Being apart of a Spanish family homemade tamales are made every year around Christmas time, and are enjoyed by the whole family. My favorite memories as a child are my whole family coming together (the women of course) making the tamales, and the best part was eating them! Making homemade tamales can be challenging, but in the end is extremely awarding!
Ingredients:
- 3 cups of corn starch or masa
- 2 cups hot water
- 10 chili peppers
- 5 pounds of pork meat
- corn husks
Directions:
- Step One: Cook the pork meat on low over night (7-12 hours) in a crock pot. Set the corn husks to soak in water.
- Step Two: Once meat is cooked, steam the chili peppers for about 15 minutes.
- Step Three: Once the chili peppers are cooked de-seed them. Remember you do not want seeds. Then, proceed to blending the chili peppers in a blender until thoroughly blended.
- Step Four: Put the 3 cups of corn starch or masa in a large bowl. It is best to use hot water to combine with the corn starch. Kneed the corn starch and masa with your hands until the mixture is spreadable, and add in more water as you kneed until the mixture is spreadable.
- Step Five: Take half of the chili, and add it to the masa mixture. Kneed with your hands until combined.
- Step Six: Take the pork meat out of the crock pot. Take the meat off the bones if necessary. Put the meat in a large pot, and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add in the remaining blended chili peppers as you are cooking, and stirring the pork meat.
- Step Seven: Let the pork meat cool, as this will be important when you begin stuffing the tamales.
- Step Eight: Take the masa mixture and corn husks. It is best to use a spoon to spread the masa mixture with. Now spreading might take a couple of tries to get the hang of. Use warm water to dip the spoon in. Take about a table spoon of the masa mixture and spread it evenly over the corn husk. Do this until you have the desired amount of tamales. It is normal to have extra masa, but you can either make more tamales or throw it out.
- Step Nine: Stuff the tamales with the cooked pork meat, but do not stuff them to the point where you are not able to roll them. Then, roll the corn husks.
- Step Ten: Steam the tamales with about 12 to a batch. The steaming process takes about 1-3 hours until they are completely done.
- Step Eleven: Once the tamales are done serve with either salsa, green salsa, or sour cream.
This is one of the best dishes to make for your family, and taste absolutely amazing homemade and fresh! It was always the highlight of Christmas for me when I was little(and still to this day). You can freeze the tamales for later if you wish. Simply steam them when you are ready to cook them again.