So I decided to make enchiladas today. The norm at my home
is the cheese filled ones. But the filling can be whatever you want. Perhaps
worms & eyeballs! Just a suggestion
As I made my last few enchiladas my phone rang. The
person ringing was my husband and our conversation is as follows:
Me: Hello!
Vic: Hello, what you doing?
Me: Oh you know cooking up a
storm, you?
Vic: oh nothing (he said it
sarcastically, he is at work)
Me: are you almost coming home?
Vic: No I’m calling to tell you
that I’m not coming home anymore! (More sarcasm)
Me: Well that’s too bad I’m
making enchiladas. Guess I will have to eat them all. (my turn)
Vic: Mmmm….well I guess I will
come home one more time
So enchiladas have officially
saved my marriage! The secret to saving many marriages:
For the sauce:
8-10 Chile Guajillo
4-6 Chile de Arbol-To make sauce spicier use more of these.
The small chiles.
1 bay leaf
2 whole cloves
1 dash of black pepper, oregano and like a mini dash (perhaps
even less than that) of cinnamon (Grandma Isidra’s secret)
¾ tbsp of salt
2 tbsp of flour
The chiles are the following:
First take stem off chiles and remove seeds. Rinse chiles
and then put in stainless steel bowl and add water till it covers the chiles
and bring water to a boil. Cook for about 20 minutes. Warning: wash hands real
good after handling chiles. Or don’t listen to me and rub your eyes, pick your
noise, and handle your baby.
Now will be a good time to heat your comal or griddle if you
lack a comal(above). Sorry my lighting sucks.
After chiles are tender put in blender along with the water
cooked in. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend. After chiles and other
ingredients are well blended pour mixture over a food strainer basket into a
deep pan. The pan should at least be large enough to fit a tortilla in. Put pan
over heat at low temperature to heat sauce. Taste to ensure no more salt is
needed. More salt can be added if so desired.
Okay let sauce cook. In a different pan put about ¾ cup of
oil over heat too. You will use this to fry your tortilla. The comal is used to
heat the tortilla too but this method is used to make the tortilla soft and
pliable before inserting in oil.
So whiles we wait for the sauce and oil to heat up….Its
cheese time or filling time if you are not using cheese. I use two kinds of
cheese. I use a crumbly kind Queso Fresco(left) and a melting kind Queso
Quesadilla(right).
If you don’t want to
use these kinds of cheeses I bet mozzarella or coby jack will work. I have to
crumble the Queso Fresco and I purchased the shredded kind for the other. Mix
the cheese.
Now to your enchilada station: Again lighting sucks....
Sauce and oil are almost hot!!!
So put tortilla
( I use tortillas blancas meaning white
corn tortillas) on comal to heat up slightly. Next put tortilla in oil and
flip the tortilla to cook other side. Tortilla may bubble a little. Just lift using
your fingers NO NOT your fingers use tongs and let excess oil drain.
Then
insert tortilla into sauce and cover tortilla in sauce. Lift tortilla and place
on plate and put filling and roll.
Oh my gosh this is exhausting…. But worth it! Repeat the
above tortillas steps. I transform a few tortillas into enchiladas as I go to
monitor my filling usage. I make enchiladas until I run out of filling or
sauce.
And…..drum roll please!
I made 16 enchiladas with this recipe and had some left over sauce that I can use to marinate some pork or beef at a later time. ENJOY!