Tamales!

I know, I know... They aren't macarons!  I've been so busy with whatever it is I've been doing that I haven't made macarons in well over a month.  Gasp! 

I always crave New Mexican Chile - red, green, doesn't matter so long as it is NM Chile.  With that in mind, I had some pork lying around and said, hey, I'm going to make tamales!  The first batch was with some masa that had been in a jar for who knows how long, and well, the tamales tasted like it.  I am loathe to throw out food, but they were inedible.  Out we went to get a fresh bag of masa and canola oil, soaked more corn husks and got to making the tamales. 

Here are my steps:
1. Saute lots of onion and some garlic in a pot, once soft stir in powdered red chile, Mexican oregano and a couple bay leaves. 
2.  Add the meat (I used meat that was already cooked), stir to cover with the spices, then cover with water and/or stock. 
3.  After a couple hours, check to see that the meat has absorbed a lot of the liquid.  At this point, strain the meat, reserving all of the liquid.  Pick out the bay leaves (I'd let the meat cool a bit before picking through the meat!) 
4.  Take your strained meat and either chop it by hand or run it through the food processor, then return to the pot and add the cooking liquid until the meat is very moist - almost wet. 
5.  To prepare your corn husks (if you can't find corn husks just cut parchment paper into rectangles): bring a pot of water to a boil, place the corn husks in ensuring they are completely covered, then cover with a lid and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
6.  Make your masa: 6c maseca, 6c water, 1.5-2c canola oil (I prefer to use less oil), 1TB salt - stir until combined and smooth. It should look like a ball of dough, mine tends to be more wet than dough-like so use your judgment!
7.  When your corn husks are soft and pliable, remove them from the water and set on a platter.
8.  Now you are ready to wrap your tamales!  I wish I had pictures of the steps that I use, but it is pretty simple and here's a good link to use as a source:  http://www.sonofthesouth.net/tamales/Tamales_Recipe_.htm  - Just think of wrapping a tamale like you would a burrito - you want about equal proportions of meat to dough and the dough touching when you roll the tamale together.  I usually put a glob of masa in the corn husk, smoosh it down with my fingers, then take the meat and almost roll it in my hands into a log, place that in the middle of the masa'd husk then roll it up.  Make sure one end of the husk is folded over so is easier to stack in your steamer. 
9.  Steam the tamales for about 1.5 hours, more if your steamer is jam packed.  Don't forget to check the water level every so often!  You don't want all your hard work to go to waste! 

Note: I broke down all of these steps into two days: Day One - Meat, Day Two - Assembly and Steaming.  Made it so much easier, and I had so much meat, husband and I ended up sitting and assembling for half an hour three nights in a row.  So, you could totally do this in a day or take four or five!

I like to make a quick chile sauce to serve on top of the tamale, though they don't need it.  Husband likes cheese on his, and I like sour cream but we didn't have sour cream the other night.   (For the sauce: take dried red NM chiles, soak overnight, seed, then put in a blender with a bit of water so it will puree)

That's what I've been up to lately!  Pickling tomorrow - cucumbers, beets, etc... 

Sorry for the lack of macarons, it's been really busy and a bit too hot for me to be in a kitchen with the oven on all day.  I have some ideas for new flavors which I am hoping to get to try out next weekend.