Monday, February 4, 2013

Tamales ~Homemade Authentic Part 3 of 3

Now to get these tamales together! Our meat and sauce are done and have marinated overnight. Our husks have soaked overnight making them very flexible. Now its time to make our Maza! Don't be scared its so easy! When I wanted to make this recipe for the first time I found out the dirty little secret that all my tamale making friends cheat and use pre made store bought Maza. I was so disappointed and determined to figure out how to make my own. After all this is all about making it homemade right? There are 2 key ingredients that are extremely important for this and they are a good dried Masa I prefer MASECA brand and some good Lard (Manteca)

This recipe I make in batches as I need it. I find that the warm Maza spreads so easily. So I make it in batches that yields about 50 tamales per batch.

2 cups of Maseca
2 cups of hot water
1/4 cup of powder chicken bouillon
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt (I use Kosher)
1/2 the slab of Manteca Lard (melted on stove top)
Mix the Masa, salt, chicken bouillon, and baking powder in a large bowl (I once again use my Kitchen Aid Mixer but did use a large bowl and clean hands before purchasing the mixer) Next add in the hot water and melted lard. Mix thoroughly til smooth and batter starts to be sticky.  Now we will need a very clean disinfected table or counter top to start to spread the masa onto our corn husks. I am gonna say there is no wrong or right way to do this you can make a thick or thin coat depending on your own liking. I use either a butter knife, a spoon, or a flexible baking spatula all work fine. I find it easiest to spread the entire 50 out leave them flat and then start to add the meat. Again adding to your liking a larger or smaller portion of meat. We like to go for  a nice thick meaty tamale in my house! To fold after filling its simple left side over proceeded by right side over and bottom flap up. Now to steam them. Use a large pot with a strainer placed into it and fill bottom with a few cups of water to create the steam. We don't want the water touching the strainer. Again I do this in a few different pans and usually have 50 Tamales in each pot. I steam them probably about 45mins to an hour then let cool before batching up my freezer bags. If you are serving them after steaming a good 5 minutes to sit and settle is usually good. Then just simply serve, peel, and eat! I highly recommend doing the few different batches as they are going to turn out so delicious you will want to share with friends, family, and neighbors!
If you do happen to freeze some of them I have found the easiest way to reheat them or just keep them warm for a party is to fill the crock pot with them start off on high to heat and then turn to warm to keep heated! The crock pot keeps the moisture in them.

After all this I do believe I am going to go run and pull  a batch out of my freezer for tomorrow. Hope you enjoy and let me tell you this seems like a lot of work try it in the steps and I promise you every time you make them after becomes easier and easier. This is such a recipe to share! You are going to love all the compliments you get!!

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