Enchiladas...

all the things the ‘celebrity’ chefs don’t want you to know

Enchiladas are probably the one Mexican dish that Americans are most familiar with. Even so, I have never bothered giving out a recipe because I rather naively - I guess – assumed that absolutely everyone knew how to make an Enchilada. My mistake! It’s the very slowest time of year down here so I’ve been watching even more TV than usual. In the past week or so I have seen three self-proclaimed celebrity chefs demonstrating how to make this simple dish. Not one of these morons has the faintest idea what they are talking about. If you paid any attention to them and wanted to make a simple enchilada you would need a ricer, dicer, mandolin, a stove, and induction oven, a food processor, a two hundred dollar bottle of Balsamic vinegar, three kinds of expensive, imported olive oil, oven proof casseroles, a spice grinder, mail order chiles from some food Nazi in New Mexico, an apple-wood smoker, an Italian marble counter top and a whole day to prepare them. BULLSHIT!! If you have a heat source, a frying pan with a lid, a sharp knife and a flat spot in your kitchen you are good to go.

I’m right and everybody else is wrong!!….

I saw all those morons on TV claim that enchiladas are made in the oven – a casserole so to speak. A couple of highly respected cook-book authors (Rick Bayless and Diana Kennedy) say the same thing. Even all the recipes on the web tell you to cook your enchiladas in the oven. Heck with them. I’m a majority of one and I’m stickin’ to my guns. I’ve eaten enchiladas in homes and restaurants all over Mexico, and enchiladas are a stove-top dish. Hell, Mexicans have been making enchiladas since before there were ovens. The reason they’re better done stove-top is that enchiladas are, almost by definition, already cooked. So if you put an already cooked tortilla in a 350 degree oven the part of the tortilla that is not covered with liquid will get tough and leathery and the part that is covered with liquid will probably lose all texture and turn to mush. So you can follow their directions and come up with something tasty, but please, call it enchilada pie or casserole. You wanna make a real enchilada – read on.

First of all, everything in an enchilada is already cooked. So all you’re doing is heating it up or melting the cheese. If you tried to make an enchilada with raw beef or chicken or even raw vegetables, the tortilla would be destroyed way before the middle was cooked. Here’s how to make an enchilada MY way.

A rildil (real-deal) cheese enchilada

Parts list

Corn tortillas………….one tortilla for each enchilada

Cheese…………grated or crumbled. The choice of cheese is up to you. There is virtually no yellow cheese in Mexico, but I personally like cheddar enchiladas so feel free. I also make a vegetable stir-fry enchilada using Jarlsberg cheese. Most Mexicans use a Oaxacan cheese, queso panela (a fresh cheese similar to ricotta) or a Mexican gouda. At the restaurant I use imported Monterrey Jack because it’s familiar to most tourists but at home I use Mexican cheese. It’s important to remember to use a modest amount of cheese, otherwise it’s like trying to eat bubble gum. I know I don’t want to eat a big glob of molten chewy cheese.

Enchilada sauce………I guess I should have given you a recipe for enchilada sauce first, but I didn’t. A red sauce is most traditional for cheese enchiladas and since almost all Mexican restaurants and most home cooks use a canned sauce and most of the canned sauces are pretty good – that’s what we’re gonna do too. I use a Ranchero salsa at the restaurant. If you want a recipe for homemade salsa, just email me a request and I’ll oblige. Anyway get a can or two of red enchilada salsa (‘Herdez’ and ‘Old El Paso’ are two brands that I seem to remember as being pretty good).

Chopped Cilantro……….for garnish

Putting it all together

First you have to soften the tortilla so it can be folded without falling apart.

Get some oil hot (but not smoking hot) in a frying pan. Most Mexican home cooks use lard (which probably tastes the best) but you can use any neutral tasting cooking oil- corn, safflower, etc. I don’t recommend olive oil. Place a tortilla flat in the hot oil for a few seconds then turn it over for a few more seconds. It should be really limp – set it on a paper towel or paper bag on a plate. (to absorb some of the excess oil). Then keep repeating the process until you have a pile of tortillas sufficient for the number of enchiladas you want. Put the grated cheese in the middle of a tortilla an fold the bottom up and the top down so you have a tube full of cheese. Set it aside – seam side down, so it doesn’t unfold, and make the next one. When you have enough set them in a frying pan also seam side down. Pour the salsa over the enchiladas and sprinkle with some grated cheese. Go easy, you already have a lot of cheese inside so remember the cheese on top is just for appearance’s sake –we’re not makin’ pizza here. Turn on the stove –low-medium. Everything is already cooked, we’re just heating the salsa and melting the cheese. Put a lid on it and when the cheese is melted and the salsa is hot sprinkle some chopped cilantro on top –Bingo, enchiladas!!

Another real simple one is a traditional breakfast enchilada. Fill the tortilla with eggs scrambled with chopped ham or bacon and a little cheese then proceed as above. You can make quick tasty enchiladas from almost any leftovers and you don’t have to use the stupid oven.

Let me know how it turns out.

Spencer