Tamales Maria Almaraz

Grandma Maria Almaraz

Tamales Maria Almaraz

Grandma Almaraz always made a huge amount of absolutely delicious tamales during the Christmas Holidays--made from a recipe she used that was nearly one hundred years old. On one particular day, she allowed me to watch and take notes. The Basic Tamale Procedure is taken from those notes:

After cooking the pork butt, Grandma would shred the cooled meat with a fork and set it aside. She would then make the masa (with the corn husks, as noted above, already cleaned and soaking in water) using some of the pork stock as liquid. In addition, she would add several tablespoons of baking powder, which would make the steaming tamales thicker and meatier without cloying to the mouth. The masa had to be perfectly fluffy and smooth or creamy, much like very warm peanut butter. If you don’t get this consistency, the tamales will come out dry and heavy.

Traditionally, tamales are assembled by spreading the masa mixture on a damp cornhusk, then a blob of chile sauce is placed on the masa, followed by about a quarter pound or so of the shredded pork. Grandma, however, would make the chile sauce (from dried pods) using oregano, garlic, comino and salt, then fry the sauce and, once simmering, would place the shredded meat into the sauce (after reserving a quart or so to spoon over the steamed tamales on the table, later). She would simmer the shredded meat/chile mixture until most of the liquid had evaporated, then she would spread this mixture heavily on top of the spread masa on the corn husk.

Grandma made what seemed to be a hundred or more tamales at one time--but she forbid anyone from counting them: “If you count them,” she would say, “there won’t be enough to go around.” While steaming the tamales, Grandma would spoon some red chile sauce on the exposed tops of the raw tamale, and steam them “about one hour for every dozen”. How she knew how long to steam them, considering she didn’t count how many dozens, we’ll never know.

Thank you Grandma for the many years of memorable Christmas Tamales!

Directions before preparing: get several dozens of packages of corn husks. Remove all silk hair from husks and wash in clear hot water, then soak husks until soft and pliable, about 2 hours. To use, wipe each husk dry before adding ingredients to it. This is Grandma’s recipe:

Part One: The Pork Filling

12 pounds pork rump roast
2 T salt
4 cloves garlic, chopped
Very large pot, filled with
water to cover meat

Cook roast in pot with garlic and salt, for several hours or until meat is tender and falls from bone. Cool and drain meat. Save stock for MASA and Chile. When meat has cooled, shred into bite size pieces.

Part Two: The Chile

2 T shortening
2 t salt
2 pounds red chile pods, roasted
2 1/2 t Comino (cumin) powder
3 cloves garlic
2 cups pork stock

Melt shortening in pot used to cook meat (after removing all stock from pot) and then remove from heat. Roast chile pods slightly in oven or over griddle on stove top. When cool, remove stems and seeds from chile pods and soak in hot water until soft and pliable. In a blender, add several soft pods along with remaining ingredients and one cup pork stock. Blend at high speed and puree. Process all remaining pods with remaining cup of pork stock. Add more water if you need to, to puree without effort. Add all pureed chile to melted shortening, bring to boil, stirring constantly until thick. Add shredded pork. Simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.

Part Three: The Masa (dough)*

5 pounds Masa Harina type corn flour for tamales
3 pounds shortening
2 T salt
Pork stock
3 T Baking powder

In two separate bowls: in one bowl, use an electric mixer to whip shortening until light and fluffy. Add baking powder and salt to shortening and whip again. In second bowl, place flour. Add 2 cups stock and about 1/2 whipped shortening. Use hands to squeeze mixture, mixing well. Add remaining shortening and add more stock until masa has the smooth and fluffy consistency of warm peanut butter. Let masa rest at least 30 minutes to make sure baking powder activates.

Spread masa on upper 3/4 of each corn husk and place a generous helping of the chile-meat filling over the masa. Fold husks left to right over mixture, wrapping as in a leaf. Fold lower portion bottom to top.

Place tamales upright in steamer pot, packed closely together. Cover with any extra husks you have. Steam approximately 1 hour per dozen tamales.