Mrs. loco's Tamales

[locolagarto 15]

At long last we have the Recipe for authentic Guatemalan Tamales:

 

Ingredients

 

Sauce:

10 medium ripe tomatoes

8 green tomatillos

4 Chile Pasilla – dried

4 Chile Guajillo - dried

2 regular red Bell peppers

1 regular Green bell Pepper

1 large onion

4 cloves Garlic

4 oz of Hulled pumpkin seeds – green

4 Dried or fresh bay leaves - whole

2-oz bag of Sesame seeds

1 pkg Chicken bouillon Goya brand

3 pkgs. Sazon Goya – mix of salt, garlic, cumin, saffron, achiote or annatto( for red color)

1 tbs. Course Sea Salt

1. ½ tsp. Nutmeg

 

 

Maseca:

 

2.2 pounds of finely ground instant Corn Masa

1 onion

1/2 cup of vegetable oil or corn oil

2 tbs. of pork lard

5 cloves of garlic

3 pkgs. of chicken bouillon

Equal parts Water to Masa

3 tbs. Course Sea Salt

 

 

Tamale:

3 pounds of fresh or frozen Banana Leaf

3 lbs. Meat (Beef, Pork, or Chicken)

 

 

 

Instructions:

 

 

Sauce:

 

In a large stew pot. Place washed tomatoes, tomatillos, red bell peppers, green bell pepper, onion (peeled and quartered), bay leaf, garlic, and water just to cover bottom of the pot. (About 2 cups of water) Cover and boil until vegetables are soft. (Fully cooked time is about 30 min)

 

In a Large fry pan, dry roast the dried chilies, pumpkinseeds, and sesame seeds one group at a time in dry pan. When the vegetables are done, add the roasted ingredients to top of the vegetable pot.

 

Stir and let this cool while we start our Maseca mixture.

 

 

 

Meseca:

 

In a Large canning pot, heat the 1/2 cup oil, onion, garlic, pork lard until the onions are soft. After softening the onion and garlic remove the solids to a blender and blend completely to paste. Set aside.

 

In a large mixing bowl, combine Corn flour with water. Add water until mixture is soupy like a very runny Cake batter. make sure all flour is mixed well. Equal parts water and Corn flour is pretty good. Mix very well and add to oil and blended onion garlic mix in Canning Pot. Add Seasonings and bring to boil. You must stir constantly. The mixture will thicken before it boils. It is done when the consistency of mashed potatoes. This will take 45-60 minutes. So bring a helper to take turns stirring. The key to this turning out right is to stir and stir and stir. Remove from heat and let cool.

 

Salt to taste as you go. more is a little better than not enough

 

 

Meat:

 

Clean and cut the meat pieces into small chunks. About the size of a golf ball (sorry couldn’t think of anything better to compare it too).

 

 

 

 

Back to the Sauce:

 

Add cooked vegetables (minus the Bay leafs) to a blender and blend to a fine sauce the consistency of tomato soup. Using a colander or strainer, strain the sauce to remove all solids.

 

In the large pot add 2 tbs. of oil, return the sauce to the Pot add the seasonings and heat to a boil. And then remove from the heat. Let cool. Season to taste. these are not especially spicy. However you can really add some flavor by adding some hot chilis to the recipe

 

 

Prepare to make Tamales:

 

Take the banana leaves wash and cut into 12in by 12 in squares. Cut pieces of aluminum foil to 1-½ times the size. How many depends on how big you make the tamales.

 

Dry the banana leaves with a towel. Stack Foil and then banana leaf on your counter.

 

Remove some of the Maseca into a mixing bowl and move to your workspace. Do the same with some of the sauce. Repeat as necessary to make building the tamales easier

 

Add one cup of Meseca to center of banana leaf, place a piece of meat in the middle of that. And add a 1/4 cup of sauce on top of that.

 

Then Roll the banana leaf up and wrap the mixture tightly inside. Then wrap with Foil to keep any water out.

 

Place in a large canning pot with a separator in the bottom.

 

After all tamales are rolled add water to bottom of pot. And Cover and boil or steam for 1 to 2 hours or until the meat is fully cooked.

 

The wrapping is the hardest part. I have included several photos step by step to show how to fold and squeze the mixture into a roll.

 

Edited December 21, 2009 by locolagarto

[Schot 407]

Wow... That is so cool loco. Talk about a complete lesson on cooking Guatemalan Tamales. Awesome presentation! Straight from loco cocina . A bit of Spanish lang butchery but it's more catchy this way isn't it? ^^

[locolagarto 15]

And We aren't finished yet. we still get to eat em. So into the pot they go:

 

 

and just like on the cooking shows. they instantly pop out as if they really did cool for an hour:

 

[Bondbug 32]

Wow Loco that is some presentation. Sorry for the delay in responding. I lost my internet connection on 3rd December and have just got it back today. And I have nearly 4 weeks of emails to catch up on.

 

Will study all this with the head chef and get to work on it.

 

Meanwhile we are stuffed with Xmas dinner and Ne'er Day dinner - being somewhat affected by Scottish as well as English customs. Drunk in charge of a keyboard...almost.

[locolagarto 15]

And for the record the recipe has no peanut butter in it, as one picture may imply. but that does seem to be the permanent home of the peanut butter jar. my wife is the only lady in a house of 4 men... well 2 men and 2 half pints. and we all live on peanut butter when she is away from the kitchen.

[Bondbug 32]

And for the record the recipe has no peanut butter in it,

 

Well, pal, for me that is a great relief. Can't stand the stuff! At least I can stay on speaking terms with your wife?

[locolagarto 15]

I had to revive this recipe.

 

Mrs Loco is in the kitchen making tamales again. the smells in this apartment are reminding me of good times.

[Furian67 15]

Dude no fair.

[Ryanrocker 200]

I'm jealous

[dreeft 9]

And for the record the recipe has no peanut butter in it, as one picture may imply. but that does seem to be the permanent home of the peanut butter jar. my wife is the only lady in a house of 4 men... well 2 men and 2 half pints. and we all live on peanut butter when she is away from the kitchen.

This is a shame, I think some peanut butter would go well

 

Looks awesome Loco! Now I'm hungry

[Furian67 15]

Hey Ryan, I know what they taste like, jealous is a very mild term for it not getting to participate in the eating of the goodiness.

 

Ps freeze some for me bro.

[gogoblender 3,071]

I can't believe the amount of work that has gone into this recipe. It reminds me a lot of my grandmother's cooking. The craft she would put in, the care and detail to ingredients... it was almost like working out at the gym.

 

Thanks for the pic journey loco, you're blessed with good bounty, food connects on so many levels, opens doors and, I have found, keeps family close.

 

Now...send me some of that food why dontcha

 

 

gogo

[Barristan 14]

Heya,

 

wow .... definately trying this sometime!

 

Nice work on the photoshoot ther m8!

 

Greetz