recipes/tamales.md

## Pork Tamales

makes 3-4 dozen

### filling

* 5 lbs of untrimmed bone-in pork shoulder
* 6 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
* 12 dried new mexico chiles, stemmed and seeded
* 4 dried cascabel chiles, stemmed and seeded
* 2-3 dried chipotle chiles, stemmed and seeded
* 1 large ancho chile, stemmed and seeded
* 2 tbsp kosher salt 
* 12 cloves of garlic
* 1/2 tsp of mexican oregano
* 1 bay leaf (optional)
* section of orange peel, fresh or dried (optional)

Salt the pork and sear it on all sides before adding peeled garlic cloves to the cooking vessel. Cook for a few minutes, then add enough water to cover. Add a bay leaf and an orange peel. Slow cook or pressure cook pork shoulder until very tender. For the last 20 minutes of the cook, add the dried chiles to the pot.

Remove pork, (remove and toss out bay leaf and orange peel if using) allow to cool and then shred, removing any gristle or large pieces of fat. Reserve the stock. Strain out the cooked chiles and the garlic from the stock and add these along with the oregano and about half of a cup of stock into a blender and blend the mixture until smooth. Add a little extra stock if it's too thick to blend but just enough. Mix this with the shredded pork to make your filling. Taste and add salt if needed.

### masa

* 5 lbs Maseca
* about 1 3/4 cup fatty pork broth

Combine Maseca and broth until it forms a smooth dough. 

### assembly 

Assemble the tamales, spreading an even layer of masa on a corn husk and then adding your filling. Wrap the husk around, fold over and secure with a strip of corn husk. Add all tamales to a large steamer basket and steam for about 35 minutes.