Tamale Pie

This is a great recipe that comes from a friend of mine who brought it to a pot luck at our place a month or so ago.  The flavors went really well together and I had to try it.  I made it for Rosie's Macedonian class, which came to our place last Friday for dinner.  I served it with Mexican rice, which was a pretty good compliment. 

My change to the recipe was to make it vegetarian.  It's excellent with shredded, seasoned chicken, but a nice alternate is braised artichoke hearts, tossed with a little red chile sauce. It was a great meal (one we're still enjoying!).  Otherwise, I stayed pretty faithful to the recipe.

Tamale Pie
Ingredients:
2 cups dry polenta
3 cups cheese (I used monterey jack) 
1 cup canned corn, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1 can green chiles, drained
2 cans artichoke hearts, drained
5 T. butter 
1/4 cup red chile sauce for artichokes

Directions:

Over medium heat, saute artichokes in 2 T. of butter until brown.  You can break them up a little as they cook.  Once cooked well through, toss in about 1/4 of sauce.
Bring 6 cups water to a boil.  Add polenta, decrease heat, and stir frequently for about 15 minutes. 
Remove polenta from heat.  Add the butter, beans, corn, chiles and 1 cup of the cheese.  Stir until well-mixed.
Scrape half of the mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and smooth out.  Add artichokes; spread evenly.  Scrape the remaining mixture over the top of artichokes and smooth out.  Refrigerate for at least 4 hours until firm.
After chilling, add the remaining cheese to the top and bake at 450 until the cheese is bubbly, about 15 minutes. 

Enjoy!