Like almost everything else, there is no actual recipe. But here is
the general idea.
For the masa, you can use 'masa harina' from the grocery store or
tienda.
But if you have dried hard corn, boil it in lime water (water to
which a couple tablespoons of lime [calcium oxide] has been added,
pickling lime works fine) and then let it soak or simmer until the
hulls begin to disappear. This yields hominy. Mash or grind the
hominy.
Grow, or buy, some of thise large dried chili peppers.
remove the seeds from four or five of the peppers and boil them in
half a pint of water for fifteen minutes. Remove and discard the
peppers. Add a bit of curry or cumin, some salt, and then mix a
teaspoon to two teaspoons of arrowroot powder or cornstarch in a half
cup of so of cold water and add that to the chili sauce. Bring it to
enough of a boil to thicken it.
This is the sauce for supper.
You can pack the tamales (room temp) into quart jars, as many as you
can jamb in there, and then make the chili sauce WITHOUT the
arrowroot or cornstarch, and fill the jars to within 1/2 inch of the
top. Process as you would any meat, 15 lbs for 50 minutes or so.
The masa will thicken the sauce to the right consistancy.
Tamales are twenty to thirty minutes from the freezer to the table
and five minutes from the jar to the table. They are a really good
homestead standby. We can't grow avocados (although we buy them in
season) but some homestead sour cream, a little grated homestead
cheese, and some lettuce and tomatoes from the garden homemade
chipotle and I've scarcely had better in Mexico.
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