Is the masa harina mixed with just water and lard, and then pressed into the bottom of the baking pan?
In this recipe, it is just soaked with milk, then mixed into the other ingredients before baking. Despite the name, it doesn’t seem like a typical tamale pie - other recipes seem to layer the meat and cornmeal separately. But I’m not looking for authentic anything, and the result is pretty tasty per the posted recipe plus my tweaks, so I’m happy to mix it in.
Thanks!
Interesting concept, but one I’d question. To me a part of the joy of cooking involves playing with “recipes” and coming up with new versions.
Oh, I agree with it needs a touch more garlic, or some oregano would really pick this up. I was referring more to things like putting broccoli in Mac & cheese for example. I like both, but I don’t need them together.
I would eat that, though I’d probably skip the cabbage ( not a fan of it) and maybe add some brown sugar. If you sat it in front of me, though, I’d eat it with no complaint. It sounds really good.
My choice, based on my years of NM living:
Although I use hatch chiles (natch) or ripe, thick fleshed anaheims, not poblanos which tend to be bitter, rather than fruity. A little dusting of smoked paprika and cayenne peppers added to the milk/egg mixture is also a nice touch.
Top it with homemade fresh salsa and serve with warmed tortillas for the win.
deleted…don’t ask if it is just you rhetorically
I don’t see how hard it is to screw up casseroles. I mean meat, veggies, stock (wine if you’re feeling fancy, or any number of things if you are getting carried away: cream, coconut milk, etc.) Put it in the oven for a few hours. What can go wrong?
I mean you can use a cut of meat that tends to dry out (like skinless chicken breast or lean pork) or fail to put any seasoning in. But you don’t need to be Julia Child to end up with something pretty tasty.
Point though, most of us on the board are older, and have grown up learning to cook, or around people who cook.
Covid lockdowns showed that a ton of people just didn’t - having the time, space and money to learn to cook from scratch hasn’t been a given for quite some time.
Some of my co-workers during the lockdown, who were used to buying nothing but pre-made/partially pre-made food or going out had large issues with the learning curve, thinks we might take for granted.
For example, and back to casseroles, knowing to brown and drain your fattier cuts of meat, ground beef especially. One co-worker browned all the meat to make a hamburger-helper style casserole, but didn’t have any spices other than salt and pepper in the house, and didn’t (or did a poor job) of pouring off the grease and ended up with a bland, greasy casserole.
Not because they were young, or entitled (well, maybe a bit on the last) but because they’d never done it before.
I’m sure they got better as time went on, but most of them appeared to be very happy to go back to having instant / steam in bag options for most of their food.
You need to come here when DIL is cooking. Yes, yes it can be screwed up.
Drastically.
I have a memory of a certain spaghetti casserole started with uncooked pasta. Yeah, deep failure.
My daughter OTOH can throw stuff together with some innate skill.
It’s not 4 star dining, but pretty good.
My family all avoid eating my sister’s cooking. If she hosts a meal everyone offers to bring a dish so there will be something edible.
My sister substitutes ingredients she doesn’t have with very poor choices that for some reason she thinks will work. Like they’re the same color, or start with the same letter.
She totally lost her sense of taste when she had COVID, but it returned. I’d argue she never really had one.
I make a cassarole that many here would be horrified by.
Any canned pasta, preferably with the, “meatballs,” brown ground beef, with onions garlic, Italian style spices and a bit of parm. Add pasta and cook down a bit. Put in a cassarole dish cook at 350 for a few mi. take out, add lots of mozz, italian bread crumbs and more parm. You can add any sort of cheese. Or seasonings you think will work. Back in the oven ’ till top is brown bubbly, and melted. It’s not gourmet, but, it’s relatively cheap, easy, flexible, and you can make a lot or a little.
@Beckdawrek, i dislike my daughter’s tatertot casserole. It’s not something I’d feed the dogs. It’s just bland, and has the odd combo of cream of chicken soup and ground beef, and 'cause it’s my daughter no onion. In fact no seasonings.
‘Penny-circle soup’ aka a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle with hot dog slices was a rare and special treat for my toddler years birthdays and infrequent home-sick-from-school days. Sixty years later it still sounds pretty tempting on a dreary day.
Lemme get this straight: You mix Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs with your own ground beef?
And separately cooked pasta?
Maybe she meant Pasta sauce?Like Ragu.
Come to think of it the meatballs in the Chef Boyardee probably ain’t meat at all.
Yep, or not depends on what I have on hand/whats on sale when I buy it. Sometimes I throw canned ravioli in.
Nope just any canned pasta. It really isn’t bad. The pasta loses the mushyness, the spices kick up the flavor, and the ground beef sucks up extra liquid. I haven’t made it in a while. It’ll have to be really small if/when I do 'cause Hubster doesn’t like any pasta, and son and his girlfriend are vegatarian.
That actually sounds really good. Put enough mozzarella cheese on, and you can disguise anything!
After Dad died last year, my sister stuck around and decided to go through the pantry at my parents’ house. She found an OPEN can of breadcrumbs, dated 2008, that looked like they had just come off the factory line. Yeesht, that stuff probably wasn’t good to eat back then, either.
Seriously, cheese makes almost anything good … or at least edible. 