Nacatamales

Nacatamales
From mom

Ingredients

Meat marinade

  • ~1.5lb meat, cut into chunks
  • ½ - 1 bottle of sour orange juice
  • Achiote paste
  • Sazon seasoning
  • 1 onion, sliced into rounds
  • garlic cloves (prepeeled cuts down on time)

Dough

  • 3c maseca (nixtamalized corn flour)
  • chicken broth
  • 8 (smallish) roma tomatoes
  • 1 white onion
  • ½ green bell pepper
  • handful of fresh mint
  • achiote paste
  • ~8 garlic cloves
  • salt
  • ½ c pepperoncini liquid
  • 1 c fat (olive oil or lard)

Fillings & Assembly

  • olives
  • capers
  • 1 medium white potato
  • 1-2 roma tomatoes
  • mint leaves (soaking in water)
  • ¾c long grain white rice (soaking in water (or chicken broth))
  • ½ green bell pepper
  • Meat (chicken breast or pork. ~1.5lb, cut into chunks)
  • 3 packages of frozen banana leaves
  • twine, aluminum foil
  • Gloves (optional)

Notes.

Makes ~10.
1 4lb package of maseca makes ~5 batches.
1 batch of chicken broth makes 2? batches of tamales.

Instructions

    The Day Before

  1. Wash and Materials Prep

    Wash tomatoes, celery, potato, bell pepper, mint. Put mint in a jar or glass of water. Place banana leaves in fridge to thaw. Can precut out ~16 pieces of foil, ~13 twine (slightly longer than length of armspan?).

  2. Marinate

    In large glass bowl, add sour orange juice and achiote paste. Wear gloves, dissolve the paste by hand. Chop meat, slice onion and smash garlic, add to marinate overnight.

  3. Broth

    Make chicken broth.


    4. The Day Of

  4. Prep Leaves

    Cut banana leaves to size (about the length of a dish towel), they should have no holes. Need ~30 pieces of that size, leave the rest as large whole pieces. Wash leaves with a damp towel.

  5. Blend

    In a blender, blend 8 tomatoes, 1 onion, ½ bell pepper, some achiote paste, handful of mint, salt, 1 cup of broth, garlic.

  6. Soak Fillings

    Soak rice in liquid for filling later. Slice potatoes VERY THINLY and place in water too.

  7. Mix Masa

    In large metal bowl, add 3 cups of maseca. Put gloves on. Add enough chicken broth and mix until the consistency is like really fresh Play-doh. Doing about a third at a time, add the blended mixture. Mix by hand and make sure the dough really dissolves into the liquid. Add salt. Once the whole blender mix has been poured in, add the ½c pepperoncini liquid. If using olive oil (chicken filling), add 1 c now.

  8. Cook Masa

    Place dutch oven on burner over medium heat. If doing a pork filling, add lard now, wait til melted. Add masa dough. Stir with wooden spoon. Once it begins "burping", set timer for 15 minutes. Stir CONTINUOUSLY and VIGOROUSLY. Should thicken considerably, remove from heat once time is up.

  9. Prep Station

    While masa is cooling (stir often so it doesn't harden, ~10-15min), prep the filling station. Take out meat bowl, prep olives, capers, mint, tomato into rounds, bell pepper into small slices, get a spoon for rice. Lay out foil, get leaves in position.

  10. Assemble

    Lay leaves in a plus formation. ~2 heaping large tablespoons of masa. 2-3 pieces of meat through the middle. Potato slice along top. If using onions, take from meat marinade. Bell pepper along bottom. Tomato slices on sides. Olives and capers all over. Rice from left to right above. Mint dead center.

  11. Folding

    Crimp plantain leaves + fold. Then repeat with aluminum foil. When folding aluminum, crimp the tips, then fold large fold in. Three sets of ties with twine. Mark versions with longer tie-offs of twine. Cinch TIGHT, twine can save ripped leaves and foil.

  12. Boiling

    Make balls of aluminum foil. Line the bottom of tamaleria with balls. Lay a couple of small reject leaves along bottom. Lay long leaves around the edge of the pot. Lay tamales inside. Top with more leaves. Fill with water along the sides about a quarter of the way up. Lay a large dinner plate on top of the leaves to keep them down. Bring water to a boil, then cover with lid, lower to simmer. Simmer for 2.5-3.5 hours.

  13. Leftover Ingredients

    There may be leftover meat and fillings. Makes for a quick meal to cook on cast iron pan. Omit the liquid marinade, and just fry.

  14. Freezeing/Reheating

    Once the tamales are done, let them cool on rack. Can freeze.
    To reheat from thawed: unwrap foil, damp paper towel on top, microwave 2.5 min.
    To reheat from frozen: Place in pot of boiling water ~24 minutes. Salt to taste. Eat with bolillos (from Food Lion) or chicago rolls (harris teeter).