Instructions: This recipe has been used by Irene Delgado and her family for over 40 years. It originated from her Aunt Helen Viera, Whittier CA.

Introduction

The flavor of these authentic home made tamales cant be missed!.

They are fabulous, and make a delicious dinner throuhout the Christmas season, as well as all year long. Tamales are a traditional Mexican Christmas food. Be sure to freeze some for other family get togethers!

There are many steps to making the tamales. I would recommend the following tips before you start this project.

1. Plan an entire day. This is a long procedure, and should take a minimum of 10 to 12 hours. (start early in the day) Dont plan to make anything else in your kitchen while this is going on.

2. Collect all the ingredients, and utensils, pots and pans, and get them out prior to starting.

3 Have lots of people around willing to help with the different steps.

4. Plan a party, this recipe will make over 20 to 21 dozen. They freeze well, so dont worry about left overs.

Be sure to read all the pages carefully before starting out, but if you need help you can write to Irene Delgado Let me know if you make this recipe,and how it turned out! I have included photos of all the steps, to help you along.

The Masa

If you live in Tucson Arizona you are in luck. Go to Alejandos Tortilla Factory, (South 12th and Irvington) and buy 20 pounds of prepared masa (with chile). It costs $1.25 a pound, but its well worth every penny. This is the dough in which you will line the corn husks with in later steps (forming the tamales)

The masa is made out of ground corn and chiles, lard and spices.

It is far easier to buy it prepared, than to attempt the project of making it. Trust me on this one!

If you do not live in Tucson, try any gourmet food store. Mexican food is quite popular so it should not be too difficult to track down. Get 20 pounds of masa.

You can also go down the specialty isle in your local grocery store and see if the sack of dry masa flour is available.

It also may be near the flour isle in the same form. The problem is that you have to prepare the masa according to the package directions, and this gets to be a huge job when you are making 20 pounds of masa.

You can also make Masa from scratch (grinding your own corn), but we wont go there!!!

Tamale meat preparation

1. Purchase 5 large pork shoulders, cut off excess fat use large dutch ovens, cook slowly, be sure to salt water 1/2 way through the boiling procedure. I throw in some garlic cloves too.

2. Boil meat until it is so soft that you can shred it easily. This take several hours. Dont rush this, you dont want tough meat.

3. You can get away with beef instead, but the flavor is not as good.

4 Reserve the juice from one of the pots for the cooking of the dried chile. See chile sauce page.

5. When meat is done, shred into small pieces, cover to keep from drying out the meat. Set aside, until the chile sauce is done.

Preparing the corn husks

1. Buy 21 dozen dried corn husks. You may had to look in the gourmet department for this also. as they not available everywhere. I am not sure if you can find them on the net, but you can try. If I find the link to a place to buy any of the items mentioned on these pages, I will add the links.

2. Rinse and soak the husks, and make sure they are clean before use. Do not use soap, water will work fine. Soaking makes the husk easier to fold.

3. Leave the corn husks in the water until you are ready to use them.

4. Drain off the water and set them on the table with the meat mixture, and masa.

Tamale Chile Sauce preparation

Types and quantites of chiles to use

4 oz package of dried Hot New
Mexico chiles
6-8 Pasilla chiles
4 0z bag of California Red Chile
2 bulbs of Garlic, all cloves
separated and peeled.

8 oz green tomatillo sauce

(Knorr makes this)

salt (lots of this)

5-6 teaspoons comino also
called cumin (powdered)

1. Rinse off and take off stems and shake out seeds. You dont have to be perfect, just try to get most of the seeds out.

2.Place the chiles in pot with the reserved pork broth. This helps the flavor of the sauce.

3. Boil chiles slowly until they are very soft.

The Blending process

4. Using tongs, put the chiles and some of the chile liquid into the blender.

5. Add 3 garlic cloves, 2 teaspoons of salt, 1/3 can of the tomatillo sauce in with the chiles. and 1/3 of the comimo. (or to taste) Blend until very smooth.

6. Prepare a large frying pan with 2-3 tablespoons oil, and 2-3 tablespoons flour. Brown the flour. Dont burn the flour.

7. Pour the chile mixture into the flour, stir together. Pour the chile/flour mixture over a bowl of shreded meat

7a. Repeat this blending process exactly until all the chiles are used up!

8. Add the sauce to the prepared meat. Mix thourougly

9. Set this meat mixture aside, you will have many bowls of the chile meat.

Forming the Tamales

Prepare the table with the masa, and meat mixture, and corn husks.

1. Take a soaked, clean corn husk, and find the smooth side. There is a rough side. The rough is always on the outside of the tamale. You always spread the masa on the smooth side.

2. The corn husk should have the narrower end at the top on your plate. starting 1/4 of the way down the husk spread a thin layer of masa evenly down to the wide end. If you put too much masa, the tamale will not cook completely. See picture below

3. Put a tablespoon of meat mixture in the middle of the masa.

4. Wrap the corn husk sides over the meat, snugglly fitting and sealing.

5. Fold the narrow tip end up to close that end.

6. Pinch the wide top closed. Set in a long pan while you work on the others.

7. After you have a couple dozen folded, go to the cooking page. start a batch cooking, as you keep folding tamales.

Are you tired yet?

Cooking the Tamales

1. Use the very largest steamer you can find. Be sure there is a rack in the bottom and fill water up to the rack.

2. Gently place the tamales in the pot. As shown in the picture the narrow end goes down, and they stack next to each other snuggly.

3. Fill the pot with tamales, and place the lid on it.

4. Bring the water to boil and then set it on medium low or slightly more.

5. Slowly steam the tamales for an hour and a half. Check that the pot has water in it, so you dont scortch the pot!

You must be tired by now, but you have 3 batches to steam, so you arent even close to being done. Go back to forming tamales, do not pass go!

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