Chili + casserole = Tamale Pie!

So, when I woke up this morning, it was 54 degrees.  Seriously.  54 degrees.  I live in Florida.  I LOVED it!  It was a chilly for walking the dogs and was still chilly for my run – that has to be the best temperature ever for a run.  Sun shining, breeze blowing and nice and cool.  Beautiful!  And, it got my taste buds interested in some homey and delicious comfort food.  Just because I don’t live in an area where it snows doesn’t mean I can’t make chilies, stews and casseroles! And yes, I’m aware it’s going to get warmer today – who cares?  I want comfort food and I’m going to have it.  J So, since I was adding more magazine recipes to my cookbook, I decided to flip through the pages to see what inspired me.  So many good things to choose from in there!

I opted for a casserole that I had most of the ingredients for anyway.  Tamale Pie.  Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?  Who doesn’t want tamale pie?  And, BONUS, it uses chili seasonings so it’s a chili AND a casserole all in one dish!  Found the recipe in a Saveur magazine – I don’t know the year but it’s No. 98.  

                 *side note - NONE of the recipes in Saveur have nutritional information provided.  Use your best judgement for ingredients and you can pretty much control calories, fat and sodium.

       

Now to the nitty gritty about this recipe.  It was good.  I don’t know if I would call it great but it was good – Things 1 and 2 liked it and cleaned their plates.  I used vegetable oil for cooking the vegetables but I think the bacon drippings would have been better.  I don’t know, make some bacon for BLTs for lunch tomorrow because I’m positive the bacon drippings would add extra flavor.  The tamale pie wasn’t bland but it could use some sprucing up, in my opinion.  I did make a change with the chili powder and did half regular and half hot chili powder.  I think it was a great decision because regular chili powder – just 1 tablespoon after all – can be boring is small quantities.  It didn’t make the tamale pie spicy hot but it did add depth to the meat filling.

So, I screwed up a little bit too and neglected to read the word “wet” in front of the word spoon when it came to spreading the tamale mixture in the pan.  Definitely make the spoon wet.  I had some problems with spreading the mixture and I wondered what the heck the problem was.  Well, the problem was me and my lack of attention to detail.  Oops.  So, needless to say, I didn’t get the tamale mixture spread across the bottom AND up the sides of the pan but it didn’t really change the flavor.  It was still good but it could have certainly looked better.  One other thing we noted, a small amount of cheddar cheese over individual servings was really delicious – well, Thing 2 didn’t think so but the rest of us did.  Up to you – we liked it.

Overall, this was a good recipe and I will definitely make it again.  As stated above, definitely going to be using bacon drippings to cook the vegetables.  I want to see what difference that makes in flavor – bet it’s good!  And, I will definitely use half and half on the chili powders.  We do like spicy foods and that blend added some nice flavor to the mixture. 

Anyway, here’s the recipe.  Happy cooking, eating and drinking!

Tamale Pie

(serves 6)

4 tbsp butter

Salt

2 ¼ cups coarse cornmeal

2 tbsp bacon drippings or vegetable oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 ¼ lbs lean ground beef

1 tbsp chili powder

½ tsp ground cumin

1 cup canned crushed tomatoes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Rub a 2 ½-quart casserole dish with 1 tbsp butter; set aside.  Put 1 quart water and 2 tsp salt into a medium pot; bring to a boil.  Gradually add cornmeal while whisking vigorously.  Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring often, until thick, 8-10 minutes.  Add remaining butter and stir until combined.  Spoon half the cornmeal mixture into the prepared dish.  Spread out with the back of a wet spoon to cover the bottom and sides completely; set aside.  Cover remaining cornmeal mixture to keep warm and set aside.

Heat drippings in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onions, peppers, and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, 7-8 minutes.  Increase heat to medium-high; add beef, chili powder and cumin; cook until meat is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.  Add tomatoes and salt to taste to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, 6-8 minutes.

Spoon filling into casserole, then top with remaining cornmeal mixture, spreading it out with the back of a wet spoon to cover the filling.  Bake until top is crisp and sides are bubbling, 30-35 minutes.