TAMALES WITHOUT CORN HUSKS RECIPES

Steps:

• Wash the banano leaves and warm them up in hot water on a low heat until they are tender.
• Remove the hard edge of the leaves and cut them in squares.
• Cook the ancho chile until it feels tender. Remove the seeds.
• Blend the ancho Chile, the garlic, the onion, cumin, salt, pepper, and the water.
• Add this sauce to the raw pork.
• In a bowl, stir the cornflour Maseca with the lard. You need to mix it until you get a creamy and homogeneous paste.
• Gradually pour the water in the mix, and keep stirring. Add the salt. Knead the mix until the mass is spongy and soft.
• Place a square of banano leaves on the palm of your hand and put a bit of mass on it. Extend it on the surface of the leaves with the reverse of a spoon. You’ll do this until you feel that you get to the right size of your tamal.
• Add a little bit of the pork in the sauce and distribute it along the tamal. Then fold the tamal.
• Folding this kind of tamal can be tricky. Firstly, you need to fold the lateral edges of the leaves into the center and then you fold the upper and the lower edges on the back of the teal. Repeat this procedure with all the tamales.
• Place the tamale in a steamer. You need to cook them for one hour and a half.
• Serve on a plate with a fork.

Steps:

• Stir cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and black peppercorns in small dry skillet over medium heat until aromatic, about 2 minutes. Finely grind spice mixture in spice grinder or mini processor. Mix ground spices, shallot, olive oil, salt, and garlic in small bowl until paste forms. Rub pork on all sides with spice paste. Cover and chill at least 3 hours or overnight.
• Tear 4 corn husks lengthwise into strips 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide. Place 1 pork tenderloin log in center of each remaining corn husk. Wrap corn husks around pork and tie center and ends of each with corn husk strips as for tamales, enclosing pork completely. Place pork bundles on rack on baking sheet. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover with damp kitchen towel, then foil, and refrigerate.)
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake pork bundles uncovered until instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of each piece registers 150°F, 35 to 45 minutes, depending on thickness of pork.
• Place 1 pork bundle on each of 8 plates. Remove husk strip from 1 end of each; fold corn husk back slightly, exposing some of meat. Spoon Cranberry-Avocado Salsa alongside and serve.