Since I'm not going home for Christmas, I really wanted to bring some element of a San Antonio Christmas to myself in DC. Nothing really says the holidays like Mexican tamales, and unfortunately, I haven't found the right kind up here in this area. Normally we order a few dozen from a lady at church, pick up a selection of pork, cheese, and venison from her garage, and then feast on them from Christmas Eve through New Years.
Of course because I'm slightly crazy, I decided making them from scratch would be a better use of my time (and oh, how much time it's taking) than picking up some frozen Salvadorean ones from the market. I'm throwing a holiday party next Saturday, and spent today prepping the items for
this recipe for pork tamales I found on Martha Stewart.
While the recipe only called for 1 lb of pork shoulder, I could only buy a 6 lb. hunk of meat. So I tripled the first part of the recipe—reserving the extra meat and broth for future meals—and froze back half of the shoulder for another day (
any good recipes for pork shoulder?)
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| Pork Broth simmering in my LC |
The tamales almost didn't happen, as it's insanely hard to find dried corn husks at a typical grocery store. I finally hit pay dirt at
El Eden in Alexandria--and was really impressed with their spice and chili selection as well.
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| Dried chilies soaking |
I'll post the recipe tomorrow (I'm pulling elements from two different ones) but spent the evening making the pork filling and tamale dough. The filling is a wonderful mixture of pork cubes, with New Mexico, ancho, and chipotle chilies pulverized together with garlic, onions, tomatoes, and cilantro. (
I found this handy glossary of chili types too!) Tune in tomorrow to see how the assembly goes!
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| All the ingredients, pre-emulsion blender |
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Tamales Day Two
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