Stove Top Tamale Pie

Tamale Pie doesn't have much resemblance to tamales, and it really isn't a pie.

"So, what is it then?" you ask. There are lots of versions of tamale pie, but it is essentially made with chili topped with either cornbread or polenta and cheese and then baked in the oven.

This version of tamale pie is made entirely on the stove top, and takes no time to prepare. Think of it as chili with cheese and cornbread dumplings!

The sweet cornbread topping is the perfect contrast to the spicy chili. If your mom made tamale pie for dinner when you were growing up, you will enjoy this trip down memory lane. If you've never heard of tamale pie, but like chili and cornbread, you'll love this dish too.

I think the best part is the spot where the cornbread and chili meld together, sopping up that chili flavor into the cornbread.

Guess what folks. It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day! What is Secret Recipe Club? We are a group of bloggers who are secretly assigned a blog once a month from which to choose a recipe. On reveal day, we all post the recipes we chose.

This month, I was assigned Jess' blog, Flying on Jess Fuel. Jess is so adorable. She is married to a Navy pilot, and they are the cutest couple ever. Jess always stops by my blog on reveal day and has the nicest things to say (thanks Jess!). Needless to say, I was really happy to be assigned her blog. Plus, Jess likes spicy food (as do I)!

There are so many wonderful dishes on her blog. I narrowed my choices down to Jess's Taco Salad and this Stove Top Tamale Pie. I'm definitely making the taco salad soon.

I added some chopped onions to the beef because I had half of an onion in the refrigerator leftover from making this Stir Fry. I also used fresh oregano, because we have some growing in our garden! Other than that, I followed Jess' recipe pretty much as written. I used hot paprika, but you could probably use sweet (I just couldn't find mine!).

I used a 12 inch saute pan so that the chili could peek out from under the cornbread. A more traditional tamale pie has a solid layer of cornbread "crust." If you prefer that, just use a 10 inch pan. I dropped the cornbread batter onto the chili with a small ice cream scoop, but a tablespoon would work just fine.

This was a very tasty dish, and one that I will be making again.

Stove Top Tamale Pie

Recipe from Flying on Jess Fuel, adapted from McCormick's Cooking with Flavor.

Ingredients

Chili

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1/2 large onion, chopped (optional)

2 T chile powder (I used chipotle chile powder)

1/2 tsp granulated onion

1/2 tsp granulated garlic

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes 

1/2 tsp dried or 1 1/2 tsp fresh oregano

1 tsp paprika

1 T ground cumin

2 tsp salt

2 tsp fresh ground pepper

2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce

1 (14 oz) can kidney beans, undrained

Cornbread

2/3 C all purpose flour

1/2 C yellow cornmeal (I used medium grind)

3 T sugar

1 T baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 T vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 C milk

Topping

1 C shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 C sliced green onions

Cilantro sprigs (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large skillet or saute pan, brown the meat over medium high heat. As the meat begins to cook, add the optional onions. 
2. Drain the grease from the pan, add the spices, tomato sauce, and kidney beans. 
3. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. While the chili is simmering, mix the cornbread ingredients until just combined.
5. Drop the batter by tablespoon over the chili. Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes, until the cornbread is fully cooked. 
6. Sprinkle with the cheese and green onions and cover to cook until the cheese is melted. 
7. Top with the cilantro sprigs to serve. 

Classic Shortbread with Fleur de Sel

This Classic Shortbread is crispy, crumbly, sandy, and melt-in-your-mouth all at the same time. With the little bursts of fleur de sel flavor, they are incredibly difficult to resist.

Eastern European Rye Bread

This Eastern European Rye Bread is soft and light with a crispy crust. It is perfect for deli style sandwiches.

I was a little nervous about this bread at first, mostly because the dough requires quite a bit of kneading, which is something that normally turns rye dough into glue (at least for me). The dough started out really sticky and glue-like, but an amazing thing happened. After about eight minutes of kneading with the stand mixer on medium speed, the dough became smooth and easy to work with.

This bread also managed to survive a major goof on my part. After the first rise, I carefully shaped the dough and placed it in a heavily floured towel for the final rise. Then I realized that there should have been a second rise before shaping. Doh!

I quickly pulled the loaf out of the well flowered dish towel sling I'd placed it in to rise, rubbed it with wet hands to try to absorb the flour coating into the dough, and gave it a couple of kneads. Miracle of miracles, it rose up again!!

Regarding the dish towel "sling," there's a photo of how I suspended a loaf like this in this post. It's pretty fun explaining to your family why it's hanging there.

Bottom line? I loved how this bread turned out! It's probably the most success I've had with traditional deli rye.

Today, the Tuesdays with Dorie group is baking Eastern European Rye from the wonderful book, Baking with Julia (as in Julia Child) by Dorie Greenspan.  To see how other bakers fared, follow this link.

Eastern European Rye 

Makes two loaves

Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

2 3/4 C tepid water (80 to 90 degrees F)

1 T sugar

1 scant tablespoon salt

1/4 C vegetable shortening

3 C medium rye flour

1 T ground caraway seeds (I ground them in a spice grinder)

1 1/2 T caraway seeds

3 T vital wheat gluten

3 1/2 C (approximately) bread flour 

1 large egg white

1 tsp cold water

Caraway seeds for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Place the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer, and add 1/2 C of the water and a pinch of the sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes. 
2. Add the rest of the water, the rest of the sugar, the salt, and the shortening. Add the rye flour and caraway seeds to the bowl and stir with a spoon until it is fully incorporated. 
3. Move the bowl to the mixer. Using the dough hook, mix in the vital wheat gluten. Add 2 1/2 C of the bread flour, and mix on medium low, adding more flour until the dough is soft and clears the sides of the bowl, about 3 minutes.
4. Knead the dough on medium speed for about 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth. I mixed mine for the full eight minutes. 
5. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for about 90 minutes, until doubled.
6. Deflate the dough and let it rise again, until doubled, about 45 minutes.
7. Press the dough into a 7 inch by 9 inch rectangle, and, beginning with a shorter side, roll it into a log, sealing the dough as you roll it up. Tuck in the ends, place it in a floured towel, and suspend it from a drawer (I just tuck the towel into the drawer and shut the drawer). For detailed shaping instructions, see Cathy's post here. 
8. Let rise for 30 minutes. It will be quite puffy. 
9. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and set it up for steam (I use a broiler pan on the lowest rack, in which I add boiling water. I also spray the oven walls with water after loading the bread). 
10. When the loaf is ready, brush it with the egg white and water wash, and sprinkle with caraway seeds. 
11. Slash the dough three times on the diagonal. 
12. Load the loaf onto the baking stone or baking sheet, and bake for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 375 degrees, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more, until it reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees F. 
13. Turn the oven off, and let the loaves sit for 5 minutes more. 
14. Let cool completely on a wire rack. 

Yeastspotted!

Granola Energy Bars

Granola Energy Bars filled with toasted oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, coconut, and a mixture of dried fruit. 

Granola energy bars. From my kitchen. With brown rice syrup. Something is completely askew in the universe.

Chinese Indian Chicken Manchurian | Wok Wednesdays

This Chinese Indian Chicken Manchurian combines the flavors of Cantonese stir-fry along with the sauciness of Indian food.

The first best part? We had the chiles called for in this recipe growing in our little patio garden!

The second best part? I photographed steam! Can you see it? Just tilt your screen. Woo!

This stir-fry includes:

1. chicken thigh meat marinated in egg white, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, salt, and a bit of peanut oil
2. garlic and ginger
3. Thai chiles
4. onions
5. chicken broth and soy sauce
6. cilantro
7. and scallions

The onions, chiles, ginger, and garlic are seared in the wok and then pushed aside. Then the chicken is pressed into the wok to sear undisturbed. Once it has seared, it is stir fried for about a minute or two. You then add the broth and cilantro and stir fry until the chicken is cooked through. At this point, add the scallions and serve with some rice. Bam. Dinner. 

And if you are a geek like me, try to capture some steam with your camera before everyone digs in. 

This dish is so simple to make! How are the flavors so complex? 

I've agreed not to post the specifics of the recipe, so please consider picking up the book, Grace Young's James Beard Foundation Award winning cookbook Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge.  

If you'd like to wok along, check out the Wok Wednesdays site for more information. 

Potato Onion Rye Meteil

This Potato Onion Rye Bread is called a meteil because it has less than 50% rye flour in relation to wheat flour. The bread is sort of a cross between a New York deli onion rye and a soft potato bread.

Countdown to 2015: Ten of my Favorite Breads from 2014

I'm bread obsessed. I love the process, I love learning new techniques, and I love the rhythm of it. If I'm not baking bread, I'm probably reading a book about bread.

I tried counting the number of loaves I made in 2014, but lost count. Let's just say I made dozens of loaves, rolls, and pizzas.

These 10 breads represent different flavors, techniques, and challenges:

1. Couronne - This bread involves creating a starter from leftover dough from another bread, and plunging your elbow into the middle of the dough to create the hole in the middle. 
2. Pretzel Croissants - First you make croissant dough, and then you dip the croissants into a vat of soda water before baking them. 
3. Rosemary Sourdough Bread - This bread takes a couple of days to make, mostly idle time. When this bread is baking, your house smells amazing, and the resulting loaves will make you very happy.
4. Stirato - these are Italian baguettes. They are so easy to make, and require no kneading at all. 
5. Banh Mi Rolls - These are the rolls used to make those amazing Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwiches. 
6. Ciabatta with Biga - Biga is a preferment that you make in advance to develop flavor. This dough is totally made by hand and the resulting bread is full of those fabulous holes you strive for in ciabatta. 
7. Apple and Ham Pizza - This pizza dough can be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake your pie. 
8. Classic French Bread - I always struggle with baguettes. These turned out pretty well!
9. Strawberry Danish - These are made with croissant dough. You will want to eat them all.
10. White Flour Warm Spot Levain - This is called "Warm Spot Levain" because the starter is fed three times in a short period of time, and then allowed to ferment in an 85 degree environment. The resulting bread is super crusty with a soft and moist interior. 

This year, (or should I say last year?) Sarah of Fantastical Sharing of Recipes and Secret Recipe Club is hosting a round up some of the best recipes of 2014. The theme for today is "Pick your Poison," so of course I chose bread! Visit Sarah's blog to see what other bloggers have contributed to this Best of 2014 round up.