Tamales

Stem and rinse the chiles and place in a pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer until the chiles are soft and bright red. Cool chiles in their liquid. Drain, reserving the liquid. Seed the chiles and using a spoon and your fingers, scrape and pull the pulp from the skins. Reserve the pulp and discard the skins and seeds.

Place the beef chuck, chopped carrots, celery and onion in a pot that just holds them and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer over very low heat until the chuck is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Remove the beef from the pot and strain the broth through a medium mesh sieve. Pour the broth back in the pot, heat to boiling and reduce to 1/2 cup. Reserve the reduced stock. When the meat is cool enough to handle, remove as much fat as possible. Set the meat aside.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the pork in a roasting pan and roast until just cooked, about 30 minutes or when the temperature in the thickest part reaches 145° on a meat thermometer. Set the pork aside.

Put the dried corn husks in a large pot and add hot water to cover. Let the husks soak while you prepare the dough and filling. Just before using, separate the husks and rinse them. Reserve the largest for your tamales and tear the some of the others into strips for tying the tamales.

To make the dough, mix all the ingredients together with your hands in a large bowl. Add more chile juice if the dough does not start to hold together. Allow the dough to sit for at least 15 minutes, while making the filling.

To make the filling, finely chop the picked-over beef and pork in a food processor in batches. Don't over process you want a lot of texture.

Combine the cumin, garlic, salt, pepper and reduced beef broth and mash to a paste.

Melt the lard in a skillet over medium heat and, when hot, add the meat, seasoning paste and chile juice, stirring to thoroughly distribute the seasoning paste. Process 1 cup of the meat with the remaining ancho chile pulp. Add to the meat in the pan and simmer until most of the chile juice and broth are absorbed and the filling is moist but not loose.

To make the tamales, place about 2 heaping tablespoons of dough in the middle of the smooth side of a corn husk. Shape into a rough 4-inch square. Leave about a 1-inch border around sides of the dough. Form a cylinder with about 1 1/2 heaping tablespoons of filling and place in the middle of the square. Place fingers under the edges of the tamale and fold one side over the other so the masa dough covers the filling and the corn husk complete covers the masa with some overlap at the seam. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.

Using the torn corn husk strips, tie the ends of the tamales closed.

To cook the tamales, place a steamer in a very big pot and line it with excess corn husks. Place the tamales in the steamer. Cover with a layer of corn husks. Pour water around the sides of the pan and cover tightly. Steam over medium heat for 50 minutes. Add more water as needed. Be careful not to burn up your pot! Serve immediately with Red Chile Gravy and Smoked Tomato Salsa.