Move Over Emeril!

This is how we spent our day today,

Making Tamales: Part One.

Take a large pork butt (you know they call it that for some other reason) and lots of garlic and black pepper and place it in a pressure cooker with water about half way up. Let it come to pressure and cook for about an hour.

I buy prepared masa with the salt, baking powder and lard already in it. I refuse to admit to myself that there is that ingredient in all tamales including my own homemade and that I eventually will be eating LARD. eeouww. I also buy way more corn husks than I ever need, forgetting I still have some left from last year in the downstairs pantry.

These are the dried chilies that I will simmer until soft and make into a paste to flavor the meat.

This is the beer that makes all this fun. Yesterday Dave took an all day ride to New Glarus WI to the brewery where he picked up a selection of hand crafted beers. He had a tasting all to himself and they poured liberally. Luckily he made it home in one piece, without a ticket. Another thing to be thankful for...

Some raspberries to add to our beer cocktail.

Back to the recipe. Take all or as many seeds out of the dried anchos as possible, and add them to the pot with water to nearly cover, altho they float while they are still dry, so push them down and see if you can cover them with water. Simmer until softened.

I drain them, but you can save the liquid if you like. I used a bit of broth to help liquify the peppers in the Cuisinart.

Add cumin and salt and mix again. How much? Whatever was in that little jar.

There it is, the chili paste which will go into the ground turkey which I roasted yesterday and the ground up boiled pork roast made today.

This makes it all look too instant. What you missed was the hot pork, falling off the bone, all the turkey meat being chopped up and nibbled on, and the food processor churning it up into fine crumbles. I add the paste to the meats and figuring that since my nose already got burned from the pepper seeds, I would grab a pair of surgical rubber gloves to mix it all up.

The Action Shot.


The Disaster that is my kitchen. It is all cleaned up now. We decided that since the time consuming part, the meat, was finished and we were tired, the assembly of the tamales would take place in the morning.

We also made apple pies and that story will be spelled out tomorrow. We wouldn't want to make you feel all cooked out at once.

Have a super Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!