Pork Tamale, another use for leftover pork roast!

[bbally]

Another pork roast, cooked, served and producing leftovers. We have talked about making Green Chile Earlier this month. And since I have been reviewing Rick Bayless's book the past week and a half. I thought maybe Pork Tamales would be a just thing to create out of the left over pork. This starts another project for my kitchen equipment. You would be surprised at what kind of equipment chefs get hooked on that they just must use. My Universal No. 2 grinder is such a device. I have a 1.5 horsepower grinder, a 1 hp grinder,
but my favorite for making prep of quick meals is still this old Universal Number 2 grinder.




Functional, easy to clean, quick to set up. I have banged out a lot of corn beef hash with this puppy. It always answer my call and always chops nicely. I can not explain it as the electric machines do the work, but I just like grinding my leftovers with this little grinder.
Into the heavy bottom stainless steel pot goes a little olive oil, shallot, garlic, cumin, fennel and a hint of cinnamon. I will add in salt and pepper after I taste it once the meat has been added. Right now I am just softening up the spicing and letting it meld.


I have already ground the pork, and am sweating down the underlying background flavors. I will get to work on the chile I am going to use. I am going to pull out another fun toy. The mortar and pestle. Since I raise a lot of peppers at my home, I like to grind and custom blend my Chili powder for each dish. Don't get me wrong, I have a big container of chili powder like the next person, but for my experiments and fun times I like to grind my own. Particularly since I have been reading both a Hungarian book from the late 19th century on paprika and combining that with Rick Bayless's knowledge about the variations throughout Mexico on blending chili powders, well what is a chef to do? Take at hand at it!



After selecting a few of the chilies I dried at the end of the growing season I ended up with 5 Big Jims, 1 Habanera, 2 pimento, and 3 Hungarian wax, and once Cheyenne pepper. I put them in the mortar and take the pestle to them. Because I dry my own, I like to dry the habanera with the seeds in it. This should give me the upfront, HEY THIS IS MEXICAN, type introduction to people eating them I want them to experience.


Adding this to the pork, which has been added to my vegetable sweat, and you start to fill the room with great smells. The smells of lunch to come!


When it is done, I will place it in a glass measuring glass that has been frozen. This helps cool the meat down fast. Helping me in quickly be able to assemble the tamale soon after everything else is ready. At this time I am just pushing water off the meat to get it tacky. I place the
corn husks down in the water to start to get them ready for assembly.


While the husks are getting wetted, I have to get the masa started. Need to pull out some frozen chicken stock from birds gone by. I have a habit of boiling everything leftover down to some type of useable product. Very rarely will I just toss something out.


I was very happy with the clarity of this stock. Not all the way to clear, but a good way along toward clear. Of course that is not really necessary with tamales since the masa is going to color everything anyway. I weigh out the masa, the stock is ready. I measure the lard and the salt. Lard and salt first into the KA and switch to 2 and wait til it lightens up a lot. Almost a fluff when it is done.


While the lard and salt are working things out with each other I place the masa in the stock and stir it up good. Creating a crumbled type dough. Will form a ball when compressed and hold the shape. Works out to be about
two cups of stock to 3 cups of masa.


Once the lard and salt are fluffy and the masa has rested a couple minutes I stop the KA and add the masa dough to the lard mixture.


I mix it for about 3 minutes on number 4 then let it rest til assembly time. Meanwhile I drain off some olive as I have decided them for the bottom of each tamale.


While they drain off, I am trying my hand at grinding my own paprika. I have selected three pepper for my paprika, the Hungarian wax, the Hungarian Red, and the bell pepper. For fun I am adding in one Thai pepper. Hey I
like things that jump out at you. Keep grinding till the size of the grind is all equal. Don't be afraid to remove goofy looking pieces that will not grind correctly.


Now we are ready for assembly. First a corn husk, a little paprika on it, then schmear down some masa, plunk on the olive, and spread the pork filling along the outer edge.



Then you roll them up and tie them off. Big thing about cutting a corn husk and tying them with that. Not going to happen if I am doing it. I like authentic taste, don't think the corn husk tie is going to add anything to the flavor. So butcher string it will be for me. But if I was doing them for a catering I would certainly tie them in the traditional manner. Of course I would be being paid for doing it that way as well!


Then I start to stack them in the steamer for the steam cooking phase.


Keep filling stacking and rolling 'til you run out of something or everything. In my case I usually run out of masa first.


Once you have a steamer load you fire up the heat and put the cover on them. I like to steam them for about 35 minutes. If you are not sure, remove the lid and start to unroll one. The masa should not stick to the corn husk
when they are done. Remove the steamer to a safe setting and start to place them on a cooling rack for packaging or eating. In my case today, both.


Once they have cooled about 10 minutes you can dig in and taste what you created. They are amazing. I think of these to Mexicans as Pasta is to Italians. They are one of those simple ethnic dishes that are just fantastic and there is never a doubt what region you are cooking! I am
showing a plate of two I was eating while the rest were cooling. Notice one has no masa on one side. I wanted you to see how they really come out. I could have food styled it and looked around for two perfect specimens and then
clicked the picture. But why, this is the way they form sometimes. So what! They are great to eat perfect or imperfectly formed!


The black thing at the bottom of both is the olive. The dark one sort of looks like a deranged finger! Well like I said, they come out a little off sometimes. Still darn good to eat. Wash them down with some Bohemia beer and man you are living large! I tell you LARGE!

Finally I like to vacuum pack them 7 to 8 to a package. So I whip out the Foodsaver and go to work.



'til we talk again, work on using those leftovers, you will be surprised at how low the food bill goes when you really get to using those leftovers!

Chef Bob Ballantyne
The Cowboy and The Rose Catering
Grand Junction, Colorado, USA

[labradors]

Cool! The pork tamales are traditional, here, for Christmas Eve, and they are delicious. The regular tamales, otherwise, are rather bland. Oh,yeah: instead of wrapping them in corn husks, they wrap them in banana leaves.

[bbally]

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Cool! The pork tamales are traditional, here, for Christmas Eve, and they are delicious. The regular tamales, otherwise, are rather bland. Oh,yeah: instead of wrapping them in corn husks, they wrap them in banana leaves.

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I seen banana leaves mentioned in several places. Does the banana leave add anything to the taste of the masa? Or is it just an abundant product in the area that is used just as a carrier to steam the tamale?

[labradors]

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I seen banana leaves mentioned in several places. Does the banana leave add anything to the taste of the masa? Or is it just an abundant product in the area that is used just as a carrier to steam the tamale?

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As far as I know, it is just a carrier, much as the corn husks would be. Banana leaves are, of course, much larger, and are probably easier to use, since they can make a very nice packet. I'll ask for some local opinions, though, and get back to you.

[bbally]

Thanks, I think it must be the carrier as well. But the amount of Chlorophyll in the banana leaf I wondered if it does something in the steaming.

[labradors]

Well, I asked two people today. The first, whom I would consider more generally knowledgeable, said it definitely added some flavour. The second, whom I consider to be more culinarily knowledgeable, said it didn't affect the taste one bit, but is just used as a carrier. She also said something about their heating the leaves first, to make them more pliable.

I know of a source for a recipe for the Honduran style of tamales, and will see what it says. It would be a very involved one to translate into English, though, so I'll just look for the part about the leaves, rather then posting a full translation here. I will post the link to the Spanish text, though, for those who will be able to understand it.

Okay, I'm back. First of all, here's the link to the Honduran tamale recipe (in Spanish).

Now, here's what it says about the leaves:

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If you wish to fold the tamales in banana leaves, buy them in the market and boil them until they take on a blackish colour, then remove the veins of the leaves and try to cut them into squares; but in case they split or tear while trying to fold the tamales, cover them with another leaf. In case you cannot find banana leaves, use aluminum foil. Just cut it the same size as a sheet of typing paper or according to the size of the tamales.

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BTW, the second person I had asked also mentioned that some people use foil, but said they really should be done in the leaves.

Also, so you get a little better idea of what these tamales are like, let me give you a little background, and the list of ingredients. First, many of the tamales here are very similar to the rather bland, Mexican tamales one would encounter in the U.S. (those are only "hot tamales" when one pours chile sauce onto them). THESE tamales are the ones that are traditionally served to house guests on Christmas Eve, and have much more flavour. Here are the ingredients:

• Ground corn (either ground from raw corn taken from the cob, or just Maseca or other corn flour)
  
• Pork
  
• Lard (according to the recipe, but I think the locals mostly use regular vegetable shortening)
  
• Chopped onion
  
• Garlic
  
• Salt and pepper
  
• Potatoes, cut into cubes, and cooked (side note: the online translator, "Babelfish" translates "Papas cocidas en cuadros" as "Popes cooked in pictures," which, because of some peculiarities of the Spanish language, IS another valid translation of the literal words, but certainly not in this context)
  
• Raisins (another Spanish oddity: "Pasas" gets translated as "you happen," but when referring to food, it means grapes, or even other similarly dried fruit)
  
• Olives
  
• Cooked rice, if you wish

[bbally]

Wow, thank you for taking the time to post this. This is really good information. I can not wait to try it!

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!

[bbally]

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I know of a source for a recipe for the Honduran style of tamales, and will see what it says. It would be a very involved one to translate into English, though, so I'll just look for the part about the leaves, rather then posting a full translation here.

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Labradors, do you think frozen banana leaves will work. At this time I have the pork, but banana leaves at the asian store are only available frozen at this time.

[labradors]

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Labradors, do you think frozen banana leaves will work. At this time I have the pork, but banana leaves at the asian store are only available frozen at this time.

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The fresh ones are always available here, so I've never even known they were available frozen. I would imagine that they must work okay frozen or they wouldn't be available frozen.

Sorry I can't be of more help than that.