Blue Indian Corn Meal Tamale Pie

Sam Arnold’s Fryingpans West Cookbook, p. 21

2 cups corn meal (preferably blue)

2 lbs. ground beef or chunks of beef (ground buffalo or game meat will make the dish even tastier)

[1 onion, chopped]

½ clove garlic

Accent [MSG]

Oregano

1 to 2 cups pitted ripe olives

1 can of tomatoes or a small can of tomato puree

1 cup grated longhorn [Colby] cheese or ½ cup longhorn and ½ cup Monterey Jack cheese

Red chile powder or green chile strips

1 tbsp. flour

To make this pie, take a pot and boil 2 cups of corn meal… preferably blue… with enough water to make a mush. Make the mush thick, being careful to stir it frequently, and cook over a slow fire about 25 minutes. Do not use a glass pot as they have a tendency to burn, crack and break open if you’re not watching carefully. While your mush is cooking, take a large frying pan and fry until just barely cooked 2 pounds of ground beef or chunks of beef with one chopped onion and a half clove garlic plus Accent and oregano. Add some pure-ground red chile powder (1 to 2 tablespoons depending on how hot you like your food) or green chile strips. Then add 1 tablespoon of flour and stir. When all is well-mixed with the fat in the pan, put in about two cups of water to make a gravy. Though it’s not authentic, I like to add a cup or two of pitted, ripe olives, sliced. If you like tomato flavor in your chile, add a can of tomatoes, or a small can of tomato puree. Your meat sauce should look like a spaghetti sauce, but should be spicy from the chile. 

TBH it's not that spicy even with the chile.

Now, look at the corn meal mush and if it is soft and well cooked, add 1 cup grated longhorn cheese or a half cup Longhorn and a half cup Monterey Jack cheese, and stir into the mush. Next, using a dutch oven or baking casserole, pour in a layer of mush, sprinkle with more cheese, add a layer of meat, then more cheese, then mush… keep repeating until the casserole is full. 

I couldn't find blue corn and I was really sad, but at the same time I think the dish looked better overall with the yellow stuff because it created a nice contrast with the darker meat mixture. Just sayin'.

Top with cheese and bake for an hour at 350 degrees. 

I didn't plan ahead well enough to have cheese to top it with. Sad day.

(The dish can be served without being baked but baking greatly improves the flavor.)

When you serve it in a bowl it's just a big bunch of much - but it's still pretty attractive for a big bunch of mush.

My Rating: 3/5 "This is really interesting and fun to make. I was a little disappointed with how bland it was, though, especially after the recipe made it sound like it would come out so spicy some people might want to adjust the seasoning. That said, it was really filling and pleasantly kind of frontier-sy."