Oh, Bento! - Recipes: Pork Tamales and Green Chile

This recipe is being lifted from the Mod Mex cook book. Essentially, the original version involved a whole lot of swapping pans, cooking and re-cooking - which I'm sure does enhance the flavor, but for someone with limited space and pots it's a little tricky. I also had to ask myself- anything can go in a tamale, right? Plain meat is fine too, so while this is their version of flavoring the meat and getting a great sauce, I don't have to adhere to it too religiously.

To simplify my life, I'll be cooking the pork separately in a crockpot while I make the green chile. It's 2 pounds of pork with a basic rub on it, and I'll be cooking it for about 6 hours.



# 10 tomatillos, husked
# 1 medium-sized yellow onion, quartered
# 6 cloves garlic
# 2 jalepeno or serrano chiles
# 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
# 2 tbs lime juice
# salt and pepper

1) Bring 12 CUPS WATER to a boil. Add the tomatillos, onion, garlic, and chiles. Simmer 5 minutes, then drain.

2) Transfer to a blender, add cilanto and lime juice, and PUREE until smooth

3) Return mixture to saucepan, SIMMER gently 15 minutes more, season to taste

[this is the point where seasoning and cooking the meat begins in this recipe. instead, I will just continue on with the green chile/salsa verde. this recipe has been DRASTICALLY altered in terms of what I do with the salsa- keeping it in the original pot instead of cooking it in a pan with the meat]

# 2 cups chicken broth instead of this, I will reserve the juices from the crockpot and use them. If this does not render 2 cups (it probably won't), I'll add broth as needed. If the mixture is too thick later on- ditto.

4) ADD the broth, SIMMER for 1 and 1/2 hours(? original recipe called for baking with meat) given the heat of the juices and the fact that I'm not cooking meat, this seems pointless. Just combine.

# 1/4th cup corn flour
# 1/4th cup water for me this took more like 1/2 cup. it needs to be almost liquid, not clumping

6) in a small bowl COMBINE and stir until smooth. gradually ADD to the sauce until a smooth, creamy texture is achieved. stir continuously for 10 minutes

7) [USING THE CROCKPOT PORK], add 1 cup salsa to moisten the meat. reserve the rest.



# 2 cups corn flour
# 2 cups warm water
# 1 tsp baking powder
# 1 tsp (kosher) salt
# 6 tbs lard/vegetable shortening
# 6 tablespoons unsalted butter [can sub. salted]

1) COMBINE flour, water, baking powder, salt, and lard/shortening [and butter, one assumes. oops, cookbok!]. MIX 3 minutes until light and fluffy.



# 12 dried corn husks soaked in warm water (10-15 mins)

1) SPREAD about 1/4th cup Masa in the center of each husk, and spoon 3 tbs pork in the center. fold the husk [see here]

2) In a medium pot, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Stand tamales in the water, on end with the folded side down. COVER and COOK 1 hour.

3) turn off heat, let sit 15 minutes. serve with Salsa Verde

First made on March 2nd, 2008.