Day 102: Tamale Pie

Good morning everyone! The sky is sunny and blue, its 60 degrees and snow is in the forecast for today. Must be spring in Utah. Even with the snow, I won't complain about the 60 and sunny part. I will, however, do my DO cooking this morning to take advantage of the warmth.

Unfortunately, Old Mother Hubbard has once again taken up residence at my house. I got everything ready to make one of my favorite meals, chicken enchiladas. I even spent and hour outside cooking the sauce, only to find that I had no chicken anywhere in the house. Argh! Thankfully, I had been to the Spring Convention and had a delicious recipe waiting to be made, and I even had all the ingredients! Cindy Boyer made this on Saturday at the convention. So thanks to her, for saving dinner last night!

Tamale Pie

12" dutch oven

2 tbs. olive oil

2 cups chopped onion

2 cups chopped green peppers

2 lbs. ground beef

2 cloves minced garlic

2 Tbs. sugar

2 tsp. salt

dash of pepper

4 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce

2 cans corn, drained

2 cans chopped olives

chili powder to taste (2-6 tsp.)

3-4 cups Colby jack cheese

Corn Meal Topper

1 1/2 cups cornmeal

4 cups cold water

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. butter

Saute onion and peppers in olive oil. Add the meat and brown. Add the next 8 ingredients. Simmer 20-25 minutes or until thick. Use 20-22 coals. For the cornmeal topper, stir cornmeal, butter and salt into cold water in a 10" DO. Bring to a boil over about 15 coals, stirring constantly. It will look like thick mush. Sprinkle the meat with cheese and spoon the cornmeal topper over the meat mixture. Bake at 375* using 18 coals on top and 9 on the bottom, for about 30 minutes or until the filling is slightly browned. Serves 10-12.

The Finished Product

The Review

This was really good. My hubby is not a fan of casseroles in any form, and he ate 3 servings. That is saying something! All but my 2 pickiest eaters loved it. I really liked that it wasn't a cornbread topping, but more of a cornmeal mush. This would be really simple to make when we go camping. I will warn you, it makes a ton! If you aren't feeding an army, I would cut it in half. When I put mine together, it seemed too thick so I added a little more tomato sauce. Don't do that! Mine ended up runnier than I would have liked. I did substitute 2 cans of the tomato sauce with 2 cans of El Pato jalapeno salsa. It is this great little green can of spicy tomato sauce. You can find it in the Hispanic section of most grocery stores. It didn't make it spicy at all, it just added a great flavor. We all gave this recipe a B+.