I made a dozen tamales last night. Still have a lot of leftover filling, so I might make them again tonight now that I kinda know what I'm doing and it will go faster.
For the filling: I simmered a huge dried ancho pepper and a handful of dried red new Mexico chiles in water until they were tender, then blenderized them with the cooking water. Used a strainer to remove the seeds and any tough skins that were left. I took about 12 or 13 ounces of roasted turkey and finely chopped it in the blender. Dumped that in a bowl. I whizzed a tablespoon of peppercorns and a tablespoon of cumino in a coffee grinder (that was way too much pepper) and mixed that into the pureed chiles, then added the chile mix to the meat until it looked the right consistency. Added a half teaspoon of garlic powder, and salt to taste. The meat had a weird metallic taste to it, but I kept going.
For the masa: Mix 2 cups of Maseca, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp of salt. Added half a cup of turkey stock and about a cup of water, and mixed it up to make a dough. I'm not sure that was enough water. Whip 3/4 cup of lard and a teaspoon of ground red chiles in another bowl with an electric mixer until it's fluffy. Add the masa dough a little at a time while continuing to beat to make a fluffy spreadable dough. I didn't do the "does it float" test.
Wrapping: I still don't have this part down yet. There are several different techniques, and conflicting youtube videos about how to do it. With a little more practice I will come up with my own technique. You basically spread masa on the wide end of a soaked corn husk, add a little filling, then roll them up and fold the small end up to seal the bottom. Or roll them halfway, then fold up the bottom and finish rolling. It's the details on exactly how and where to spread the masa that nobody agrees on, not so much the rolling part.
Steaming: Didn't have enough to get out the big steamer, so I used an old pasta cooker that has a perforated insert. It would be a perfect small-batch tamale steamer if it held more water without reaching the bottom of the insert. So I had to check it every 15 minutes or so and add more hot water so it wouldn't boil dry. I steamed them for a little over an hour.
Tasting: The weird metallic taste was gone after they were cooked, and they were a lot hotter than they should be just from the chile peppers because those were mild. So I'm pretty sure it was the black pepper (actually, it was fancy mixed black, pink, white, and green peppercorns because I was out of plain black ones.)
We pulled a couple out as soon as they were done and those were pretty good. I had another as a late night snack after they had rested an hour or so still in the steamer and were now warm instead of hot. Much better; the masa was firmer, and the whole thing just tasted better warm instead of hot.
I have a tamal and some leftover cranberry sauce for my lunch today at work :)
