Party Recipe--Tamale Making Party

Tamale Making Party
from your friend, Love to Entertain

Your having a tamale party!
To help you brush up on what you need to do and what equipment you will need, here is
A website that you will find very helpful: http://www.sonofthesouth.net/tamales/Tamale_Recipe.htm
Have your friends bring steamer pots if they have them
You are definitely going to need more than one!
Here is your grocery shopping list:
Pork Roast 6-8 lb.
Beef Roast small
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
Ground Cumin
Chili Powder, (you are going to need at least 10 tbs, so get lots)
Masa de Harina, it is in the flour aisle. Do not get flour for making tortillas, it specifically will say Instant Masa
Corn Husks,
Beef Bouillon cubes
Crushed Red Pepper
Solid Vegetable Shortening
Beef Broth, You will need at least a quart and maybe more, get a quart and a couple of cans to be safe.
Baking powder

Day 1:
Meat Filling:
I like to have a mixture of pork and beef. Some makers prefer pork only, some beef only,
And some use chicken. Use your imagine as you begin making these treats!
Pork Roast 6-8 lb
Beef Roast 4-6 lb
Salt and pepper your roasts and place in a crock pot. Do not add water or anything,
roasts will create a lot of juice. Cook on low for 12 hours. This should get your roasts
to the point that they fall apart. DO NOT discard the juice, you will need that later.
After your meat cools, you can shred it and place in the refrigerator for day 2. Or you
season it and prepare it so that you will not have to do this step on day 2.
Seasoning your meat:
Place your shredded meat in a large dutch oven. Add the following:
8 tbs. Chili Powder (Or: 6T chili, 3Tgarlic powder, 1 T bp,
1 ½ tbs. Garlic Powder 2T salt, 3T cumin)
1 ½ tbs. Ground cumin
2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper black, fine ground
½-1 tbs. crushed pepper
4 bouillon cubes
about 3 cups water, maybe more
3 tbs. Masa
Prepare your bouillon cubes in the microwave. Melting the cubes in the water. This
sometimes can be done directly in the meat if your bouillon cubes are soft enough.
Simmer the meat for about 20-30 minutes to incorporate all the flavors from the spices
into the meat. Taste the meat and add any additional seasonings you feel are missing
from the flavor of the meat. Does it need more garlic? How about more chili powder?
You will begin to individualize this recipe to suit your own taste.

Day 2
You can cut the little end of the husks off, then separate the corn husks. Some times
The cornhusks will have a lot of that dried corn silk in between the leaves, remove
those while dry, it is much easier than fighting those in the water and later on your
wet corn husks. Sometimes you have to soak these for as long as 6 hours!
My friend, Emily, got some at the Mexican Market and honestly,
they were ready to go after soaking for just 20 minutes. If you live in an area that does
not have a high Hispanic population….that is when you get the husks that are really
dry and full of corn silk.

Preparing the Masa:
8 cups of Masa de Harina, Do not get the flour for making tortillas, get the instant Masa
2 tbs. Chili Powder (or: 3Tbs Paprika, 3Tbs Salt, 1 Tbs Cumin,
1 tbs. Ground Cumin 3T Chili, 3 T Garlic to ½ bag masa)
2 tbs. Baking Powder
½ tbs. Salt
½-1 tsp ground black pepper
Pour in all the juice from your roasts
½-1 cup of vegetable shortening, some people add lard, I prefer this. If your juice from
your meat has a lot of fat you can minimize this addition. I do not like greasy tamales.
Add enough beef broth to make your masa into a fluffy dough, that almost has the
consistency of peanut butter. It looks like peanut butter too! Taste the Masa. Does it need more salt, or one of the other spices? If not, you are ready to assemble your tamales!

Assembling the Tamales:
If your meat has been refrigerated, you will want to warm it before assembling.
Drain your corn husks. We stand them up in a medium size pan. Take a big handful and place on a cookie sheet. Take those to a table and have a spreading knife ready for each person. Take your bowl of masa and some empty cookie sheets to the table to place the filled husks on. You will want your husk to be about the width of your palm from the bottom of your palm to the first joint in your little finger. Tear the remainder off.
Spread the masa on the larger end of the husk. Leave an inch or two at the pointier end free of masa. Again, assembling will become an individualized preference. I prefer a thin layer of masa. I don’t like a tamale that is so thick with masa. But Emily’s husband wants more masa in his tamales!
Keep layering these husks spread with masa on the cookie sheets. You can stack them a little bit.
Carol started heating the water in her steamer pot during the spreading of the masa, as she said, this way we don’t have to wait for that water to get hot. This was a good point!
When you have quite a few, you can put 1-2 tbs of the seasoned meat into the middle of the masa. Then fold your husks one end over the other and fold the piece that does not have masa up, place standing in a steamer pot. The website provided has this nicely illustrated for you!
When your steamer pot is full of tamales, place the steamer over the water and cover with the lid. These will need to steam 2-3 hours…sometimes it even takes longer.
Continue spreading masa, and filling the pots with your tamales. As another steamer pot fills, put on the stove to steam. Keep checking the pot bottoms to ensure that you have enough water. You don’t want your steam to dry up! We made three pots with the above ingredients.
Clean the kitchen, and get ready to wait for the tamales to finish cooking. After a couple of hours or so, you can pull one out with tongs, let it cool slightly and see if the husk will pull away from the masa. If so they are done. Let them lay on cookie sheets to cool.
While you are waiting, break out the margaritas, how about some Mexican chocolate and Pan Dulce? Don’t know what that is? Well, that’s another story!