Directions: |
Directions:Pre-prepare: Soak corn husks in extremely hot water while you are getting other things together, Cut a piece of plastic wrap large enough to cover both the top and bottom of the tamale press at the same time.
Making the filling:
1. Boil the Pork with a handful of Bay Leaves..
Drain and set aside to cool.
2. Rinse the Corn Husks in the kitchen sink with cold water for about 20 minutes
3. Boil the El Guapo Chili Pods until they are soft to the touch. Cut down the center of the pods and remove seeds and membranes. Rinse in cold water for 5 minutes.
4. Add the rinsed and cleaned pods to a blender along with 2 garlic cloves, salt, pepper, and a handful of fresh oregano (1/2 c). Blend for about 5 minutes until completely liquid.
5. In the large cooking pot add 1/4 of a cup of vegetable oil, and 1/2 a cup of flour (should be one large spoonful), begin constant stirring with wooden spoon until it begins to look pasty and a light brown color. About 5 Minutes. DONT LET IT BURN!!
6. Pour the blended sauce into the cooking pot with the paste. Cook on low but stir a lot. Add 1 TBSP of Caldo de Pollo
7. Shred the cooled pork by (washed) hand into small pieces placing in the Large Bowl. Slowly stir the sauce from the cooking pot into the shredded pork.
8. Open up the prepared masa. One tamale at a time take a small handful of the masa and roll into a ball. Place on the plastic wrap bottom of the tamale press. SLOWLY close the tamale press to flatten the masa, do this carefully because you don't want it to get so thin it runs out of the sides of the press.
9. Take a rinsed corn husk. Feel both sides of the husk and find the smooth side..Carefully place the flattened masa on top of the smooth side of the corn husk.
10. Using a tablespoon, get some of the pork mixture. Add it from the top of the masa to about halfway down directly in the center of the flattened masa. It doesnt take a lot to fill the tamale so 1 TBSP is all you should use.
11. Roll the tamale up by folding the right side in a roll. Pick up the tamale but dont let the ingredients fall out of the bottom. feel the tamale for the bottom of where the masa is. Squeeze lightly like a tube of toothpaste. Fold the bottom of the tamale upwards, make sure it is being folded upwards along the line where the corn husk was folded. Pulling it up that way helps to keep ingredients inside while cooking. DONT CLOSE THE TOP OF THE TAMALE.
12. As you complete each tamale, add them to the part of the tamale steaming pot with all of the holes in it Stuff them in until it is nice and tight. Add 5 cups of water to the bottom solid piece of the tamale steaming pot. Set the one with the tamales inside of the one with water. Place the lid on top.
13. Cook on a low flame for 1 hour and check your water level every 30 minutes. After the hour, remove a tamale and set it on a plate. Wait 2 minutes then try to remove the corn husk slowly. If the masa no longer sticks to the corn husk then the tamales are finished cooking. If it still sticks, rewrap the tamale and place back in the pot. Cook an additional 30 minutes and it should be fully cooked Test a tamale again as before to confirm. Afterwards, remove tamales from pot and place in a container with a lid in the fridge until you are ready to eat them.
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This recipe for Pork Tamales is from