Good Hot Tamales

The video is a little different than mine, but it's still making tamales time.
It's really cold right now, but I've taken care of all duties outside of home, so I can concentrate on my baking and other things. I've got a few chickens, a couple of pork roasts on the stove right now. I'm making the meat ahead of time so that I won't be rushing next week.

I'm making chicken tamales and pork tamales. I normally make my tamales HOT, because that's the way my esposo and I like them, but since there will be other's eating them, I have to cut back on the chili. Darn!! I'll make my masa tonight and refrigerate it. Once the meat is done I will let it cool off. In the meantime I've gotten my California chili's and Pasilla's softened and what I do is grind them all in my blender. I have a large pot with some oil in it and then I run the chili through a sieve into the hot oil. I add chicken broth and some water, salt, pepper,garlic, cumin, and other herbs and just let it simmer slowly.

Once the chicken is cooled, I shred it and the pork. I split the sauce in two pans and add the chicken to one and the pork to the other. I just lower the heat and let it simmer to get the chili taste.Once the meat has the chili taste, I store in refrigerator. That's it for now. I've gone ahead and taken the masa out of the refrig to get at room temperature and if it needs some chicken broth to soften it up a bit, I add just enough for it to be spreadable. My good friend is coming over tomorrow morning and we will spread the masa on the husks, add the meats, olives, fold the husks over and stored in aluminum foil and bagged in baggies. They won't be cooked until Christmas Eve. For now they go in the freezer uncooked. I do stress uncooked.

On Christmas Eve I take the tamales out of the freezer early morning and get my steamer's out. They'll cook, and I can transport them the next day to my mom's in San Jose. We'll just re-warm them. We do this about every other year. Next year, it's someone else's turn. I'll still make tamales but not so many. Hey, have a good one, I'm off to have a glass of wine and bake some potatoes to go with the small culotte steaks we are having for dinner. Take care, be back later.