New Mexico Tamales

Tamales: Boil meat in water until tender. Remove meat from broth, saving broth for making dough and chile. Chop meat in 1/4 inch pieces and place in pan. Disolve chile powder in 1 1/2 cups of the meat broth, add to the meat, add garlic, spices and salt, and cook until almost dry. Set aside, while preparing dough (masa). Masa for Tamales: Cream lard in a medium size mixing bowl, using a mixer at medium speed. Add flour and mix. Add enough of the meat broth to make dough spreadable with a table knife. Assembling the Tamales: Rinse corn husks and soak in warm water until pliable. Spread the center portion of each husk with 2 tb of the masa mixture. Top with the chile meat filling. Varied amounts of either the masa or thee filling may be used (some like them thin, some like more of the filling). Fold the sides of the hushs toward the center, the bottom of the husk up the top down. Tie each tamale top and bottom with a narrow corn husk strip. Pour 2 inches of water in a large kettle and arrange the tamales on a rack above water level. Steam tamales for about 40 minutes. WALT New Mexico Magazine Dec-93 Posted to MC-Recipe Digest V1 #309 Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 09:00:37 -0500 From: Walt Gray <waltgray@mnsinc.com>