AIP Plantain "Masa" Mojo Pork Tamales
Growing up in Southern California, Mexican food was a staple. During the holidays you would see lots of tamales. Small markets would sell their special recipes of masa that people would line up to buy and make tamales at home. One of my favorite traditions that people would do is have tamale potluck parties during the holidays. Everyone would bring a favorite dish, like a regular potluck, but the party host would have all the makings for tamales and everyone would gather and learn how to assemble them. Then all guests would go home with a bag of tamales.
Now since we are Paleo on the Go we couldn't use the traditional corn masa so Chef Ann made a plantain "masa". Full disclosure; we did use corn husks to wrap the tamale. My research was pretty split as far as being allowed on the AIP. We all agreed that they added a slight corn flavor. If you follow the Autoimmune Protocol strictly, use banana leaves to wrap your tortillas. It actually might be better because we did have an issue with the plantain masa sticking to the corn husk, so maybe it wouldn't with the banana leaves. Give it a try!
For the filling we used a recipe for AIP Mojo Pork in an Instant Pot from a previous recipe posted here on our blog. You can get that recipe here: AIP Mojo Pork.
You can order our POTG Salsa Verde here.
Mojo Pork Tamales with Plantain Masa
Ingredients
- 2 cups Mojo Pork (see link to recipe)
- 1 cup POTG Salsa Verde (see link to product)
- 1 package corn husks
- 4 green plantains
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup bone broth (beef or chicken)
- 1 tbsp lard or coconut oil
Instructions
- Cut the peels off the plantains, and chop them into 1” pieces. Add to the bowl of a food processor or blender with the bone broth, lard, baking soda, and salt. Puree until a smooth thick puree is formed. Soak the corn husks in warm water for at least 10 minutes to soften.
- Pull the husks from the water one at a time, patting dry. Lay skinny side pointing toward you. Spread a tablespoon or two of plantain mixture over the top of the husk in the center. Spoon a tablespoon of meat over the plantain mixture, then fold the skinny part of the husk up over the top of the fillings to cover it, and then roll the husk from left to right, leaving the top open. Pull a thin strip off one of the husks to make a string. Tie the rolled tamales closed with the string to hold them together. Once they are all stuffed, rolled and tied, put about a half inch of water into the bottom of the Instant Pot. Put the steamer rack into the pot. Stand the tamales up on the rack. Cover and set the pot to “steam” for 15 minutes. Once the time is up, pull one tamale out and unfold it to see if the filling is firmed up and not mushy.
To serve, heat the salsa verde, open the husk on a tamale and spoon sauce over it.
