THE BEST MISTAKES…
Tamal Tejano
Last year was our first one at CPK Stadium where the KC Current (female soccer) plays. We have a taco stand there next to the supporters section and yes it gets loud - Let’s Go KC Baby chants and the beating drums shake our stand. We wanted to serve those foods that I crave when I go to a game: NACHOS! They were not going to be your typical stadium nachos. Our cheese was going to be old school, like the one your mom made at your school fairs, you know what I’m talking about? American cheese and shredded sharp cheddar slowly melting as you add softened tomatoes, jalapeños and onions. The totopos / chips made with our heirloom corn, pico de gallo salsa, barbacoa that had been cooking all day, cotija cheese, and to tie it all in pickled vegetables (nopales, chayotes, carrots, jalapeños). It is obnoxiously delicious.
At first it was hard to figure out our numbers, how many people would come to our stand? First we sold out before half time and my gosh was that embarrassing! Then next game we over prepared and that’s when we were left with a whole 8 qt container filled with extra cheese that had not even been warmed up. What to do with all these cheese? Our next game was not in another 2 weeks so it was going to be trash or more like we would be eating nachos at our homes until it was gone. Next day, I was working at the OP Farmers’ Market and was buying my meat from our favorite regenerative beef farm: Five Mile Farms. We were chatting about making what would be considered “trash” food but better, you know that taco crunchy bell ringing shop. I had also just returned from Austin, TX the previous week… it all clicked! I bought almost all his ground beef and when I got to Yoli… the Tamal Tejano was born.
We call it “Tejano”aka Texan style because let’s face it no one in Mexico would be making this…but it is lovely. For the filling, we put ground beef cooked with pico de gallo and nacho cheese. We make it thin and skinny… after steaming, it’s served with drizzled nacho cheese and a side of pickled vegetables. It was a hit! Now we make this tamal usually when summer is about to kick off and people pack them up for their bbq parties. They can be a meal or as a side.
I’m excited to share that the Tamal Tejano lives on… we’ll continue to make it and have it readily available at our retail shop as we ready in May for bbq’s and lake season. If you are not in KC, I got the next best thing…I’m actually teaching the class on how to make it! Join me with Milk Street on Thursday April 17 online. If you always wanted to make a killer nacho cheese and want to learn how to make tamales - this is the class for you. Use code MARISSA15 to get 15% off. Class link here.
Hope you get to try it or join me at my class… we do have a lot of things going on so I’ll share more on that next newsletter.
Upcoming events
April 5 - MEXTOUR - I get to flip the coin at the Female Mexican National Team game at CPK Stadium in Kansas City! Say what? Also, our stand will be slinging tacos and pozole.
April 6-8 – James Beard Foundation Chef Action Summit
April 12 - Hello NYC! We’ll be at Cherry Bombe Jubilee serving quesadillas and totopos.
April 19 – KC Current game & OP Farmers’ Market Opening Day