Fusion: Pulled Pork and Brisket Peruvian Tamales (lots of PRON)

My father-in-law is from Peru and every year for Christmas he makes the best damn tamales I've ever tasted. This year I studied, took notes and put my own twist on what truly is a fabulous latin dish.

We started with guajillo paste, garlic paste, pork stock, pork lard (all of which we made) and a big ol bag of banana leaves...



added the pork lard to a pan...



...and fried the guajillo paste, garlic paste, some of the pork stock and touch of cumin...



added that to the masa...



..along with a little bit more pork stock...



mixed it well...



next, we placed the banana leaves onto some flames to sweat them thus making them more pliable for folding...



added the masa to the banana leaves...



...and filled with applewood smoked pulled pork, Sicilian Black Olives and some roasted Serano Peppers..



filled another with hickory smoked beef brisket, roasted Serano Peppers and some apple bourbon BBQ sauce...



folded and tied with kitchen twine...



wrapped in tinfoil, dropped into water and boiled for 25 minutes...



pulled pork tamale with some hot sauce...



beef brisket tamale...



me eating these things like no tomorrow....



Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for looking!

Thanks Ron. As far as I know it is. Traditionally, they are stuffed with pork or chicken. We enjoy pork. My father-in-law adds hardboiled egg, a couple of peanuts and olives as well.

Thanks for your wonderful comments all. I'll be making more of these. They were super moist and very flavorful. Must have been the pork lard.