Tamale Pie

Another slow cooker recipe! I asked the Hubs to go through the cookbook and put sticky notes on the recipes he wants to try.

Tamale Pie

3/4 c cornmeal
1 1/2 c milk
1 egg, beaten
1 lb ground beef, browned and drained (I used ground pork since we just bought half a hog)
1 envelope dry chili seasoning (I didn't have this, so I used a mixture of chili powder, salt, cumin, garlic powder)
16 oz can diced tomatoes (I used a pint of home-canned tomatoes)
16 oz can corn, drained
1 c shredded cheddar

Spray the inside of the slow cooker with non-stick spray.
Mix together cornmeal, milk and egg in crockpot. Mix in meat, tomatoes, seasoning and corn.
Cook, covered, on high for 1 hour, then on low 3 hours. (I forgot to turn it down after an hour, so I cooked it 3 hours on high)
Sprinkle with cheese and cook about 5 minutes for cheese to melt. (I sprinkled the cheese, put the lid back on and then turned off the slow cooker.)

Note:
I doubled the cornmeal, milk, egg and meat.
I still had fresh peppers from the garden so I added about 6 diced anaheim and poblano.

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Tamale adventure

Yesterday I decided to make tamales. What an adventure. Everytime I make Mexican food, it turns into an all day ordeal. Which is probably why it always tastes so good.
After much searching yesterday, I found a tamale recipe. The only one I could find that was a reasonable size was on foodnetwork.com, which I was trying to avoid for authenticity sake, but all the other recipes called for nearly 10 pounds of pork, and for just the two of us, that's way too much meat. (Even though sometimes I feel like a carnivore and not an omnivore in this house!)

The first task yesterday was finding a steamer. Part of the reason I'd been putting off making tamales was because I didn't have a steamer. Well, yesterday I got a killer deal on one, unintentionally. I did a little online searching, and then decided to hit up several stores: Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshall's and the JC Penney Home Store. Turns out the last place I went had the best deal. Target's was $40. Bed Bath and Beyond ranged from $100 to $200, so even with my $5 off coupon, well you get the idea of the price. Marshall's didn't have one (although I did purchase a new bread knife!). Penney's had one online on sale for $40, but it wasn't in the store. What they did have in the store was $60 regular price, which was half off. Then I had a 20% off coupon. And unknown to me, there was a $20 mail in rebate. So after I get the rebate back, I'll have purchased a $60 item for about the price of tax: $5-ish!

Here's a link to the original recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/all-american-festivals/traditional-pork-tamales-recipe/index.html

Here's how I tweaked it:

Pork: 
3 lbs boston butt pork, trimmed of fat
1 head of garlic, sliced crosswise into 2
palmful white peppercorns (didn't have any black ones on hand)
4 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
Water to cover pork in stock pot by 3 inches.

Masa: (ended up doubling this, and could have tripled it, but we decided to eat tacos while waiting on the tamales to cook)
1 1/2 c masa harina
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
3 Tbsp softened butter
1/3 c shortening
3/4 c broth from pork, enough to make the masa spreadable, about the consistency of play-doh

Chile Sauce
2 dried ancho chiles
3 fresh anaheim chiles, diced finely
1 qt tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
3 tsp salt
2 c broth from pork
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp flour

Corn husks, softened in a bowl of warm water at least 30 minutes prior to assembly

Pork preparation: 
Bring the pork to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 1-1/2 hours, until it falls off the bone easily. Add water if needed. Turn off heat, and pull the pork apart with forks in a bowl.

Chile Sauce:
In a nonstick skillet, cook the chiles and tomatoes until the anchos are softened. Take the dried chiles (now rehydrated) out of the skillet and rinse the seeds out under running water. If you want more heat, you could leave the seeds in. Transfer all the chiles and the tomatoes to a food processor and process until smooth. Add the salt, garlic, cumin and salt to processor. In the nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil and add the flour. Then transfer the chile sauce to the skillet and simmer to reduce the liquid.
Once the liquid is reduced, add the shredded pork.

Tamale dough: 
Mix the ingredients. I used a wooden spoon, until I remembered I had a pastry blender that worked even better. The dough was sticking to the spoon.

Spread about 2 Tbsp tamale dough on a corn husk. Spoon about 1-2 Tbsp (depending on size of corn husk) pork mixture into dough. Wrap the tamale and tie with a string of corn husk. Place on end in the steamer basket.

Steam for about 1 hour, adding more water if necessary.

These were delicious; I would almost say they were better than any tamales I've ever had, including the ones from the Mexican restaurants.

We made tacos with the extra pork filling. Flour tortillas, refried beans, sour cream, shredded cheese, and homemade guacamole.

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