Friday, November 9, 2007

Cheese Enchiladas for My Mom

This dish is my Mom's favorite so I made it for her birthday dinner. My Grandmother used to make this for special occasions but now that she has almost retired from cooking I've taken over. :) There are a lot of steps involved but once you make it a few times it becomes really easy. I never have measured any of this so Ive tried to remember as best I could. Have fun!
Enchilada ingredients:

Shredded cheese- (I usually use monterry jack, but my Mom likes it with cheddar. You can use whatever cheese you likey.)
chili powder
salt
corn tortillas (extra thin are great for this)
chicken broth
2-3 tablespoons of flour
cooking oil
tomato, diced for topping
lettuce, shredded for topping
onion, diced for topping

Directions:

1. Fill a pan with cooking oil until it has covered the entire bottom. Heat until oil is very hot. Place corn tortilla in hot oil for about 10 seconds until it becomes soft. Remove and place on a plate that has paper towel. Repeat this step until all of your tortillas are done.

2. Reduce heat to Med. Using the same pan, leave around 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the flour and cook for a few minutes until the flour becomes brown.

3. Mix a palmful of chili powder and around 1 cup of water together in a bowl. Add salt to taste. Slowly mix this into the flour and whisk the lumps out. Add 1 cup of chicken stock. You'll need to adjust the mixture to your taste, adding more salt, water, stock, chili. Once you have the taste you want cook for around 10 minutes until it reduces and thickens a little.


4. Dip each tortilla into the sauce (on each side) until fully coated. Transfer to a large baking pan. Place cheese down the middle of each tortilla then roll it up. You'll want to place each rolled tortilla close to one another (believe me, its just easier) Repeat this process until each tortilla is done.

5. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas and top with as much cheese as your heart desires.

6. Bake at 350 for approximately 10 minutes then change over to the broiler until the cheese is bubbly. Top with tomatoes, onion and lettuce. Serve with rice and refried beans. Yummmm

Mexican Rice:
1 can tomato sauce
1 palmful cumin seed
2 garlic cloves
1 cup white rice
4 slices onion
1 cup water
1 cup chicken stock
salt to taste
2 tablespoons cooking oil

Heat oil in a frying pan. Once heated add onion and rice. Cook rice until brown. In a mortal & pestal grind cumin and garlic together. Add to the rice and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add tomato sauce and cook for an additional 3 minutes to let the flavors combine. Add water and chicken stock. At this point you'll want to add salt to taste. Cover and let simmer for approx 20 minutes or until all liquid has evaporated. Serves 4-6. Delish!

5 comments:

Terri said...

The only other person I have ever known to make enchilada sauce like that is my aunt. She got the recipe from a Mexican friend of hers right after she and my uncle got married and she's been making them just like you do ever since. It's been years since I've had her enchiladas and they look sooo good. I guess now that it has cooled down some, I am going to have to make them. Thanks for jogging such a great memory for me.

crystal said...

Oh my goodness, these are restaurant quality! yumyumyumyum. I wish I had enough energy to make them; maybe next week!

Candi said...

Oh my....these look great.

Pixie said...

OOoooooooooh enchiladas! Will definitely give these a go one day.

And glad I came across your blog; I'm also an American living in the UK!

Candi said...

I love that both of these things are made from things I typically have on hand--all I have to buy to have this tasty meal is corn tortillas! We LOVE this--thanks for posting it!