Making the meat filling
The first step in making
Mom's Tamale Pie is to gather all the necessary ingredients
together. After you have all the supplies you will want to get
out any cooking utensils that will make the process run smoothly.
This normally will include a frying pan, a sauce pan, a large
measuring cup, a medium to large mixing bowl, a cheese shredder,
a knife, hot pads, a can opener, and a casserole dish to cook the
completed pie in. At this point turning on the oven so it will be
ready when you are is a good idea.
The first step is to start by chopping
up your onion into 1/4 to 1/2 inch sections. Leaving the onion
this big will allow for some texture left to the onion pieces
when the tamale pie is done cooking.
Then heat up your frying pan to about medium and add some oil (Olive oil was used here) or butter to the pan along with your chopped onions. Sauté the chopped onion until it is shiny and slightly soft. I then take the onion out of the pan and cook the meat separately in the that pan.
While the meat is cooking I
like to add the spices. The spices such as the salt, pepper,
chili powder and Worcestershire sauce are mixed into the meat as
well as the garlic. (Because the corn meal mixture will be spread
on the top in this version the garlic was added in the form of
ground garlic to the meat mixture instead of being put in the
corn meal.)
While the meat is cooking now is a convenient time to take some time and shred the cheese. I then pen all the cans and drain the ones that will need it like the olives and the corn. You will need all of them after the meat is done and this will speed up the processing time.
Don't forget to watch the
meat and keep it stirred so that it will not burn while you are
taking care of the canned ingredients.
You can also measure out the corn meal and get it soaking in the cold water at this point. You will be cooking the corn meal at a later step. Starting the soaking process now will prevent having the filling sitting around getting cold while you are soaking the corn meal and then cooking it.
After the meat is done you can then stir back in the onions and mix it together well.
Take a look at the pan of meat, is it greasy? Depending on the
quality of meat used this is a good time to stop and drain any
grease out of the frying pan. Leaving the grease in the pan will
not really hurt anything but it will add to the liquid. I think
the taste is not as pleasant as it could be, it will also make
the sauce thinner. Personal preference is to drain it well and
then fry the meat and onions for another minute or two and see if
any more grease comes off of the meat. Drain the mixture a second
time if needed before continuing.
After draining the meat you can then add the additional ingredients to the pan one at a time and mix them all together.
Due to ease of stirring the canned corn is usually added first and mixed in with the meat and onion. Your pan will look like the one on the right at this point.
After the corn is in the pan
then the two cans of tomato sauce are added. (Note if you want a
thicker sauce or a sweeter sauce this is the point that you would
add a small can of tomato paste and reduce the tomato sauce by
one half of a can.) This can be stirred together and then add the
canned olives or just dump them in on top as below and mix it all
together.
After mixing the canned ingredients in and heating all of it up you are then ready to transfer it to the final casserole dish..
The following section will show the corn meal mixture and putting it all together and into the oven.
Copyright 1997-2013 by MemorablePlaces.com
In order to use this site you must read and
agree to that which is on the legal page.