Filipino Tamales (Style 1 & 2)

Tamales - Style 1
(Old Fashioned)

3 cups rice
7 cups coconut milk
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. black pepper
Salt to taste
1/4 cup achuete for coloring soaked in 1/4 cup water
1 cup ground toasted peanuts
Slices of hard-cooked egg
Boiled peanuts
Banana leaves, cleaned and softened over direct fire
Boiled chicken meat (breast meat preferred)
Slices of boiled pork
Boiled whole shrimps
Slices of boiled ham

Toast the rice in a griddle pan until brown. Grind to fine powder in a stone or corn-meal grinder. Put the coconut milk, salt, sugar, pepper and ground rice in a carajay, and cook over low heat. Stir constantly to prevent sticking and burning. Add the ground peanuts five minutes before removing from fire. Divide this paste mixture into two parts leaving one part in the carajay. Add strained achuete coloring to the mixture in the carajay and continue cooking for 2 minutes longer.

On three layers of banana leaves, put 3 tablespoons of the red mixture, then an equal amount of the white mixture, pat lightly to flatten, then arrange slices of boiled chicken, boiled pork, ham, shrimps, halves of boiled peanuts and hard cooked eggs on top of mixture. Wrap each "tamale" and tie securely. Place the wrapped "tamales" in a deep steamer and cook for 2 hours. If no steamer is available, place the wrapped tamales in a saucepan. Fill the saucepan 1/2 full of water and cook, well covered, for about an hour or more. Cool. "Tamales" will stay fresh 24 hours if kept in a cook place.


Tamales - Style 2

3 cups rice
2 hard-cooked eggs
1/2 cup cooked pork
1/2 cup cooked shrimps
1 cup peanuts
1/2 cup cooked chicken
1 chorizo de Bilbao
A few slices Chinese ham
Lard
Salt and pepper
7 cups coconut milk

Wash the rice and dry it in the sun. Grind half of the rice and toast the other half until golden brown. Toast peanuts. After toasting the peanuts and rice, grind them separately. Set aside.

Put lard in the carajay and saute the rice flours separately, adding enough water or thin coconut milk, to make each mixture of pudding consistency. Stir constantly to prevent sticking. To each, add salt and pepper to taste. Saute the peanuts. Put aside. Then saute the pork and chicken which have been previously boiled soft, and the ham and chorizo. Season to taste and remove from carajay. Put aside.

Wrap in banana leaves, forming a rectangle: About 3 tablespoons of each rice mixture, side by side. Press together and top with the following: Chicken, ham, pork, shrimp, a slice of chorizo, sliced egg, a teaspoon of peanuts. Tie securely, to be sure water does not penetrate the tamales. Arrange the tamales in a deep kettle and cover with water. Boil for about 30 minutes or more according to size.