Tamales

Tamales Recipe

By: Jose Sainz

Ingredients for Filling

8oz pork tenderloin (fillet)

¼ onion

1 sprig oregano

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

(Cleaned, seeded, and, deveined)

1½ cups warm water

3 large garlic clove, peeled

½ tablespoon of lard

1 teaspoon of cumin

12 oz. New Mexico chili

(Take out the seeds)

¼ teaspoon of black pepper

¼ cup of oil

1 cup of dough

For Tamales:

2lb prepared corn tortilla dough

30 corn husk (if dried available)

(Depends on how much tamales you want to make)

Washed, soaked in warm water for 30

Minutes, and drained well

Directions

For filling: Place the pork, onions, herbs, and salt in a pot and add enough water to cover. Boil for two hours or until the meat is tender. Then shred the pork tenderloin. Set aside. Soak the chilies in the warm water for about 10 minutes. Puree the chilies, water, oil, black pepper, dough, and garlic in a blender until very smooth. Heat the lard in a frying pan and fry the chili mixture over medium heat until it stars to boil. Add the pork and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Cook for 5 minutes to heat through and thicken slightly.

For Tamales: Mix the dough with an electric beater for five minutes and set aside. Divide the dough mixture among thirty corn husks, spooning the dough into the center of each, along with one teaspoon of filling. Fold the sides of the husk together and bring the tip down to seal completely. Heat water in the bottom of a tamalera or vegetable steamer, line the basket with husks, and place the tamales on top. Cover with the remaining husks, a dish towel, plastic wrap, and the lid. Steam for 45 to 55 minutes or until the husk can be easily separated from the filling and serves 30 tamales.


Tamales
Tamales taste so good especially fresh out of the pot. You can smell it from far away. When you unfold the husk you taste it without giving it a bite. It gets closer to your mouth and it smells and smells so good that you just want to put it in your mouth to get flavor. Tamales are sometimes too spicy, but that’s how we like them. That’s how tamales taste like.

Do you know why tamales are important to me? Tamales are important to me because it’s something traditional for our family. It’s been passed from generations to generations. Everyone has their own recipes, but some how our tamales are the same. The things I also like about it’s are that my brothers, sister, mom and dad join up and participate on cooking the tamales. It’s not as boring as you think. Its actually fun. We always have fun cooking it together.

Tamales are important to my cultural. Do you know why it’s important, because it reminds my family when they use to live in Mexico. They would put their own species that they could find. When corn grew from the fields. They would take of from the corn was the husk and or save them for later. They would pick the chilies that they grew on their own. They would squish them for chili sauce. All the ingredients they use, they plant or find when my family use to live in Mexico.

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/109476184/