2 cups of Masa Harina, like Maseca, they have many variations of their masa harina but I just used the regular yellow one because that’s what my grocery store was carrying.
8 oz of lard, room temperature
1/2 cup of water or broth, either chicken or vegetable, have an extra half cup on hand just in case you need it.
2 Tablespoons of Ancho Chile Puree
1 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Cumin
Ancho Chile Puree
Boil 20 ancho chiles in water until softened
remove them from the water and take out the seeds and stems
put in a blender and puree until smoooth
CHEF PRO TIP: You will need this puree throughout your tamal making likely for the pork if you make that filling, either save the extra or put it in ice cube trays and freeze it, once they freeze store in a freezer bag and keep for future Mexican Food Recipes, this will save you time later on.
For the Masa
In a Mixer use the paddle attachment and put in the lard, mix on low until the lard looks fluffy
In a separate bowl add all of the spices and masa harina together, once combined, add it to the lard. mix on low for a few seconds and add the chile puree
add 1/4 cup of the broth or water and mix on low
If the masa looks too thick and unspreadable add another 1/4 cup of water or chicken broth until it spreads easily on a corn husk.
Once you have this basic dough you can fill these with anything from bean and cheese with jalapeno, red chile pork, shredded chicken, and really whatever you think of, it’s your turn to be creative and I”ll include some of my favorite fillings in my next blog post
Another Tip: look in your city for a place called a molino, we have a lot of them in San Antonio, and they sell the masa already prepared, just ask masa for tamales and it will have the lard and everything..
Con Cariño!