¡Tamalada!

We decided to have a tamale-making SuperBowl party yesterday, which was a lot of fun. Making tamales is a lot of work, and it's best to have help, and split it up over time. I cooked up two kinds of meat, red chile pork and chicken molé, ahead of time. The basic recipe and pork filling were from Rick Bayless' Mexico: One Plate at a Time.

Red chile pork filling

6 ounces dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded and each torn into several pieces
6 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
¾ teaspoon black pepper, preferably freshly ground
½ teaspoon cumin, preferably freshly ground
4 pounds lean boneless pork (preferably from the shoulder), cut into ½-inch cubes
Salt

In a large blender or food processor (or working in batches), combine the chiles, garlic, pepper and cumin. Add 4 cups water, cover and blend to a smooth puree. Strain the mixture through a medium-mesh strainer into a medium-size (3-quart) saucepan.

Add the meat, 4 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt. Simmer, uncovered, over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the pork is fork-tender and the liquid is reduced to the consistency of a thick sauce, about 1 hour. Use a fork to break the pork into small pieces. Taste and season with additional salt if necessary. Let cool to room temperature.

Chicken molé filling

Mix one 8.25-oz.jar of Doña Maria Mole sauce with 2 cups chicken broth. Heat and whisk until smooth, and add the shredded meat from a 5 lb. boiled chicken.

Cheese filling

Mix shredded monterey jack cheese with pureed canned chipotle peppers to taste.

Batter
10 ounces (1⅓ cups) rich-tasting pork lard (or vegetable shortening if you wish), slightly softened but not at all runny
1½ teaspoons baking powder
3½ cups dried masa harina for tamales mixed with 2¼ cups hot water
1 cup chicken broth

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the lard or shortening with 2 teaspoons salt and the baking powder until light in texture, about 1 minute. Continue beating as you add the masa (fresh or reconstituted) in three additions. Reduce the speed to medium-low and add 1 cup of the broth. Continue beating for another minute or so, until a ½-teaspoon dollop of the batter floats in a cup of cold water (if it floats you can be sure the tamales will be tender and light).

Beat in enough additional broth to give the mixture the consistency of soft (not runny) cake batter; it should hold its shape in a spoon. Taste the batter and season with additional salt if you think necessary.

We used 3 batches of the batter recipe. For the first batch, I had a ½ cup of lard rendered from the pork roast, the rest was all commercial hydrogenated lard, which isn't much different from shortening. Some people are really particular about their lard. We had lots of people to shape tamales and roll them into corn husks. They steamed for about 70 minutes, standing up vertically in a pasta strainer pot. They were all different shapes and thicknesses, but they were good! Served with jicama salad, rice and beans.