Here’s a Tamale Recipe That Will Rock Your World

Monday, I brought some delicious homemade tamales for lunch. Yep, I had tamales in my lunch box! I didn't make them, but one of my best friends mother did and she was gracious enough to share some with me.  If you guys appreciate a great tamale like I do, I thought I would share the recipe. On the condition that when you make these tamales, I would be glad to taste them for you - just trying to be helpful.

First of all, I learned that you should get your ingredients at a store that has Mexican isle. This will make shopping for what you need a lot easier.

Ingredients

• 1/4 pounds pork loin
• 1 large onion, halved
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 dried California chile pods - Anaheim
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Tamale Dough (This is the hard part!)

• 2 cups masa harina
• 1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup lard -- good 'ol lard!
• 1 (8 ounce) package dried corn husks
• 1 cup sour cream

Directions

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.

Yummy! Of course you can make it with beef or chicken (I like 'em all!).