Tamales

By bloomysgirl

from allrecipies.com/ real homemade tamales

Ingredients

• Tamale Filling:
• 1 1/4 pounds pork loin
• 1 large onion, halved
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 dried California chile pods
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• Tamale Dough:
• 2 cups masa harina
• 1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup lard
• 1 (8 ounce) package dried corn husks
• 1 cup sour cream

Preparation

Step 1

Place pork into a Dutch oven with onion and garlic, and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 2 hours.
2. Use rubber gloves to remove stems and seeds from the chile pods. Place chiles in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then remove from heat to cool. Transfer the chiles and water to a blender and blend until smooth. Strain the mixture, stir in salt, and set aside. Shred the cooked meat and mix in one cup of the chile sauce.
3. Soak the corn husks in a bowl of warm water. In a large bowl, beat the lard with a tablespoon of the broth until fluffy. Combine the masa harina, baking powder and salt; stir into the lard mixture, adding more broth as necessary to form a spongy dough.
4. Spread the dough out over the corn husks to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Place one tablespoon of the meat filling into the center. Fold the sides of the husks in toward the center and place in a steamer. Steam for 1 hour.
5. Remove tamales from husks and drizzle remaining chile sauce over. Top with sour cream. For a creamy sauce, mix sour cream into the chile sauce.


addt'l help:
If you are going to take the time to make tamales, be sure to double or triple the recipe, the Tamales freeze well. You also want them to turn out perfectly. This is a good recipe but the instructions leave out a few important steps: (1.) One of the biggest mistakes is not mixing the masa dough long enough; this causes the tamales to fall apart. Mix the masa dough, with an ELECTRIC MIXER, until a small amount (1 tsp) floats in a cup of water. (2.) Position your corn husks with wide end toward you. Spread a thin layer of masa dough, completely covering the bottom 2/3 of the corn husks and place filling in a line down the center of the dough. (3.) You won't have to secure your Tamales with a toothpick or strip of corn husk, if folded properly. When folding, fold in one long side about 1/3 over dough and filling, fold in the other long side, overlapping the first (like folding a business letter). Fold down the top 1/3 and place in steamer standing upright, with the folded end down and open end up. Don’t over pack the pan, just tightly enough to keep Tamales in an upright position. If you don’t have a Tamale steamer you can use a deep pot with cover. Place a steamer basket in the bottom and stand your Tamales (open end up) in the basket, add water only to the bottom of the basket (you don’t want the Tamales sitting in water) cover, and steam. Check the water level during cooking, to make sure the pot doesn’t run dry.