Tamale Pie

My Number One Fan was excited to make this dish for me, finding it on the-girl-who-ate-everything website, one of the many food bloggers she follows in order to occasionally present various recipes to me for inspiration.  The concept here is to take those ingredients from a beef tamale and reassemble them in a casserole fashion for considerably less work than actually making tamales.  And unless you are living in a Hispanic family with a Mexican Mamacita, it is unlikely that you make or have ever made tamales. They are intensely laborious.

While this recipe is a satisfactory nod to the delectablility and deliciousness of one of the oldest foods known to us from the Mesoamerican world, originating - some believe - over 8,000 years ago, the "Tamale" moniker is more marketing than culinary accuracy.  There is nothing than can replace a true Mexican tamale made by hand with beef, pork or chicken, onions, black olives and spices, then packed inside a dough made of shortening and masa flour, wrapped in a corn husk and steamed cooked.

Tamales are very popular at Christmastime in Mexico, and a friend of ours who grew up there would often bring s batch of them to us as a holiday treat.  But since I can't make tamales, or at least I've never tried, nor would I ask my Number One Fan to attempt such a herculean feat, the Tamale Pie she made was a good runner-up.

When she showed me the recipe, something about it seemed awfully familiar.  I pulled out our trusty red-gingham clad Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook (4th Edition, Published 1968) and looked it up.  Yup!  There it was on page 125.  While it reflected more popular ingredients of its time, like using processed American cheese instead of cheddar, it was basically the same recipe.

But as I did a little research, I found out that the recipe, purportedly originating in Texas, was first published in 1911.  Versions of the dish under a different name were published even earlier.  I'm pretty sure I've had this dish in a West Texas elementary school cafeteria rotation menu in the 1950s and '60s and my mother served it more than once.  I grew up with an allergy to wheat and so a recipe without it, principally made of corn and in a casserole no less, would have been an attractive choice for dinner fare.

Tamales, as cited above, have been around for millennia.  The Olmecs, Toltecs, Mayans and Aztecs all consumed them as a portable foodstuff for hunting trips and to feed their armies.  Corn, of course, was indigenous to the Americas.  From Mesoameria, tamales spread to the Caribbean and after the Spanish conquest of Central America, pretty much everywhere else.

In case you were wondering, masa flour, from which most tamales in Central America are made, is hominy corn that  has been soaked in an alkaline solution, typically limewater, a common name for a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide. . This process, called nixtamalization, softens the corn and makes it more nutritious by releasing niacin. The softened corn is then ground into a fine dough, which is used to make various traditional Mexican dishes such as tortillas and tamales.  While masa flour is available in Latin markets, this recipe calls for corn meal, which is simply dried, ground corn without the alkaline treatments and more readily available in most American grocery stores.

While My Number One Fan made some modifications on the recipe from the girl-who-ate-everything website, such as omitting the added sugar, she did not alter the quantities.  This recipe will feed six hungry people.

Ingredients
For the Casserole
1-1/2 lbs 80/20 ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
2 tsp garlic, finely minced
1 14.5-oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained (like, Hunt's)
1 15.25-oz can whole kernel corn, drained (like, Del Monte White Corn)
1 10-oz can enchilada sauce (like, Old El Paso Red Enchilada Sauce)
1 4-oz can diced green chilies, drained (like, Old El Paso, Ortega or Hatch)
1 2.5-oz can sliced black olives, drained (like, Mario or Lindsay)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
salt & pepper to taste
non-stick cooking spray (like, Pam) 

Ingredients
For the Cornmeal Topping
2 cups fine or medium ground corn meal (like Bob's Red Mill or Quaker)
4 tbsp butter, melted
2 large eggs, blended
1-1/2 cups milk (1% - 2% is fine, or use whole milk for added richness)
1 cup mild cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp salt

The Recipes
Preheat the oven to 375F with a rack in the middle of the oven. Treat a 9" x 13" baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook the ground beef until it is no longer pink, about five minutes.  Add the onions and continue cooking until they are translucent and the beef is beginning to brown a little, about another 5 - 7 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook a minute longer.

Add the tomatoes, corn, enchilada sauce, green chilies, olives, chili powder and cumin.  Stir well to combine and then cook for 7 - 10 minutes until the liquid has nearly evaporated.  Season with salt and pepper.

Turn out the casserole mixture into the baking dish, and level the top.

In another mixing bowl, combine the corn meal, butter, eggs, milk, cheese and salt.  Blend well.  Pour on top of the casserole mixture in the baking dish.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until the cornmeal topping is firm and beginning to brown a little.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some sliced avocado on the side.