Red Chile Pork Tamales

The bf starts to talk about his grandma’s tamales during this time of year. He is not going to visit his grandparents this Christmas so I decided to make some tamales for him. This is not his grandmother’s recipe. I told him to get her recipe while he was in Illinois last year. He ate the tamales and forgot about the recipe.

So I’m winging it. How hard can it be? A few days before making the tamales, we made a trip to Rancho Liborio Market and grabbed the ingredients. What do I need? Corn husks? Check. Masa? I bought the kind for tamales. They also had already fresh masa for tamales but I bought the dried stuff instead. Chiles? I have New Mexicos in my pantry but I wanted to use a different chile. I bought guajillos and anchos. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to use but ended up using the guajillos. Lard? I have some of the hydrogenated stuff at home but I wanted the fresh stuff. I wandered to the meat sections and found manteca fresca sold in clear plastic tubs. The lard was very liquid-y and was not exactly white in color.

I started cooking the pork on Saturday, while making the cranberry sauce and cream puffs that I was taking to a Hannukah party in the evening. I finished the tamales on Sunday. We are celebrating the holidays from around the world. Saturday was a Jewish Hannukah celebration and Sunday a Mexican tamale tradition. Too bad I won’t be around to help my friend do an Italian Seven Fishes Christmas Eve dinner. I will be in San Diego and we are having my family’s holiday tradition: Dungeness crab.

Tamales take a lot of work but they are not that difficult. My version is a little more time intensive than the bf's grandmother's version. I think the wrapping is what takes the most time consuming part. My version is pretty darn good. The chicken green chile version is next on the list.

Red Chile Pork Tamales
Yield: 3 dozen (I made double but posting the halved recipe.)

Day 1:

Cook the Pork:

1 tablespoon oil or lard
4 pounds pork shoulder
3 cloves garlic
salt
2 bay leaves
black pepper
water, to cover

1. Cut the pork shoulder into 3-4 pieces. Heat a large sauté pan or dutch oven, add oil and when oil is hot, add pork and sear all sides.
2. Add the garlic, salt, bay leaves, peppercorns and water and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cover. Cook three hours or until meat falls off bones. Strain and reserve cooking liquid.
3. Shred pork and set aside.
(I actually cooked the pork, left it in the cooking liquid and refrigerated it. The next day, I slightly heated it until it de-gelatinized.)

Make Red Chile Sauce for the Filling (I made mine on the second day but it can be made on the first. I ran out of time because I was making cream puffs and had to leave the house to help a friend fry latkes.)

1 1/2 oz whole dried chiles, stems and seeds removed
1 tablespoon lard
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
boiling water to cover chiles
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
½ tablet Ibarra Mexican chocolate
salt
pepper

1. Toast chiles in oven about 1- 2 minutes. Don’t let chiles burn.
2. Heat a large sauté pan, add lard and then add onion and garlic. Saute until onions are translucent.
3. Add toasted chiles and cover with water.
4. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer, cover and simmer about 15 minutes or until chiles are soft.
5. Blend the chiles with onions, garlic and simmering liquid until liquefied.
6. Return to sauté pan, add shredded pork and chocolate and season with cumin, Mexican oregano, salt and pepper. Cook until liquid is absorbed.

Day 2:
Start by soaking the cornhusks in hot water and weighing them down with something heavy. The lid from a cast iron dutch oven works well.

Masa:
1 cup lard
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
4 cups masa
3-4 cups warm pork broth

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip lard with baking powder, salt, and ancho chile powder.
2. Add masa, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition.
3. Continue to mix while slowly, adding broth until you reach the consistency of soft cookie dough. Mix for another ten minutes. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Assemble Tamales:

1. Drain and pat dry the rehydrated husks.
2. Clear off a workspace and gather your husks, masa and filling.
3. Spread a thin layer of masa on husk.
4. Spoon some filling down the middle.
5. Wrap and fold the husk.
6. Steam about one hour.

Tamales waiting to be steamed:

And the finished tamales...and the empty wrappers