Wild In The Kitchen: Venison And Wild Hog Texas Tamales

Venison And Wild Hog Texas Tamales

(6 to 8 dozen tamales)

Ingredients:

• 1 package dried corn husks
• One leg of venison (about 8 pounds, deboned)
• Side of pork (8-10 pounds, deboned)
• 1 small onion
• Salt
• White vinegar
• Bacon grease
• Flour
• 2 or 3 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
• Black peppercorns
• Cumin seed
• Fresh garlic
• Cloves
• 1 pound pure lard
• 5 pounds prepared masa
• Chili powder
• Equipment Needed
• Meat grinder (electric or handpowered)
• Molcajete or mortar for grinding spices
• Several large pots and bowls

Prepare the Wrappers

Soak corn husks 2 to 3 hours before rolling. Change water several times to eliminate clinging dirt. If you’re short on time, hot water works faster.

Prepare the Meat

Boil venison and pork together in a large pot. Add a small onion (sliced), 1 to 2 tablespoons of salt, and 1/4 to 1/2 cup vinegar to take away the wild smell. Deboning can take place before or after this step. Cook about 1 hour or until meat smells done. Save broth; run cooked meat through grinder.

Make the Stuffing

Unless you have an enormous pan, you’ll need to make picadillo stuffing in several batches. The procedure described here will fill a 12-inch skillet. Repeat as necessary until all the meat is used.

Heat a few spoonfuls of bacon grease in a skillet. Add a little flour, brown and stir. Add one 8-ounce can tomato sauce; cook and stir over low heat until you have a thick paste.

Grind spices in a molcajete. Use the list below as a starting point, then adjust to taste:

• 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons cumin seed
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 dried cloves

Add a little water, stir, and pour the spices over the sauce in the skillet. Add approximately 1-1/2 teaspoons salt and stir vigorously to blend all ingredients.

Add a little of the broth you saved from cooking the meat. If it smells too gamy, use water instead. Begin adding ground meat a little at a time, stirring after each addition to distribute the sauce throughout. Add more liquid as needed. You want a fairly dry mixture (think of taco filling), but don’t burn the bottom. When you have as much picadillo as you can stir, remove from heat and start a new batch.

Mix the Masa

Masa is made by cooking corn with water and lime, then stone-grinding it to a fine texture. Bags of fresh masa are available in the refrigerator case at some stores. If not, most stores will have dried masa, or masa harina, sold in the baking section alongside the flour. Heat lard in a saucepan until soft, almost melted. Put masa in a large mixing bowl. Add heated lard and 2 tablespoons each salt and chili powder. Mix dough with hands until ingredients are thoroughly blended.

Spread, Stuff and Roll

A corn husk suitable for tamale wrapping will be 4 to 5 inches wide at one end (the “top” or open end of the tamale) and taper to a point at the other (this “tail” folds over to keep the filling inside).

Spread a thin layer of masa on a husk. Start at the top right edge and go about two-thirds of the way across and down. Use a spoon, butter knife, tortilla press, oiled fingers or any tool that works for you. (Chances are none will work on the first attempt, but keep trying.)

Put a line of picadillo, about 1 rounded teaspoon, along one edge of the masa layer. Roll the husk, wrapping the dough around the filling, and fold up the tail.

An assembly line works well here. One person can spread masa, one can fill and roll, and the last one can stack tamales in the cooking pot.

Find some short, wide husks and make a few chatos — little slabs of masa with no filling — to go at the top of the pot. As the tamales cook, you can open a chato now and then to see if the masa is done. And yes, they’re also good to eat.

Tips for Better-Looking Tamales

One surface of the corn husk will be rough, with prominent veins. The other will be comparatively smooth. Put your masa on the smooth side.

Make the masa layer just wide enough to wrap once around the filling. The husk will go around more than once, but you don’t want the dough to overlap the edge.

Pack and Steam

The final step is to steam the tamales. You’ve already cooked the meat twice; this last cooking is mostly for the masa.

To make steam, you’ll need water in the pot. You don’t want to drown your tamales in the water. A steamer with a basket will solve this problem, but a regular pot will work if you pack it right. In either case, tamales should be cooked standing up with the open end toward the top. This allows the steam to circulate for even cooking. Add a little salt and chili powder to the water to keep salt from leaching out of the masa and give the tamales a healthy reddish tinge.

Packing Tamales in a Pot

Line bottom of pot with leftover corn husks. Place molcajete upside-down in center and stack tamales in a circle around it. The tail ends may be underwater, but the wrapping will protect them.You can also use a coffee cup. Keep stacking tamales on this foundation, much as you would stack wood for a bonfire, leaving a space in the center so that heat can rise. Layer them up until you’ve filled the pot. Lay the chatos across the top, put the lid on, and cook for 15 minutes on high. Reduce heat to simmer and cook another 45 minutes. Keep an eye on the pot to make sure it doesn’t run dry.

Once cooked, tamales can be refrigerated or frozen. They’ll reheat quickly in a steamer. Try them while they’re hot—there’s nothing like a fresh tamale right off the stove.