I can't find my Mexican cookbook which has a luxurious one from Oaxaca, with red peppers, pepitas and raisins. Actually, I usually use the recipe from the bag of corn husks, since it is very easy and tasty, but this year I could not find corn husks anywhere.

I finally found an enormous bag of them at a Mexican market, but nothing is printed on the bag.

So I am ready to make tamales, but find I have no recipe for the filling.

We prefer a pulled pork filling and so can the meat separately as it can be used for most any Mexican dish or you can make the tamales and freeze them.

This is a modified recipe from Food & Wine Magazine

1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons ancho chili powder or 4 crushed dried chilis
2 large garlic cloves, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
One 3 1/2 - 4 pound boneless pork shoulder roast, tied

Combine the onion, chili sauce, honey, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, chile powder, garlic and salt and pepper and blend well. Transfer it to a large resealable plastic bag or a dish deep enough for marinating. Add the pork roast, turning to coat it with the paste; seal the bag and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Next day set oven at 325 and set the roast in a deep casserole and cover with the paste. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a simmer. Cover the casserole and roast the meat in the oven for 3 1/2 -4 hours or until tender. Turn the roast occasionally and add more water if it is looking dry. Transfer the pork to a cutting board and let cool. Remove the strings and pull the meat into thick shreds.

If you want to can the meat here is what we do. Once shredded pack pint jars with meat and juices. You can add some more water or broth or even wine to the liquid if you need additional liquid as you want the jar contents a bit soupy. Drain on opening. Leave 1" headspace and process pints 75 mins. at 10-11 lbs. depending on altitude.

Dave

My only suggestion is to slow roast the pork separately, we'll put a shoulder in a pan and let it go at 300�, flipping occasionally, for 7 - 10 hours - gets most of the fat out and nicely caramelized as it falls apart with the flipping. This method of cooking the pork is one of the secrets to that deep, underlying flavor, the other the balance of chilis.

I'd follow Dave's recipe, maybe add more chili. Here, they'd stir all that up with half-cooked corn meal, dunno the exact ratio, I'd guess a fairly wide range, and then the steam cooks it into a solid block.

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/tamales

The gal at the local taqueria (where I get husks) said there's a recipe for every cook; she makes a chicken and a "dessert" tamale with a sweet filling in addition to pork, but for traditional flavor use masa and not corn meal.