Click to enlarge - Southwest favorite, Tamale Pie.

Tamale Pie

Caserola de Tamales


This recipe is from my sister, Pattie Sue Knapp, in Pocatello, Idaho. She writes:

"Enjoy the tamale pie. I put quite a bit of chili and sometimes cumin and additional Tabasco® or my hot sauce. We really like it spicy. After you make it once, you can adjust spices to your taste. It will be a favorite, I'm sure. I still make mine in the cast iron kettle you gave me for Christmas so many years ago. It just seems to make it taste better and I can remember Mom used to make hers in a cast iron frying pan also."

Preparation Time :1 hour 30 minutes

Serves 8 to 10 persons

Life Experience Recipe

Pattie Sue Knapp
Ingredients:
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1/2 green pepper - diced
  • 1 15-ounce can black olives
  • 1 28-ounce can tomato sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups corn meal
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
  • Sprinkling of cumin
 
  • 1 large onion - diced
  • 2 cloves garlic - minced
  • 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes
  • 1 15-ounce cream-style corn
  • 2 tablespoons Chili powder or more to taste
  • Ground black pepper to taste
Procedures:
  1. Trim, wash and dice onion. Trim, was and dice green pepper. Mince garlic cloves.
  2. Brown ground meat, onion, garlic and green pepper. Add chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Add tomato sauce, tomatoes, olives and cream-style corn. Simmer for 1/2 hour.
  3. Make corn meal mush: Boil 2 cups or more of water. Slowly add to 1 cup of corn meal until you make a soft mush. Salt to taste. Allow to cool slightly.
  4. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with a layer of corn mush, add a layer of the meat mixture and alternate with the corn mush and meat mixture with the last layer of corn mush on top.
  5. Bake at 375°F. until corn meal mush is brown on top.
  6. A large cast iron skillet or a cast iron Dutch oven makes a perfect cooking container for the tamale pie.

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Latest revision done July 2009
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