Tamales Oaxaqueños Oaxacan Style Tamales Food

REAL HOMEMADE TAMALES

Steps:

• 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.

TAMALES OAXAQUEñOS (OAXACAN-STYLE TAMALES)

Steps:

• Once cut to the desired size, place them under running water to wash them well. Remember that they break easily, be careful.
• Once washed, let them drain and finally dry them with a kitchen towel. When you dry them, do it from side to side following the lines of the leaves to avoid breaking them.
• Heat a comal or a pan over medium-high heat and warm up the banana leaves. You will see that as they heat up they change to a lighter green color. They will become shiny, flexible and more resistant. Put them aside.
• Mix the cooked and shredded chicken with the mole until well integrated. Cover and set aside until ready to use.
• Beat the lard or shortening until creamy, pour the olive oil and keep stirring until well integrated. This process can be done by hand, but if you prefer you can also do it with a blender.
• Add the Maseca flour, salt, and baking powder and stir. Pour half of the chicken broth and mix. Add more chicken broth as needed until you get a dough that feels moist but not runny and it peels off your hand easily.
• I recommend dividing the dough into 15-16 equal balls so that all the tamales are more or less the same size. Take a 1/3 measuring cup, fill it with the dough, take it out and form a ball of approx 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter. Repeat.
• Take one of the banana leaves and place it on a surface with the paler green side up (this is the side where the filling goes) and with the lines horizontally.
• Take one of the masa balls and place it in the center of the leaf. Spread it with your fingers or your hand to the desired thickness.
• Place 1-2 teaspoons of the chicken mole in the center of the masa. Fold the top sheet so that it covers half of the filling, repeat folding the bottom.
• Now wrap the tamal in the banana leaf, and fold the two ends down. If you wish, you can tie the tamales with kitchen twine.
• Pour 3-4 cups of water into the bottom of a steamer or tamalera. Place a rack and cover it with some of the banana leaves that were leftover.
• Put the tamales horizontally in the steamer and cover with the rest of the banana leaves, cover with the lid and wait until the water starts to boil.
• When it comes to a boil, lower the heat to keep the water simmering. Steam the tamales for an hour.
• Turn off the heat and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. The tamales are ready when they come off the sheet easily.
• Put the tamales horizontally in a tamalera or steamer, cover them with a layer of banana leaves.
• Cover the steamer and let them cook for approximately an hour or until the tamales open cleanly without the masa sticking to the leaves.