Red Chili Tamales

If you ever visit New Mexico, you need to treat yourself to red chili tamales. For those of you who have gluten issues, tamales are an oasis in your desert of tasteless food. This is a complicated recipe, but not that hard once you get the hang of it. If you don’t live in the Southwest, you may not be able to get all the ingredients, but that’s why God created Amazon. If you are not willing to cook with lard, stop now, there is no such thing as tamales not made with lard, we just need to be clear on this canonical matter. Makes ~24 tamales.

Ingredients

  • 6 oz. package of dried corn husks
  • Dough
    • 6 cups Masa harina – corn flour
    • 1.67 cups lard – I know, but it’s necessary
    • 5 cups water
    • 2 tsp Kosher salt
  • Filling
    • 1.5 lbs Pork loin
    • 1 onion – diced
    • 16 oz water
    • 2 TBL corn oil – or any cooking oil
    • 2 cloves garlic
    • 1 tsp flour
    • 0.5 cups dried red chili powder – NM Hatch Red Chili if you care about quality
    • 0.5 tsp Mexican oregano

Process

  1. Mise en Place – Measure and prepare your ingredients prior to starting.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  3. Place pork and onion in baking dish and cover with water. Bake 90 mins until pork pulls apart easily.
  4. Remove pork from liquid and reserve broth.
    1. Let meat and liquid cool.
    2. Pull pork into fine shreds.
    3. Strain liquid and skim fat from surface.
    4. Add water to liquid to make 16 oz. (2 cups).
  5. Heat heavy skillet over Med heat,
    1. Add oil.
    2. Once warm, add garlic and pork.
    3. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir for 1 min as flour browns.
    4. Add chili, cooking liquid, salt and oregano. Cook 25 mins. until pork is moist and liquid has evaporated.
  6. Dough
    1. Mix corn flour, oil, water, salt in mixer.
    2. Add additional water if necessary to make cookie-like dough.
  7. Corn Husks
    1. Place corn husks in a deep bowl and cover with hot water.
    2. Put a plate on top to keep husks submerged.
    3. Let soak for 30 mins and clean off silks.
  8. Assembly: for each corn husk, use 2 TBL filling and dough
    1. Hold husk flat with smooth side up.
    2. Spread thin layer of dough across husk – not all the way to the edges.
    3. Top with filling along center, stopping short of edges.
    4. Fold one-half over the other, enclosing the filling in the dough.
    5. Fold ends to seal and now the corn husks could be wrapped.
    6. Continue until all the ingredients are used.
  9. Steaming
    1. Arrange vegetable steamer in bottom of a large stock pot and fill with water to bottom of steamer.
    2. Turn heat on med-high.
    3. Place tamales in steamer, stand them vertical on folded edge. Leave space around each tamales for steam to rise.
    4. Cover pot and cook for 60 mins., until masa is firm and does not stick to husks.
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