My inspirations:
Hip Pressure Cooking Hot Tamales
Plus this video of making tamales with a tortilla press.
I used carnitas/pulled pork I made and froze a while back. I used the Pressure Cooking Today ingredients for the filling – chipotle chilis in adobo sauce + cumin + salt + sugar. (I thought I didn’t have any cumin so I subbed Penzey’s chili mix (9000) and then found my cumin, but had already put it in…) I used the masa instructions from Hip Pressure cooking, with lard instead of shortening. Muy Bueno Cookbook also has some great tips.
I didn’t get my masa dough ball to float in cold water on my first time I made this recipe. Also, I had to stop the Instant Pot 3 times because the tamales are interfering with the seal. Important note: even if the pot closes, it might not seal!! I need to be sure to make them smaller/lower/shorter.
I made some roasted tomatillo sauce to go with, recipe from Cookie and Kate. I planned on doing Instant Pot pintos for refried beans but my legs and my brain are tired. Maybe tomorrow!
CORN HUSKS - soak in hot water 1-2 hours, weighing them down to keep them fully submerged MASA - in the stand mixer, beat the lard for 2 minutes add salt and baking powder to lard, keep beating add masa harina, keep beating add the liquid to the mix. See the videos above for the "water" test - a ball of dough should float in water when it's ready. form into balls, slightly larger than a golf ball CARNITAS - chop the chipotle peppers, onion, garlic add 1-2T oil/lard to a skillet fry the peppers, onion, garlic add the carnitas + adobo sauce if needed - this part gives the meat more flavor HOW TO MAKE TAMALES - watch the video linked above where the woman uses a tortilla press using a tortilla press with plastic (I cut the seams on a ziplock bag), flatten the masa ball thicker than a tortilla spread a bit of filling on one half roll it up and put in the center of a corn husk (pull a string off the side to tie it up) roll up the husk then fold in half, then tie with the husk/string HOW TO STEAM IN INSTANT POT - the tamales go in the instant pot with a steamer basket and 2 cups water they need to stand up vertically to cook properly but beware that they are shorter than the lid/seal! high pressure for 22 minutes natural release - turn off the pot after it's done and let the pressure go down naturallyInstant Pot Tamales - Pork
Ingredients
Instructions
The tamal I ate was really good – although the “adobo” sauce I got is suspiciously like bbq sauce, maybe because it was chipotle peppers which are smoked. Or maybe my carnitas/pulled pork already had bbq sauce in it? This recipe made 14 fat tamales – not 20-30. The next batch, I will definitely make them shorter so they fit in the pot. (I did; that works, when you plan ahead.)
Also, the masa stuck to the husk a little bit, which might indicate the masa was too wet (harrumph, and it never floated in the water test, so I kept adding liquid) or they weren’t cooked all the way through. It tasted really good and cooked so I’m guessing maybe the moisture in the masa. Sure enough, when I made them the next day, I only used 1 cup of water in the recipe and the masa ball floated to indicate it was the right amount of water. Plus, I added 2 minutes cooking time to be sure – no sticking!
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