Like most casseroles, tamale pie is not pretty or fancy, but it satisfies a craving. A craving to be back at grandma\u2019s table, eating the foods of my childhood.<\/p>\n
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If you think back about eating at your grandparents\u2019 house, do you associate certain foods with the dishes they were served in?<\/p>\n
In my grandma\u2019s kitchen, there were two things that were made in a big white Corningware baking dish.\u00a0 You know the one, square ceramic with a blue cornflower design on the side.\u00a0 There was the dish I\u2019d like to forget but can\u2019t \u2013 tuna casserole with a potato chip topping. And there was tamale pie.<\/p>\n
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Tamale pie has nothing to do with tamales. It\u2019s an American creation (some would say bastardization) that even infiltrated the pages of the Orange County Buddhist Church cookbook with two different recipes \u2013 one of which has sausage. (If you want to know how people really eat, or used to, read church cookbooks).<\/p>\n
Neither of those recipes was my grandma\u2019s. Her tamale pie was ground beef-based in a tomatoey, chili powder-spiced sauce. Having just had a test that suggests I have slightly elevated cholesterol (I still don\u2019t believe it) I\u2019m dialing back a bit on the red meat.\u00a0 This tamale pie is made with ground turkey with Alton Brown’s Taco Potion #19<\/a>, and like my grandma\u2019s, it\u2019s topped with a cornmeal, not cornbread, topping.<\/p>\n Like most casseroles, tamale pie is not pretty or fancy, but it satisfies a craving. A craving to be back at grandma\u2019s table, eating the foods of my childhood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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