Tamales

Tamales

 

 Day 1 morning:

Put 3 lbs of beef into your crock pot with 3/4 an onion-roughly sliced, 3 minced garlic cloves, house seasoning, cumin, chili powder and California chili powder. Fill the crock pot with water and cook on low until after dinner. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. if the meat isn't amazing, the tamales wont be either. Turn off heat and let cool. 

Day 1 evening:

Soak 1 pack of corn husks in a big pot of water. 

Weigh them down or else they will float to the top. 

Shred the meat and put it back in the broth. Put crock pot into fridge for the night.

Day 2: 

Put the crockpot back in and warm up so the fat melts again, you want it warm, not hot.

Mix up some masa. You'll probably need 2-3 batches, but I only do one batch at a time so it stays moist.

2 cups masa harina (Maseca brand)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

 2 teaspoons chili powder 

Mix together and add broth a little at a time until you have a moist dough. It took me 2 ladles full.

Spread out a corn husk, and put a thin layer of masa on it. Add some shredded meat to the middle, roll up and tie with strips of corn husk. Repeat until you run out of meat. I like to be generous with the meat, There is nothing worse than a tamale than is 90% masa!

 Steam until masa is firm. I put a bath towel at the bottom of a BIG stainless steel pot, and then fill it with water so the towel is soaked with water, but there is no standing water, then put the tamales on that, and cook on high for about 6 hours.  I check every hour to make sure there is s till enough water in the towel so that it wont burn.

I know I am horrible with describing the steps, so this site may be helpful to you if you are not familiar with the process. Click HERE for Cheese  tamales

Serve with horchata!