So, here it is, as promised, the recipe for my venison tamales. I would recommend that you make the filling the day before, not because it needs to sit overnight or anything, but because making the tamales themselves is more than enough work for one person to do in one day. Another good strategy would be to do this when you have out of town house guests that have nothing better to do than help you. Or even better still, use child labor. This recipe makes quite a few tamales—unless I have a lot of people available to eat them right away, mine go straight into the freezer in a gallon ziplock freezer bag once they’re made.
This recipe has bacon drippings to add moisture to the venison, which is very lean. If you don’t have venison or you can’t find it, beef would work just as well. But, since most ground beef has a higher fat content than venison you may want to reduce the amount of bacon drippings when substituting beef, depending on how lean your beef is.
Makes about 30 tamales.
For the Filling
2 lbs ground venison
6 ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
3 tbsp pureed chipotle peppers in adobo (use less for a milder tamale)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons bacon drippings
salt to taste
For the Tamales
6 cups masa harina
1 pound lard
1 1/2 teaspoons fine grained salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
6 cups chicken broth (warmed slightly)
1 package corn husks, soaked
1. Soak the ancho chiles in boiling water until soft and puree in a food processor with some of the soaking water.
2. Toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a small skillet and grind in a spice mill or with a mortar and pestle.
3. In a large dutch oven, brown the venison in bacon drippings. Add both pureed chiles, garlic, sugar, spices and tomato paste. Add 6 cups of water and cook until reduced by half.
4. Using an immersion blender puree the mixture to make a smoother mixture. Cook until the water is completely evaporated and the meat looks like a paste. Cool.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the lard until light and fluffy.
6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the masa, salt, and baking powder. Add the warm chicken broth and stir to combine the wet ingredients with the dry.
7. Add the masa to the stand mixer in batches and beat thoroughly on high speed in between additions. Beat the masa until a spoonful dropped into a glass of water floats.
8. Spread about ⅓ cup of masa across each corn husk and fill with about a tablespoon of meat filling in a vertical line down the center of the masa. Roll the husk to enclose the filling inside the masa and fold and tie the ends with strips of leftover corn husk.
9. To cook the tamales right away, steam them for 30 minutes. To cook frozen tamales steam for 45 minutes.
