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I am looking for authentic recipies. I like the cube pork with red chile, for Mexican Tamales, and Chicken in Banana Leaf for Guatemalan Tamales. Like Mom used to make…
Does anyone have a good recipe for Mexican and Guatemalan Tamales?
March 29th, 2012 
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Here are a couple-
Pork Tamales
Tamale Filling:
1 1/4 pounds pork loin
1 large onion, halved
1 clove garlic
4 dried California chile pods
2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Tamale Dough:
2 cups masa harina
1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup lard
1 (8 ounce) package dried corn husks
1 cup sour cream
Place pork into a Dutch oven with onion and garlic, and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 2 hours.
Use rubber gloves to remove stems and seeds from the chile pods. Place chiles in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then remove from heat to cool. Transfer the chiles and water to a blender and blend until smooth. Strain the mixture, stir in salt, and set aside. Shred the cooked meat and mix in one cup of the chile sauce.
Soak the corn husks in a bowl of warm water. In a large bowl, beat the lard with a tablespoon of the broth until fluffy. Combine the masa harina, baking powder and salt; stir into the lard mixture, adding more broth as necessary to form a spongy dough.
Spread the dough out over the corn husks to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Place one tablespoon of the meat filling into the center. Fold the sides of the husks in toward the center and place in a steamer. Steam for 1 hour.
Remove tamales from husks and drizzle remaining chile sauce over. Top with sour cream. For a creamy sauce, mix sour cream into the chile sauce.
Chicken Tamales
2 lbs of peeled white corn
2 1/2 lbs pork chops (no bones)
6 dried red chilies
2 fresh yellow chilies, roasted (Aji MIrasol)
6 egg yolks
2 hard-boiled eggs, cut into eight pieces (wedges, not slices)
2 tablespoons vinegar
8 freshh garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
50 g roasted sesame seeds
100 g roasted peanuts (ground)
1/2 lb pork fat
2 cups water
100 g black olives (preferably Peruvian)
1 lb banana leaves (cut in 12-inch X 18-inch pieces)
string
10 ears corn on the cob (without kernels)
The original recipe is done with Peruvian white corn, it has the biggest grain in the world and it can be cut off the cob and peeled to prepare for the recipe, but I substituted it for just the frozen bags that we can find in any grocery store. Preferably, grind the corn using a grinding machine , not blender (as last resource you can blend the corn in a good blender using very little liquid). Set aside.
Blend the salt, pepper, cumin, vinegar and red dried chile (previously roasted and deveined).
Cut the meat into medium sized pieces and marinade for about an hour in the previous mix.
Brown the meat in a teaspoon of lard, add the left over marinade and the two cups of water, and bring it to a boil, simmer to cook for two hours. Remove the pieces of meat and set aside.
Add the broth to the corn, the rest of the lard, peanuts, sesame seeds, 6 yolkes and the glass of Pisco ( if you can’t find Peruvian Pisco leave it like that, don’t substitute).
Work the dough until it makes “eyes”, or air bubbles. Set aside.
To prepare the banana leaves you must pass them quickly over open fire (gas burner) or grill, exposure to high heat will bring out the flavors they release and turn them flexible enough to be used as wrapping. Make sure to take off the thick nerve like center of the leave.
To put the tamales together:.
take about three spoonfuls of dough and place them on the center of a piece of banana leaf.
dig a hole in the middle and place a piece of meat, a piece of egg, an olive, one peanut, and a wedge of the fresh aji Mirasol, this may be substituted by any fresh chile, although the aji Mirasol or aji amarillo (yellow chile) has a very distinctive flavor and is just mildly spicy.
Close the hole on the dough by adding a little bit more dough or folding and tapping it closed,pushing some of the surrounding dough on it.
Wrap well with the banana leaf, closing tightly all four sides on top of the dough. Use another piece of banana leaf to wrap the tamal again starting on the opposite direction and tie tightly using a string cut out of some more banana leaf or a common piece of string. Set aside.
Place the corn cobs at the bottom of a deep pot(rather big or medium size)and some of the banana leaves on top of the corn cobs.
Add just enough water to cover the leaves.
Place the tamales vertically and side by side so the steam travels freely through them and cover them with the rest of the banana leaves.
Cook for about 4 hours.
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