Traditional Pork Tamales With Mole Sauce
I have to admit, the first time I ate tamales, I didn’t care for them much. The flavor was pretty good, but they had the consistency of dense, boiled dough. The way they were wrapped seemed a mystery. Why was there that flap of tamale that was never quite tucked inside the corn husk with the rest of it?
I came to realize that many other people also feel confused about tamales. To this day, I regularly see people attempting to eat the corn husk.
But every once in a while, you get one of those super tamales: a drop-dead, knockout, outrageously delicious epiphany of flavor and texture. The type of defining moment that drives one to shout out loud: “Boy, I want to have more of that!”
In New Mexico, where I grew up, those great homemade tamales had a short season. They’d pop up around the Christmas holidays, then--poof!--they were gone. Of course, ordinary tamales were always there. In mediocre restaurants, you could find them on the combination plate, buried between pasty refried beans and tepid, rose-colored rice.
Not being satisfied with great tamales only once a year, I became obsessed. I ordered them whenever I saw them on the menu. I searched them out at family gatherings and hovered around the kitchen table as the tias and abuelitas rolled, tucked, tied and folded the fragrant little packages. I chose my vacations to Mexico or Central America based on the anticipation of eating a particularly famous regional tamale.
In my restaurant, I started putting tamales on the menu. People seemed to appreciate that, so I branched out, offering more and more different kinds--some not at all traditional. In my last restaurant, in the early ‘90s, I installed a complete tamale bar that offered 30 different tamale flavors (including sweet dessert tamales) at any one time and another 70 flavors that could be ordered in advance.
I wasn’t alone, of course. Creative chefs all over the country were adding tamales to their menus. Traditional Latin restaurants were offering lighter, more healthful tamale choices. The Indio International Tamale Festival started. Zarela Martinez, from New York City, was shown on television serving tamales to world leaders at the dinner for the Williamsburg Summit of Industrialized Nations! Charity events featured celebrity chefs such as Wolfgang Puck, Patricia Quintana, Norman Van Aken and Nobu Matsuhisa serving cutting-edge international tamales. Even Martha Stewart has had a tamale cooking class on her show.
Specialty tamale restaurants and boutique takeout stores are opening offering all-tamale menus. Family tamaladas (tamale-making parties), though still popular, have morphed into trendy gourmet tamale potlucks. Grocery stores and neighborhood farmers markets now offer well-packaged, interesting tamales of all kinds.
Finally, tamales have fully arrived on the American table.
Pork
Cut off the top half of the head of garlic so that the cloves are exposed. Quarter the onion. Cut the pork into 3-inch cubes. Place the pork in a large pot with the bone, if there is one, along with the cut head of garlic and the onion. Add salt to taste and enough water to cover. Bring the water to boil and simmer the pork, covered, for at least 4 hours. Refrigerate the pork overnight, covered.
The next day, remove the fat, gristle and the bone, and shred and save the cooked pork. Strain and save the broth to make the mole sauce.
Filling
Simmer the California and New Mexico chiles in water for 10 minutes to soften them. (Beware the fumes from the cooking chiles.) Cool the chiles. Remove and discard the stems, seeds and veins.
Toast the pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds in a skillet over medium heat until golden, about 6 to 8 minutes.
Remove the papery skin from the tomatillos and simmer the tomatillos in the reserved pork broth until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain the tomatillos and set aside, reserving the broth.
Cook the onion in the oil over medium heat until tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Set it aside.
In a blender, combine the seeded chiles, toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds, tomatillos, onion, garlic, salt to taste, cumin and 2/3 cup reserved pork broth. Blend together, then pour the mixture through a sieve, saving the liquid. Return the solids to the blender, along with another 2/3 cup pork broth, and blend again. Pour the mixture through the sieve again, discarding the solids and placing the sauce in a saucepan.
Simmer the mole sauce for 30 minutes. Combine the sauce with the reserved shredded pork and set it aside to cool. The filling should not be runny.
Masa
In the bowl of mixer, combine the masa with the baking powder, about 3 tablespoons of pork broth and the melted lard to “lighten” the masa. Beat together, then test the consistency by breaking off a small piece of masa and trying to float it in water. It is not absolutely necessary that it float, but a light, spongy consistency of the masa is critical to good tamales. The masa can’t be beaten too much.
Assembly
Soak the hojas in hot water to soften, about 20 minutes. Sort out the smaller pieces and discard. Drain the large hojas just before filling.
Take a large hoja and dry it with a paper towel. Hold the hoja in one hand and spread about 2 tablespoons of masa over the hoja with the back of a spoon, or lay the hoja flat on a table to spread the masa. Place about 2 tablespoons of the pork-mole filling on the masa. Fold over the hoja from the side. Now fold over the opposite side to seal the masa. Fold up the bottom of the hoja. The tamale is ready for steaming. Repeat the process with the remaining tamales. (The tamales may be frozen at this point for steaming later.) If necessary the folded tamale may be tied with a strip of hoja to hold it together.
Stand the tamales open-end up in a steamer. You may need to steam them in two batches. Steam the tamales until the masa is cooked and firm, 35 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the remaining tamales.
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