Hebby Roman's Homemade Tamales

Welcome to Fresh Fiction's Holiday Potluck! Some of your favorite authors are bringing scrumptious treats to this virtual gathering, and they are even offering their recipes so you can make these goodies at home and share them with friends and family this season.

I grew up on the border of Texas and Mexico, where Christmas isn't Christmas without homemade tamales. Tamales originated in Mexico, and they're tubes of meat and spices surrounded by a layer of masa (corn meal) and wrapped in a corn shuck. Tamales are very versatile and lend themselves to all kinds of fillings from the usual beef to pork to chicken. There are also recipes for cheese tamales or seafood tamales and even sweet tamales are sometimes made.

These versatile and tasty tubes are associated with the Christmas holidays as they're a special treat due to their complex assembly. And because they're involved to make, tamales are usually prepared in bulk, dozens at a time, by several people in a festive and convivial atmosphere.

My Texas historical romance, MIDNIGHT PROMISE, features tamales as an integral part of all the Latino celebrations in the book, from the Saturday night fandango dance, to a quinceanera (a young lady's fifteenth birthday party), and the harvest celebration.

The most common Christmas tamale is made with a base of pork meat, slowly cooked, traditional style in a fire pit. But most pulled pork used in tamales today is cooked in a crock pot to make the meat muy tender.

Homemade Tamales

For four dozen tamales, you will need a crock pot for the meat and corn husks for the outer coverings. The traditional meat is pork loin, 3 to 4 pounds. Put pork loin in crock pot and cover with water and add 5 whole garlic cloves, 2 teaspoons salt and pepper each and cook for 2 to 4 hours until meat falls apart.

Reserve 2 cups of pork stock from the crock pot. Remove pork and cool and then shred meat. Place corn husks in a large pot and cover with warm water, soak for 3 hours until pliable. Toast 4 ancho chilies in a cast iron skillet, making sure not to burn. Allow to cool and then remove stems and seeds. Blend in blender to make chili paste. Put 2 tablespoons of oil in skillet and on medium heat, sauté 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 of the chili paste and 1 teaspoon cumin for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add shredded pork and enough stock to moisten mixture. Add remaining chili paste and more salt and pepper to taste. For the masa, put 4 cups of instant corn masa mix, 3 teaspoons salt, 2 tablespoons of oil in a large bowl and add the remainder of pork stock a little at a time until the masa is cohesive and becomes like dough. You can also add some prepared chili powder to the masa for more flavor, but this optional.

To assemble the tamales, drain water from the corn husks. One at a time, flatten out each husk, with the narrow end facing you, and spread approximately 2 tablespoons of masa mixture onto the top 2/3 of the husk. Spread about 1 tablespoon of meat mixture down the middle of the masa. Roll up the corn husk starting at one of the long sides. Fold the narrow end of the husk onto the rolled tamale and tie with a piece of butchers' twine. Steam assembled tamales for one hour to cook the masa.