Marinade the Pork

Without being meticulous, remove the large fat pockets and cut the pork into strips about 3 inches long, 2inches wide and 3/4 inch thick

Reserve the fat pieces and cut them into 1/2-inch cubes

In a blender process 5 scallions, 1/2 of an onion, and the garlic (5 cloves)

Using your hands, combine the pork cubes (excluding the pieces of fat), the blended ingredients, the oregano and bay leaves and mix well

Salt this mixture to your taste

Place mixture in refrigerator overnight or several hours if making same day

Prepare the Guiso

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Heat1/3 of the oil at medium heat and add the garlic slices

Once garlic slices become opaque, add onions, some salt and cook down. This will take at least 15-20 minutes as least as the onions release a lot of liquid

When most of the liquid from the onion has been reduced, add the bell peppers and once again, cook down

Add another 1/3 of the vegetable oil along with the cumin, oregano, thyme and grated tomatoes

Cook down until most of the liquid has evaporated and you are left with a thick and fairly uniform guiso mixture

Once the guiso is fully cooked, add the cilantro into the hot mixture

Remove thyme and let mixture cool

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Prepare the Masa

Add the following into a mixing bowl:

3 cups of powdered yellow corn flour‍

1 cup of warm water

4 tbs of guiso and salt to taste

Gently knead into a ball adding more liquid if necessary. You might need up to 2.5cups of water to get the masa to a soft consistency (it shouldn't feel sticky).

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Clean and cut the banana leaves

Use warm water to clean the banana leaves on both sides. You can use a clean cloth and paper towels to remove excess water.

Use scissors to cut the leaves so that they're about 18" long by 15"wide. Keep in mind the banana leaves are irregular. Some might need to be longer and/or wider than others.

Trim the brown edge membrane of the leaves. This will make it easier to fold the leaves (if the edge is too thick when you are folding the tamal the leaf might rip). You should still leave a bit of the edge, about 1-2mm. If you cut too much of the edge the leaf might rip.

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Cutting foil sheets

Cut 12 sheets of tin foil (one for each tamal), approximately 18-20" long.

Cut 6 additional sheets, about 24" long, to wrap two tamales together

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Assemble the Tamales

‍Step1:

The goal is to have a wrapped tamal of approximately 6 inches by 5 inches and 2inches thick.

First, lay out a banana leaf over a sheet of tin foil. Set it horizontally towards you.

Be sure to patch the irregularities on the banana sheet (aka the interior rips or holes) with an additional smaller piece. Perfection is not necessary as this plantain leaf is wrapped in aluminum foil to eliminate any liquid or flavor loss.

Step2:

Now add a ball of masa of approximately the same size as a golf ball (about 50 g) and smooth it out over the plantain leaf

Add 2 generous Tbs. of guiso on top of this smoothed out masa and with your fingers and/or spoon.

Blend this into the masa

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Step3: Potatoes, Carrots & Peas

Above this masa mixture, lay out 4-6 slices of potato slices

Add 4-5 slices of carrots in between these potato slices on the same layer

Add 2 Tbs. peas to this layer

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Step4: Pork

Now cover the entirety of this layer with marinated pork and a couple of the pieces of fat (approximately 1/2 Lb. in total)

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Step5: Repeat the steps above

Add another layer of potato and carrot slices as well as peas

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Finally repeat the initial step by adding another dollop of masa and Guiso and smoothing the masa while incorporating these two ingredients

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Wrap the Tamales as per this Video of Marcela Wrapping

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Boiling The Tamales:

Stack and then wrap together two of the aluminum foil pouches in another layer of aluminum foil and tie together with kitchen twine.

Submerge the tamales in boiling water for 2 hours. After the first hour flip the boiling package

When done, remove the aluminum foil, lay out

Cook up all the Tamales and freeze the extra packets. To prepare frozen cooked tamales, simply drop the packet in boiling water for 30 minutes.