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Everythang' Tex-Mex!

Hey ya'll once again from the big dry ditch here in Las Vegas. A short while ago I spent 2 days whippin' out a batch of tamales and thought I would add them as part of a throwdown but then I had an epiphany. THP doesn't have a proper Tex-Mex thread for fajita's, enchilada's, refried beans, chips and salsa and such what nots. I reckon it's right appropos to begin now ya'll. I'll start it off with ....

TB's Notorious Tamales.

I began with a 6 pound pork shoulder. Now I could have smoked the 'thang low and slow but growing up in Texas, all my Mexican brothers moms would either roast the pork or just slapped it in the oven. I went one better. Crock pot! I got the old pepper pot out, dusted it off and set it on 300f. I unwrapped the shoulder and readily saw it wasn't going to fit. Damn! Nothin' a little whack and hack can't cure. Cut that wombat in half and stuck it in the pot. I hit that with Spanish and Hungarian paprikas, garlic, some no name chile powder I had stashed away, Mexican oregano, cumin, pequins and chix stock.

Once the pot got chuggin' along after a couple hours, the whole house was filled with the aroma of slow roasting porkage. mrs. blues was going crazy..."is it done yet? How 'bout now? Well?"

Needless to say the porkage came out just like pulled pork but without the "que". This stuff was pure gold. mrs. blues attacked it outright! Rich pork flavor with double the squeel!

I pulled the pork apart and stowed it in the fridge for the next days fixin's, along with the pork broth leftover from the pot.

The next day, I prepped the corn husks by soaking them in room temp water for an hour. You gotta' put 'em in a bowl or pot covered with the water and weight them down so they don't float and stay dry.

I then seasoned the pork with some onion, more chile powder, cumin and pequin powder, along with returning some of the stock to the meat mix.

Mixed the masa dough with some pequin powder and granulated garlic and some of the pork stock. Rolled it out on a husk one at a time, added the porkage mix, rolled them up and tied them off. One by one they went into a big soup pot I have for such things. After all the tamales were in the pot, I added the stock and some water to fill the pot about halfway up on the tamales. Put the lid on and then set the temp to low on the stove top. I let 'em go for about an hour and a half.

Now I don't know if ya'll make your own tamales but lemme' 'splain ya'll.....the aroma's, the flavors, are nothing short of incredible....

I did up about 45 tamales and vacuum packed them for the freezer. Between taking them to work and eating them at home, mrs. blues has wiped out two thirds of them and I'll have to make more next week.

Well hell! Enough wastin' time talkin' about 'em...let's get to the piccy's ya'll!!

All seasoned up...

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mrs. blues got me this 'thang...awesomenessess!!

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Crazy stuff goin' on here...

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All pulled..

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More to come shortly in the next post ya'll!!
 
Hey y'all. 
 
Here's my riff on one of mrs. blues favorite dishes.
 
King Ranch Casserole.
 
The somewhat dubious origin of the dish called for canned cream of mushroom soup.
 
Here's a link to Lisa Fain's riff on it.
 
http://www.homesicktexan.com/2007/10/king-of-casseroles-king-ranch-chicken.html
 
For my riff I jezebel crock potted up a pile of chicken tenders with some of mrs. blues taco seasoning to which after shredding, I added black olives, sour cream, and jack and scheddar scheeze.
 

 
Grease up a cassy dish and do a layer of corn tortillah's, then the mix, and a layer of scheeze. Repeat.
 
While riffing, mellow down easy with a sriracha tequila bloody maria.
 

 
In the oven at 350f. In my riff, I let it go until the top layer of scheeze becomes almost like a pie crust.
 
Rocked it.
 

 
Because this was for mrs. blues, I didn't make it hot at all. Were it mine, I'd have about 40 pickled xalapa's all up in they 'thang.
 

 
Pics don't do this stuff justice y'all. Sure its basically chix enchilada's done in the oven, but its so dang good it had to have a name such as King Ranch.
 
Have mercy.
 
Dang, hombre. That is some Tejas comfort food rite up in heah. It is just begging for that canned jalapeno, carrot and onion puree shkoffed all over it like, diamonds on Liberace.
 
I'm road trippin' to my dear sweet mother's house tomorrow so Dani'll eat on that thang' all weekend.
 
Which is amazing because she doesn't eat leftovers.
 
That is what I think of as Texas Lasagna.
 
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