Tamales with three fillings: braised beef, poached chicken in salsa verde, and sweet fruit

Season the chuck roast liberally with kosher salt and put it in a dutch oven with the bouillon cubes, the quartered onion, the peeled garlic and the oregano.

Add water to almost cover and braise at 275F for three to four hours, flipping once or twice, until deeply browned and tender.

Deseed, devein and tear the ancho, pasilla and guajillo chiles into one inch pieces.

Dry roast the chile pieces in a medium saucepan over medium heat one to three minutes until fragrant but not smoking.

Cover the chiles with water, add the garlic and the half onion, cover, bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes.

Puree in a high-powered blender with enough cooking liquid to make it thick but pourable.

When a paring knife meets no resistance, lift the beef out, separate fat from meat, shred the meat and toss with a little chili paste. Season with kosher salt and black pepper.

Butterfly the chicken. Bring a couple of quarts of water to a boil, kill the heat, drop in the chicken and cover, letting carryover heat bring it to 155F at its thickest point, 12 to 18 minutes. Shred and cool.

Broil the tomatillos, jalapenos and poblano two to five minutes until coloured, cover with foil and steam 10 minutes, then remove the skins, stems and seeds.

Blend the peppers with the half onion, garlic, kosher salt, black pepper and the cilantro until fairly smooth but still chunky, then mix into the cooled chicken. Same day or refrigerated overnight.

Strain the chicken poaching water and mix it into the masa harina, adding enough that the dough is crumbly but shapeable. Cover and rest 15 minutes.

Beat the lard with the kosher salt and baking powder on high, scraping down and beating again, until light, fluffy and pliable. By hand, cream the fat with the salt and leavener by whipping it as much as possible.

Add the crumbly masa dough and mix to a smooth spreadable paste, adding more chicken water as needed.

Variation, dessert tamales: mix the granulated sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, chopped pineapple and raisins into the finished dough, with a little red food coloring.

Soak the corn husks in water 24 hours, or in hot water for three hours. Dry them a little and sort them: the widest and most intact for wrapping, the broken ones torn into ties.

Smear a third to a half cup of dough onto the centre of the upper half of a husk in a rectangle about six by four inches and a quarter inch thick.

Lay a strip of filling down the centre, wrap the dough up and around the filling with the husk so the dough encloses it, fold the husk shut, squeeze the bottom to shape, fold the bottom up and tie with a torn strip of husk. Put more filling in the sweet ones so they match the savoury ones in size.

Stack the tamales in a steamer basket with the fillings facing up, cover with spare soaked husks and a moist clean kitchen towel, set the basket over an inch of water in a stock pot, cover and steam one and a half to two hours.

Rest in the pot another 30 minutes. They are done when firm and springy and they leave the husk cleanly.

Serve smeared with Honduran crema, or lime juice mixed into sour cream, and a scoop of salsa roja.