Tamale Pie, the best version ever

Okay so I had a hankering for Tamale pie, and looking back on when I typed this out and emailed it to my friend, I made this pretty much the same night I conceived this baby.

Insert any number of innuendo or jokes here.

In any event, it's really really delicious. In fact, when I did a search of my email to find this recipe, I discovered I was emailing friends about this recipe several days after the fact, telling them how incredibly good it was.

 I am really looking forward to making it again this week.

You'll also need 2 lbs of meat, plus the stuff for the cornmeal topping ... and the Fritos ... but this is *mostly* what you need.

Meat, onions, garlic, seasonings all get thrown into the pan

Cook until the meat is browned (and smelling deelicious)

Add the corn/tomatoes/tomato sauce/beer

Simmer for about 15 minutes until it looks really really good, sorta like this. Yes, it'll be soupy - that's fine.

Cover the  bottom of your baking dish with Fritos.

Add the warm meat mixture

Corn meal - the yellow.

The mixture above is what it looks like BEFORE buttermilk is added.  I added 1.5 cups.  Stir it all up and then sorta plop it over the top of the meat ... and then ...

Smooth it out with the spoon -- it'll smooth over really easily!  Put into oven for 25 minutes, then remove and top with more cheese (YAY!)

After it's all done .. it'll look like this (and smell even better)

OH yeah, baby.

Here lies the deliciousness that are the baked up Frito bottom layer.

Please enjoy.

Ingredients

1 white onion, chopped
4 - 5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 lbs ground beef
2 T. California chile powder
1 T. Cumin
1 tsp. Oregano
1/2 - 1 tsp Lawry's garlic salt (to taste - I love, so I put more)
black pepper/salt (to taste)
8 oz can tomato sauce
8 oz can El Pato tomato sauce (this is somewhat spicy - just use "plain" tomato sauce if you want less spice)
1 can Mexicorn
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 handful cilantro, chopped roughly
1/2 c. beer (can sub chicken broth/beef broth/etc)

Topping
1 c. cornmeal (I buy yellow bc it's less expensive than white - I'm cheap)
1 can fire-roasted diced chiles (*NOT* jalapenos!)
1/2 c. shredded Pepperjack (or use cheddar to make more mild)
1 can creamed corn (the 15 oz size, or 14.5 or whatever it is)
1 - 2 c. buttermilk (enough to make the topping "pourable" -- I didn't measure)
salt/pepper

Other needs: Fritos, 1 c. shredded cheddar, olives, sour cream

Heat oven to 400.

Saute onion/garlic/meat/spices until meat is browned. Add the tomato sauces, corn, tomatoes, cilantro and beer and let simmer about 15 minutes.

Put Fritos on bottom of a large baking dish (larger than 9 x 13 - like a lasagna/roasting pan - or you can use 2 dishes, a 9x13 and an 8x8).

In a separate bowl, combine the topping ingredients.

Put the cooked meat on top of the Fritos in the baking dish, then cover with the topping, smoothing over the top of the meat. (I added some whole olives on top so each "portion" would get one, but feel free to omit/serve on the side)

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, cover with 1 c. shredded cheddar (or more, if you like) and return to oven for additional 10 minutes.

Serve/devour with cottage cheese and/or sour cream.

Pumpkin Tortellini soup with Meatballs and Kale

I had a hankering for this combination earlier today, with freezing cold nights (and mornings) finally starting up again, I just wanted all things fall: pumpkin, soup, bread with butter to dip into said soup.

I was imagining a really brothy soup with small meatballs and some nutmeggy pumpkin tortellini.

I googled.

I didn't see anything resembling what I wanted, so I cobbled something together that I feared wasn't going to taste very good, but ended up tasting really really good.  My husband even drank his broth.  He never drinks his broth.


Tortellini

1 can pumpkin (15 oz)
4 oz honey goat cheese (Trader Joe's - if you can't find, just use regular goat cheese and add more honey)
1 T. honey (maple syrup would also be extra delicious here)
1 T. brown sugar
allspice (pinch)
nutmeg (pinch or so)
white pepper (pinch)
salt (hearty pinch)
1 leaf sage, minced fine
20 wonton wrappers

Mix all the ingredients, except wonton wrappers, then assemble into tortellini (directions are on the package - it's quite simple).  Put in fridge on a small plate while you assemble meatballs.

Note: this will use up 1/2 of the pumpkin mixture.  If you're ambitious, you can make more and freeze them for next time, but I have 2 young children, so I put my leftovers into the fridge to be dealt with later.

Meatballs (based on Cook's Illustrated's recipe for Swedish Meatballs)

1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
2 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/2 - 1" pieces
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg
1/2 white onion, grated on small holes of box grater
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder

Put bread into medium bowl and cover with cream, mashing with a fork to make sure the cream is absorbed.  It may be a little soupy.  Add egg, white onion, spices and baking powder, and mix with fork to combine.  Add the meat -- squeezing the pork with your hands to "mash" it a little before going into the bowl (Cook's Illustrated has you mix it with the mixer to make the pork like a 'paste', and - although I have made them that way before and they are delicious - I wasn't gonna dirty another coupla dishes tonight, and squeezing turned out just fine).  Use a very small scoop (2 tsp.) to scoop into about 25 little meatballs, setting aside on a plate.


Note:  I made the meat mixture while the aromatics were sauteeing in the pan (next step, below), and then left it alone to add the Bourbon/Broth/etc, and then scooped the meatballs while waiting for the broth to come to a boil.

Soup and assembly

1/4 white onion, chopped
2 shallots, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 sage leaves, cut into chiffonade
1/4 c. EVOO
4 T. butter
Bourbon (about 1/3 cup and I used Makers Mark)
12 cups chicken stock (2 of the 48 oz Swansons boxes)
salt/pepper
2 - 3 cups chopped kale (I bought a bag at Trader Joe's to make my life easy, and used several good handfuls)

In a 6 quart pot, saute onion/shallots/garlic/sage in evoo and butter over med-low heat until soft and getting caramelly ... deglaze with the bourbon, let reduce about 2 minutes so the alcohol evaporates a little.  Add the broth/salt/pepper, bring to a simmer, add the kale.  Let the kale simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes, then carefully add meatballs (they will be soft, but I assure you they will hold their shape), always keeping the broth at a bare simmer.  After 8 minutes, add the tortellini and continue simmering for another 2 minutes.  Serve immediately with hot sauce and parmesan :D

A FEW NOTES:

A few of the tortellini may fall apart in the soup, but it still tastes good.  You can always just use egg noodles and diced pumpkin (sugar pumpkin is good) or butternut squash if you don't want to be fussy about the tortellini.  Also? I think a can of rinsed small white beans would be a delicious addition to this soup, as would some toasted sourdough croutons.

Please enjoy, and let me know what you think.