Week 18: Hot Tamale Mama

Tamale pie was probably not the best recipe choice for a woman who is 38 weeks pregnant.

In my defense, it was recipe selection for Cinco DeMayo and likely no Mexican food would be suitable for my pregnant daughter to enjoy without heartburn.

She was a trooper though, and we had a lot of fun preparing the recipe together. In fact, this is the first time I shared the 52 Saturdays process from beginning to end with a helper and I definitely want to do it again.

I’m living next-door to my daughter Kara and her partner Lou as we await the birth of their son … My first grandson!

I feel privileged and honored that they trust me enough to be here to help. As I wash dishes, fold laundry, clean the bathroom or cook …every step of the way I feel it is a gift. I’m incredibly grateful for our relationship and her trust in me.

This experience has definitely brought up some stuff around my mom, my relationship with her (or lack there of) while I was pregnant and her relationship with my kids.

She only met Kara once when she was two and never met Alex, who was two years old when she passed away.

The distance that grew between us was more than just miles. It was in part due to her obesity,which made it difficult for her to travel, and the financial strain to make the trip.  I also had trouble handling the sense of responsibility and guilt I felt for her situation.

Now that I’m fortunate enough to be here with Kara and participate in this process (I’ll actually be in the delivery room), I can’t imagine how hard it was for my mom not to be able to connect with the kids. Each of them have beautiful knit items, hand-painted cards and books that had notes to them in her unique handwriting. It’s just plain sad that they didn’t get a chance to know her and that’s on me.

Mom, wherever you are, please forgive me for not making an effort to create a relationship between you and the kids. It was truly their loss and I’m sure it broke your heart.

I’m pretty committed to carrying forward the positive traits I’ve gotten from my mom into my relationship with my grand-kids, who are her great-grandchildren. By cooking my mom’s tamale pie with Kara, I am doing just that.

Original Recipe

The process:

My recollection of tamale pie was a delicious crusty corn topping with melted cheese, with tomato sauce seeping from the side over the top… Mmmmmmmm

Once again though, like many casseroles of that era,  it had very few vegetables.

I did a little research to see what green vegetables tend to go in Mexican food and turns out that zucchini and peppers are the most popular. Neither Kara or I like green peppers, so they were out of the recipe immediately.

We decided zucchini, yellow onion and poblano peppers were the way to go.

I thought about replacing the ground beef with ground turkey but Kara and I decided that might cause it to be dry.

The next decision was the cheese…we wanted to reduce the fat and calories but still, have a creamy cheese flavor. Farmer cheese has much less sodium, carbs, fat and calories and the texture is a lot like Queso Fresco.

With the addition of kidney beans we were able to add extra protein and fiber.

What I didn’t plan on was the veggies increasing the volume of the casserole… we ended up making two. One had farmer cheese and one had shredded cheddar cheese.

The Results:

The Tamale Pie with farmer cheese ended up pretty soupy, lost was the firm cornmeal topping, but the flavor was great.

The one with cheddar was much more like I remember from my childhood.

It was served with an arugula, mango and avocado salad, tossed with lime cilantro dressing.

The recipes were both a hit, but next time I probably won’t use the farmer cheese.
As an added benefit, the two casseroles provided leftovers in the freezer for after the baby is born!

For dessert, we had decaf Mexican coffee…

Kara and Lou didn’t have a hand mixer… surprisingly though, Lou was able to hand whisk heavy cream into whip cream… Amazing!

This recipe was not altered except that Lou and I added a shot of tequila to each of our coffees!

I wish I’d recorded the exclamation that came out of Lou when he took a sip.

Overall the meal was a hit and we had a really good time! Except for the heartburn… Sorry Kara

As a side note… I ignored my sister Kim’s version of tamale pie altogether, as it had milk and sugar and she put the cornmeal on the bottom.

Tamale Vegetable Pie

Recipe makes two casseroles or one large

Ingredients

1 pound grass-fed ground beef
1 cup chopped yellow, orange or red pepper
1 poblano pepper, about 1/2 cup chopped
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped zucchini
1 can of kidney beans
1 (12 ounce) bag of frozen corn
1 (15 ounce) can of tomato sauce
1 (16 ounce) package of farmer cheese or 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup of sliced or chopped black olives
1 clove of garlic
2 teaspoons chili powder
Salt-and-pepper to taste

Cornmeal Tamale Topping

1 1/2 cups of corn meal
4 cups of cold water
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
2 tablespoons butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook onion, peppers and zucchini and a hot, greased skillet. Add the meat and brown.
Add remaining ingredients, except for the olives and cheese.
Simmer for 20 mins.

Make the corn topping:
In a saucepan, stir or whisk cornmeal into cold water. Heat on medium heat until thick. Stir constantly.
Stir in butter.

Pour meat and vegetable mixture into a greased 9×13 casserole pan (or comparable)
Top with cheese then spoon corn meal mixture on top and spread it evenly. top with sliced black olives.

With Farmer Cheese:

With Cheddar Cheese:

Bake at 375 for 45 mins.

With Farmer Cheese:

With cheddar cheese…less moisture:

Week 18 Recipe Pick

Kara and I voted for easy…I may not need to alter this one much.

Tags: beef dish, mexican food, one dish meal