Saturday, August 18, 2012

Tamale Pie

There is a food blog I love called "Brown Eyed Baker" and I relied on those recipes a lot prior to being diagnosed as Gluten Intolerant.  Since I haven't been able to play around with different flours as substitution, I haven't been able to use many of those recipes.  THEN, she posted a recipe for Tamale Pie..and it is really good.




Tamale Pie
(adapted from Brown Eyed Baker)

Yield: 8 servings

Prep Time: 1 hour / Bake Time: 30 minutes

Filling:
1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1 Medium Onion, finely chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper, finely chopped
2 Jalapeno Peppers, seeded and minced
1.5 lbs Ground Beef
1.5 C  Corn Kernels (fresh or frozen)
1-14.5 oz  can  Diced Tomatoes, drained
3 Tbsp.  Tomato Paste
2 Tbsp. Chili Powder
4 Tsp. Ground Cumin
2 Tsp. Kosher Salt
1/2 C. sliced Black Olives
4 oz Shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar Cheese

Cornbread Topping:
1 bag Pamela's Cornbread
(2 eggs, 1/2 cup of butter (melted), 1/2 cup of sugar*, 1 cup of water)


1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees 
2) Making the filling: In large skillet over medium-high heat, warm the oil until hot.  Add the onion, green pepper and jalapenos, and cook, stirring occasionally until softened.  Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
3) Reduce heat to medium and add ground beef to pan.  Cook, stirring occasionally to break up the meat, until browned.  (orignal recipe did not call for the meat to be drained, however, I drained anyway).  Once meat is browned, add onion mixture back to the pan.  Stir in corn, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chili powder, cumin and salt.  Stir well to ensure all the spices and tomato paste are evenly distributed.  Bring to simmer then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.  While it is simmering make cornbread topping.
4) Making the topping: mix together the cornbread as instructed on the bag.  (I used agave nectar instead of sugar)
5) Assembling & Baking: Stir olives and shredded cheese into the beef mixture and pour it into a 9x13 baking dish.  (I poured into the baking dish first, then mixed in olives & cheeses since it was easier to stir that way).  Pour cornbread batter over the filling, using a spatula to spread into even layer.  Bake, 30-40 minutes or until top is golden brown and knife inserted into center comes out clean.  Allow pie to rest for 15 minutes before serving.



*One of the nice things with this recipe is that you can adapt to your liking.  Don't like black olives? Don't add them.  Prefer another kind of cheese? Switch it out.  (Personally I added more cheese, since my love for cheese always trumps the actually recipe)  I also forgot to buy the green pepper, so that was not included in mine and I'm sure you could exchange ground turkey or chicken for the beef if you preferred.

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