Tamale Pie

Tamale Pie

This makes a nice meal that is VERY low cost, and for vegans, just use the veggie bouillon and forgo the sour cream or get soy "sour cream".

If you don't have access to a wheat grinder - sometimes you can get a used one for about $50, you can use a coffee grinder. I bought one at Wallyworld for $10. I use it to grind flax seeds, but before I bought the used wheat grinder, it's what I used to grind my beans and peas into a flour.

Adobo is a seasoning that is also found in most Mexican sections of the store, though my local Wallyworld doesn't carry it. Masa Harina is a type of flour found in the Mexican section of the grocery store. The masa does have a slightly different flavor than regular ground corn flour. You can make your own masa by soaking corn in lime, washing it, and cooking it, then drying the corn and powdering it. There's a little more to making masa than that, but that's the quickly typed version. If anyone's interested, I can post a how-to on it.

On to the Tamale Pie recipe.

Base:
2 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup masa harina or corn flour (not corn meal, flour is ground finer than the meal is, if corn meal is all you have, grind it in your coffee bean grinder to a finer texture.)
1/2 cup pinto bean flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp Adobo
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Gravy
2 cups warm water
2 Tbs pinto bean flour
2 Tsp masa or corn flour
2 Tbs chili powder
1 1/2 Tbs cumin
1 chicken or veggie bouillon or 1 tsp bouillon powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp Adobo powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Topping:
1 cup cheese


For each serving:
chopped green onion and tops
sour cream
lettuce
diced tomato
diced hot peppers, fresh or canned (opt)

To make the base:
In a 3 or 3 1/2 cups sauce pan, whisk together all of the base ingredients and then bring them to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn down the heat to low, cover and let cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and add 1 cup of the gravy, and place in a greased 9" x 13" pan. Let this cool about 5 minutes or so, then spread with the remaining gravy. Top with the cheese and place in 350 degree oven for about 20 mins to let the cheese melt.
Remove from oven and serve with onions, sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes.

To make the gravy:
Whisk all the dry ingredients into the water, Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. lower heat, cover pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This should freeze well, though I've never frozen it.