Pork Tamales　

Tamales make the world go ’round. Really. Wikipedia it. Well, they are very good anyway.

This is a slighly difficult dish to make, but with a little patience you can make a bunch of these and freeze what you don’t eat right away for a quick meal later. And it is definitely more efficient to make lots of these in one big batch.

Pork:

1. Marinate pork overnight with garlic, adobo seasoning, and soy sauce. I like to poke holes in the pork for better flavor.
2. Brush the tomato and the jalapeno peppers with a little oil. Roast them at 350°F for 15 minutes.
3. Heat some oil in a pan. When hot, sear all sides of the pork until brown.
4. Remove pork and add to slow cooker. Saute onion in same pan.
5. When cooled, chop jalapeno peppers into small pieces.
6. Add tomato, jalapeno peppers, onion, and cooking wine to the slow cooker.
7. Deglaze the pan with water and pour into slow cooker. Cook for at least 4 hours.

Tamales:

1. Boil a pot of water and remove from heat. Soak husks for one hour.
2. Carefully pull back husks amd clean silk from corn. Rinse. Spread 1 tbsp butter on corn and replace the husks. Oven roast for 40 minutes at 375°F.
3. In a food processor, combine cornmeal, roasted corn (remove from cobb), salt, remaining butter, honey, paprika, and 3 cups of water. Mix until well blended. The mixture should be thick, but somewhat runny.
4. Put a thin layer of the corn mixture onto the wide part of the corn husk. Make sure to leave some room on one side. Avoid putting the mixture at the skinny end of the husk.
5. Add a few spoonfuls of the shredded pork on top of the corn mixture.
6. Roll the corn husk over onto itself starting from the side with the corn mixture all the way to the edge. The skinny end should be folded last to seal the tamale. As you finish each one, place them vertically in the steamer with the open end facing up. This process is very difficult - it is much easier to do this with a partner.
7. Steam for 15-20 minutes, until corn mixture becomes firm.

When this exhausting process is over, serve on a bed of lettuce with a little smashed avocado and a little salsa. Don’t tell your friends about this one, or they may want some.