Enchiladas 3May09

Cinco de Mayo is only a few days away and in honor of the beloved Mexican holiday, I’ve got a great enchilada recipe for you. We had some leftover steak from steak and eggs this morning so I decided to make Vini some steak enchiladas and I made some spinach enchiladas for myself.

If I were in LA, I would have bought my enchilada sauce canned at my local Ralph’s but here in Sydney, I couldn’t even find dried chipotle chilies. So I had to make my own sauce from scratch, sans chipotle. It’s not as smokey without the chipotle but it was still fantastic tasting, so much so that I ate my entire dish!

I added several cloves of roasted garlic to the sauce which made all the difference. I would have made it spicier but Vini says I should practice making things a bit more mild for guests. So on a Maggie scale this would be a Mild but I guess on everyone else’s scale it’s probably at a Medium.

Now this recipe looks intimidating but it’s really not that bad, and it’s well worth it! Since I made two different types of enchiladas I guess I’ll post both ways to make em. The important part is the sauce anyway!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup vegetable stock (chicken stock for the meaty version)
1 can of whole peeled tomatoes
1 small container of tomato paste (140g size)
1 medium yellow onion - diced
2 stalks of green onion - chopped
1 red bell pepper or poblano pepper if you can get em
4 red chilies - the longer kind
1 whole garlic head
3 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2-3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
14 corn tortillas
2 cups of Monterey Jack cheese or Cheddar or Colby

Options for fillings:
1 400g steak flank or skirt or even rump works  OR
1 cup of cooked, drained and chopped spinach  OR
1 yellow onion cut into slices
1 red or green bell pepper

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Step 1: Some prep!
Wrap the whole garlic head with foil, sealing all the edges but leaving some air in there so it can cool. Place it in the middle of the oven for the entire time you’re prepping everything else, umm about 30 - 40 minutes.

Now on a gas burner, place the red bell pepper on the flame directly and rotate as each side blackens. Once each side is blackened, take the pepper off and put it in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap so it steams it.

Step 2: Simmer the sauce!
In a medium size pot, bring the stock and water to a simmer. Cut off the stems of the 4 red chilies and then split it down the middle and take out the seeds. You could keep some in there if you want to bring up the heat more. Toss those in the stock and let that simmer until the chilies are soft, they’ll get flimsy.

While that simmers away, in a small saucepan, heat up about 2 - 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Toss in the diced onions, 3 cloves of chopped fresh garlic cloves, chopped green onion and let that all sweat for about 5 minutes. Remember that bowl with the blackened pepper? Now take it out, peel off the black parts, cut off the stem and take out the seeds. Dice that pepper up and add it to the onions!

Now add in the teaspoon of cumin and chili powder. Mix and let that cook away for another 2 minutes. Now add that whole thing into the simmering pot of stock and peppers. Add in a small container of tomato paste and can of whole peel tomatoes, crushing them in your hands and you put them in. Bring that whole mixture to a simmer for about 10 minutes while you work on the next step.

Step 3: Steak or veggies!
What would you like? Steak or veggies or spinach, take your pick!
Steak: Marinate with quick drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, splash of Worcester sauce, a pinch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. On a hot cast iron pan, cook the steak on each side for about 3-4 minutes - depending on how you like it done. Once ready, take it off the pan to rest for a few minutes and then slice the steak into slivers like fajitas and set a side.

Veggies: Slice the red or green bell pepper and onion into slivers. On a hot cast iron pan, throw those slivers on there and let them cook! Once they’re soft, set a side and you’re ready to go.

Spinach: In a small saucepan wilt about 4 handfuls of spinach. Drain and ring out as much of the water as possible. Roughly chop the spinach up and set aside.

Step 4: Finish the sauce!
Okay now take that garlic that’s been in the oven and carefully squeeze out about 3 or 4 cloves of garlic into the sauce. Take that pot of sauce and carefully transfer into a blender in several turns and puree into smooth. Transfer back to the pot and put it over a low low low heat to keep warm.

Step 5: Assemble!
Okay this is the best part. Cover the tortillas with a damp towel and heat them up for a minute in the microwave. If you don’t have a microwave, heat em up on a pan a few at a time and keep em in a towel to keep them warm. Make sure you have your grated cheese handy as well! In a baking dish, cover the bottom with a thin layer of the sauce. Take one tortilla and put your filling of choice, sprinkle with about a tablespoon or two of cheese. Roll and place in the baking pan. Repeat to fill the dish and scoop over some of the sauce, just enough to coat the top of the tortillas but do not pour it in to fill to the top, we’re not making lasagna here. Sprinkle with some cheese on top. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro, black olives and or sour cream. Muy delicioso!

Whew! That was a lot to write down but my mouth is watering just thinking about it. The sauce can be used for wet burritos later in the week or water it down a little and you’ve got a great start to Mexican rice! Add in some margaritas and you’ve got yourself a Cinco de Mayo fiesta

**UPDATE** So I forgot to include when you put the whole tomatoes in Thanks Sara for letting me know! I’ve updated the recipe now, you put it in when you put the tomato paste. I’ve had some great feedback on this dish, hope you’re all enjoying it!

Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: cheese, cooking, food, meat, Mexican, recipe, recipes, spinach, vegetarian

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under baking, food, mmmm, recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.