I steam them at that time, or refrigerate and steam them the next day. You can fill these with chicken, green Chili, whatever, but the Pork Tamales are traditional.

6 cups Masa
1 1/2 pounds pork roast
salt
corn husks

For Red Chili sauce:
24 red Chili pods
1 quart boiling water
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 cloves chopped garlic

Prepare corn husks by trimming, washing, and soaking in warm water. Drain and let sit overnight.
Cook pork roast in water to cover in pressure cooker, slow cooker, or whatever, until meat is falling off the bone. Chill overnight in the liquid.

Prepare chili sauce as follows:
Wash chili pods; remove stems, seeds and white veins. Place pods on baking sheet in warm oven (200 degrees) being careful that chili pods to not scorch, for about 10 minutes, stirring often and leaving oven door open. Remove pods from oven and add enough warm water to cover, and let soak for at least 15 minutes. Place pods in blender with seasoning and add enough water to cover. Leave about one inch or more of space in the glass container. Blend for 2 minutes. If sauce is too thick, add more water, and blend until skins disappear completely. Remove from blender and add enough water to give desired consistency. At this point, I strain the sauce to make sure that all the seeds and skins are removed. (Sixteen large chili pods will yield about 1 quart of sauce.)

Next day:
Remove meat from broth. Do not discard the fat - you need that for the Masa. Shred meat - however you wish - I do it by hand and then chop it. Add to chili sauce and set aside.

Prepare Masa:
Note: We use Masa that's already a dough - we can buy it frozen in the supermarket or at a tortilla factory here in town, but the procedure is basically the same.

For dried Masa: add pork broth and some of the fat and beat to the consistency of a thick cream - add water if necessary. Season with lots of salt to taste. Mixture requires lots of beating - it should "float" when dropped by a teaspoon into cold water. If it doesn't, add a little more pork fat and continue beating.

Hold corn husks open in your hand and spread with 2 tablespoons of masa and 1 heaping tablespoon of the red chili pork mixture. Fold sides together, bring top and bottom of husk together and tie with corn husk strings, or fold over the top of the corn husk to encase the filling.

When all of the tamales are filled, steam for 40 minutes to an hour.

This recipe makes about 5 dozen tamales.

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