RECIPE AND ALL PHOTOS SUBMITTED BY Emily Bonderer Cruz .
Homemade Tamales
I HATE making them. In Mexican culture, it’s done with a group, but I always find myself making them alone. I roast the pork one day in the crock pot, make the salsa/chile the next, then assemble on the 3rd dAy, but the assembly kills me. I usually make about 15 dozen every year. And every year I say it will be my last lol.
we have easy access to prepared masa so I don’t really have a recipe for that.
I opt to use a regular pork roast in place of the hog’s head because it’s cheaper, gives you more meat and let’s be honest, it’s not as gross as boiling a pig’s head. Although I have gone that route here are some interesting photos outlining that process.
he even has papers ‘ )
you will need a really big pot.. cover in water and add in some onions
once done drain the water and get remaining meat off the bone
transfer meat to crockpot
Finally =)
I prefer the taste of a pork roast anyway, much less fat. Anyway my go-to recipe has New Mexican chile pods because I grew up in the Southwest before moving to Mexico and luckily I can still find those in El Paso, TX. I am partial to the Mesilla Valley Chili Company and I actually have been using their recipe for years. Cut it right off the bag of chiles and stuck it in my cookbook
Ingredients are 12 Chiles, 3.5 cups of water, 3 whole garlic cloves, 2 tsp salt, 2 tbsp oil, 2 tbsp flour, 1 tsp who oregano (crushed)
Basically I clean off the chiles and then split them open and remove the stems and seeds. Then I boil them in the water and let them cook until they get pulpy. Then I put the chiles and a bit of water in the blender with the garlic and salt and oregano until smooth. I think I add about half of the water back in at this point to get the right consistency. Then you use the oil and flour to make a roux and slowly add in the chile mixture. Once that’s all complete you will add in your cooked, shredded meat… pork, beef, chicken, etc. It’s super good and dang, now I wish it were December I have the recipe somewhere let me go find it and I’ll post a picture…
I know, I know, it’s right off the package but this is from a local, family owned company if I’ve understood correctly. The tamales really are delicious and my (Mexican) husband swears they’re better than his mom’s.
check to see if the stores have prepared masa nearby. I swear that’s the hardest part (at least for me.) I can never quite get the right amount of lard to corn flour. But preparing the chile and the meat is super easy. The assembly is time consuming but well worth it. Tamales are 10 million times better when they are fresh. You’ll need a steamer of some sort. I bought mine at Walmart when we were still in the US. I think it was about $20 and you can steam about 5 dozen at a time in it.
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