Lou Anne's Tamale Pie: Yeild: 8 Servings Estimated Cost Per Serving: $0.53
Lou Anne's Tamale Pie: Yeild: 8 Servings Estimated Cost Per Serving: $0.53
Yeild: 8 servings
Estimated Cost Per Serving: $0.53
2/9/2009
This is an easy casserole—and very good. The topping is a little surprising. We expected a more cornbread-like
topping but with the cheese and all the eggs, this is much richer.
Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
2 large eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter melted
1 cup grated cheddar or Monterey jack cheese
Directions
1. Brown the ground beef. Add the onion and garlic and continue cooking until almost done.
2. Add the tomatoes, tomato juice, corn, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Mix and simmer for ten
minutes. Pour into an 8 1/2 x 13-inch baking pan.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. Make the cornmeal topping by mixing the cornmeal, eggs, evaporated milk, and melted butter
together in a bowl. Spread the topping over the hot filling. Sprinkle with the grated cheese. Bake
for 30 to 35 minutes.
1 1/2 teaspoons sauce from a can of adobo sauce (without seeds or pieces)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Cover and let rest in the refrigerator for at least one-half hour.
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons flour
1 pound tilapia
12 corn tortillas
Directions
1. Mix the cabbage, cilantro, grated carrot, and green onions together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. In a shallow dish, mix the cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, and flour together. Dredge the fish in
the flour mixture. Fry in a small amount of oil until golden brown.
3. While the fish is frying, heat the tortillas, six at a time, wrapped in paper towels in the microwave.
Heat for one to two minutes at high.
To assemble:
Put two tortillas on each plate. Crumble the fish and divide it between the tortillas. Top with the cabbage salad
mixture and then the adobo chipotle sauce. Garnish with limes. Serve immediately.
This salad serves six as a side salad or two as a main dish salad.
Ingredients
2 cups cooked shredded chicken or chicken breast cut up into small cubes
3/4 cup homemade taco sauce
1/2 head of iceberg lettuce, shredded
6 small tortillas or two large tortillas
1 14-ounce can of cooked black beans, well drained
1/2 cup diced red onions
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey jack cheese
12 pitted black olives
1 cup homemade salsa
Directions
1. Bake the tortillas in tortilla bakers, the shape of bowls, according to the manufacturer’s
instructions. Let them cool.
Lay a bed of lettuce in the bottom of each tortilla bowl. Starting with the chicken, layer chicken, beans, red onions,
and tomatoes on the lettuce. Top with a dollop of sour cream. Sprinkle with cheese. Slice the olives and scatter
them on the salad. Top with homemade salsa.
We liked this sauce a little thicker so thickened it with a slurry made with one tablespoon of cornstarch. Simply mix
the cornstarch with a bit of water to make a paste, thin it down till it is the consistency of a thick slurry, and add it to
the sauce for the last few minutes of cooking. Be sure to stir the sauce well as you add your slurry.
Ingredients
Directions
1. Sauté the onion. Add the garlic and continue to cook for a few minutes.
2. Add the puree and spices and cook, simmering, for 8 to 10 minutes or until reduced. Add the
chicken stock and cook for another ten minutes. Salt and pepper as needed.
Ingredients
Directions
1. Mix all ingredients and salt to taste. Refrigerate leftovers. Makes about two cups.
2. Rather than chopping and seeding, this salsa can be made with a victorio strainer.
beef (we use sirloin but skirt steak or even round will do), chicken breasts, or shrimp
flour tortillas
sweet onions
green peppers
southwest seasoning or your favorite table sauce
limes
avocados
sour cream
Step 1: Prepare the vegetables. Cut the peppers into thin strips and onions into thin slices. You can add a poblano
or anaheim pepper if you like; they’ll add a little more heat. Set aside.
Step 2: Prepare the meat. Fajita lovers argue about whether the meat should be cut before or after cooking. We cut
the meat across the grain into strips before cooking so that we can cook the meat with the vegetables.
You can season the meat with salt and pepper, southwest seasoning, or table sauce. You can cook the meat in a
simmer sauce. Seasoning is a matter of preference.
Step 3: Make the guacamole. Making guacamole can be as simple as mashing ripe avocado and mixing it with sour
cream. To the mixture, you can add garlic, chilies, lime juice, and/or cilantro. We’ve included a recipe.
Step 4: Cook the meat and vegetables. Stir fry the meat and vegetables together until done. Squeeze a lime or two
over the meat and vegetables for added flavor.
Step 5: Heat the tortillas. Place the tortillas on paper towels and warm them in the microwave. Warming makes the
tortillas more flexible and easier to wrap.
Step 6: Serve the fajitas. Let your guests or family members build their own fajitas. Serve the tortillas in a tortilla
keeper and the meat and vegetables on a hot platter. As condiments, serve guacamole, sour cream, and salsa.
Your guests will place meat and vegetables on the tortillas and top the filling with condiments and then wrap the
tortillas around the fillings.
This recipe is very easy and very good. Season them as you wish.
Cooking times will vary with the dish you use and your microwave.
For seasoning, you can use a spice blend such as Old Yellowstone
Seasonings or South of the Border Mexican and Taco Seasoning. You
can also use table or simmer sauces.
Ingredients
1. Place chicken strips, bell pepper, and onion slices into a shallow microwave-safe baking dish. Toss to
combine.
2. Add fajita seasoning of your choice and salt and pepper to taste. Stir the chicken mixture to distribute the
seasoning evenly.
3. Place the dish in the microwave oven. Cover with a lid or waxed paper and cook the chicken on high for two
minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and stir to redistribute the chicken so it will be evenly cooked;
then place the dish in the microwave again for another two minutes. (Chicken should reach a temperature of
170 degrees to be safely cooked.)
4. Cover 2 flour tortillas with a paper towel and heat them for 30 seconds on high in the microwave.
5. Place the chicken in the center of the tortilla. Before rolling the tortilla, top with guacamole, salsa, and sour
cream or other condiments.
This is a basic recipe that works well. You can vary the amounts of steak
or chicken and the vegetables. You’ll find a choice of seasonings
Ingredients
Directions
Notes
About the seasoning: You can use dry seasonings or a sauce. Taco seasoning works well. Our South of the
Border Mexican and Taco Seasoning is a great choice. We like a lot of seasoning on our meat for fajitas and use
about a tablespoon. You can also use the fajita seasoning recipe below.
Our Old Yellowstone Seasonings are great for fajitas.
You can also make great fajitas with a table or pan sauce. We’ve been making fajitas with our new simmer pan
sauces and loving them. We’ve cooked the chicken or beef in the sauce but mostly, haven’t bothered. We’ve just
used the sauce as table sauce, pouring some on the filling before wrapping the tortilla.
Both the Mojito sauce and chimi sauce have lime juice and really flavor the meat. Mexican sauce is a red sauce
more like a taco sauce and is medium-mild in heat.
About the meat: Instead of cooking the meat in strips, you can cook the steak or chicken breast in one piece and
cut the meat into strips after cooking. This is preferable if you are coking the meat on the grill.
This recipe calls for cooking the vegetables and the meat together. The result is steak that is well done depending on
how thickly you slice the meat. If you prefer your meat less cooked than this, either cut the strips thicker or partially
cook the vegetables before adding the steak. Chicken should always be well cooked.
Fajita Seasoning
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Guacamole
Combine all the ingredients. Place the guacamole in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
Directions
1. Brown the sirloin strips in a heavy frying pan. Add the peppers and onions. Stir fry for a couple minutes. Add the
dressing and lime juice and simmer until the meat is cooked and the liquid is reduced.
2. Spoon the filling into the warm tortillas. Add the optional salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. Serve hot.
Baker’s note: The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of lime juice. We doubled that and it was just right for us.
Directions
1. In a heavy frying pan, heat the oil and sauté the onion and garlic. Brown the rice by stirring it in the hot pan until it
just starts to brown.
2. Immediately add the chicken broth, tomatoes, and taco seasoning. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat and
simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the rice is cooked. Serve hot.
Old-Fashioned Limeade
There is not much that is more refreshing than fresh limeade. It’s a
simple mixture of limes, sugar, and water.
Ingredients
Directions
In a large pitcher, dissolve the sugar in the hot water. Add the lime juice and zest. Stir in the cold water. Add ice to
chill before serving.
Note: Kay in our test kitchen had some leftover blueberry juice. She added it to some limeade for a blueberry
limeade. It was outstanding
Directions
1. Mix the apple pie filling and nuts together. Pile several spoons full of filling on to the center of a tortilla. Fold the
sides over, then the bottom up and tuck it under the filling. Turn the tortilla over from top to bottom so that the bottom
is now on the side. Brush a little water on the top flap to hold it in place and fold it down.
2. Heat the oil to about 375 degrees. Deep fry the empanadas until just browned. Drain on paper towels and then roll
in the cinnamon mix. Serve hot.