Mine?
Tiny, crumbly, packages of bland and dry meat. I follow the recipes online to the tee but they always end up the same.
Maybe it's how I roll them? How I steam them? The sauce?
I had a few ideas rolling around in my head. Finally, I was going to make some worthy tamales...with a vindaloo twist and some ball jars. Here was my process:
Masa dough- just slap that onto the husk leaving room at the bottom (which will be folded) and room at the top as well. I used chicken stock and seasoned it with cumin and garam masala.
Slow cooked some pork in some Indian spices, shredded it, then lay a good amount in the middle of the masa smear. I re-hydrated the pork with the remaining juices from the pan as well and also re-seasoned it with more vinaloo spice!
Sauce: I realized this was KEY! None of the recipes mentioned this, but you put the roja sauce in the tamale. It keeps it all super moist!
Then I added some pumpkin that was seasoned with garam masala on top of that.
I've always admired how big and plump the restaurant tamales are. so I just simply rolled it into a tube starting from the bottom. The masa ends should meet with the remaining bare husk to be wrapped around holing it all in. The thinner end with no masa can just be squeezed and folded up.
The ball jars work amazingly well at keeping the tamales all upright. I am a lazy cook and have no desire to tie both ends of the tamale, so this method is perfect! It makes for larger tamales as well.
Then I put them all in a larger pan with some water in the bottom inch. I also covered the tamales with a clean damp dishcloth and some tinfoil covered tightly.
They were in the oven at 350 for about 35-40 minutes and came out perfect! I was relieved at how moist they were! When I reheat these I plan on putting the roja sauce in the jar and steaming them again. That way the sauce can seep in from the outside.
