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Tamales Rojos de Puerco (Mexico)

Red pork tamales SMALL BATCH
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Prep Time 4 hours
Cook Time 2 hours
Servings: 20 Tamales
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pkg Corn Husks Rinsed
Shredded Pork
  • 2 lb Pork Shoulder or Butt I used 2lb seasoned pork shoulder from aldi
  • 3/4 Of a white onion (other part will be for sauce)
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 3 Garlic Cloves
Red sauce
  • 11 New Mexico Chiles
  • 3 Chile Anchos
  • 1/4 Of a white onion
  • 4 Garlic Cloves
  • Oregano
  • Cumin Seeds
  • Peppercorn
  • Salt
Masa
  • 10 oz Lard
  • 2.5 C Maseca
  • 2 tsp Baking powder
  • 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2.5 C Chicken broth
  • 1/4 C Reserved red sauce

Equipment

  • 1 Blender
  • 1 Large steaming pot
  • 1 Plastic bowl scrapper

Method
 

Soak the corn husks
  1. In a large bowl or container, add the rinsed corn husks and fill with hot water, place something heavy to press them down into the water and allow to soak for 6-24 hours.
Make the shredded pork
  1. You can make your shredded pork however you'd like. I took a 2lb seasoned boneless pork shoulder from aldi chopped into peices, roughly chopped onion, garlic, and bay leaves, boiled them on medium low for 3 hours then shredded it. Reserve 2 cups of the water it boiled in and set it aside.
Make the red sauce
  1. Cut open the dried chiles and remove the seeds and any hard stem or hard strings
  2. In a sauce pan, add your chiles and fill with water, boil for 10 minutes then transfer the chiles to a blender along with the onion, Garlic, oregano, cumin seeds, peppercorn, salt and the 2 cups of reserved water from the pork. Blend until smooth
  3. In a large skillet add oil or a little bit of lard and melt it down, pour in the red sauce and simmer for just a minute and reserve 1/4C of the sauce and set aside for the masa. Next, add the shredded pork to the skillet and simmer in the red sauce for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Make the Masa
  1. In a stand mixer using a flat beater, or using a hand mixer in a large bowl, whip the lard until it is fluffy, Add the baking powder and whip again for a minute. Next, you can continue in the stand mixer or you can use your hands, Add in 1 cup of the maseca and 1 cup of chicken broth, the bouillon and salt, and mix. add another cup of each broth and maseca and mix again and repeat with the remaining 1/2 cups of each, once its mixed in, pour in the reserved red sauce and mix for 10 minutes and allow the masa to rest for 10 minutes.
Assemble the tamales
  1. Dry the corn husks and start spreading masa on the soft side of each one about half way up, (I used a plastic bowl scrapper) With enough masa that you can't see the corn husk, add your filling to the center, then fold one side over, fold the other side over the first side like a trifold, then fold the bottom of the corn husk up. You can look up a video if it's helpful! I recommend doing so.
Steam in a pot on the stove
  1. In a steamer pot (Tamalera) Add the steam attachment inside, add a layer of corn husks then add the tamales standing up. layer corn husks around the sides and the top. Add a couple inches of water to the bottom and cover with a lid that has a kitchen towel wrapped around it to help prevent water from dripping on to the tamales. Steam for 2 hours checking the water level and adding more water if needed every 30 minutes. Take them out and rest for 15 minutes for the masa to set. Check out my notes above to do it without a steam attachment.
OR Steam in and Instant pot
  1. Add the steam rack, cover bottom with water making sure none of the water touches the rack, layer 2 corn husks on the bottom, and add the tamales in standing up. cover and pressure cook for 45 minutes. Take them out and rest for 15 minutes for the masa to set.
  2. Make sure to rest the tamales for 15 minutes for the masa to set or they won't remove well from the corn husks. Enjoy!