Hey Messicans!

[livius drusus]

Damn, CC, I hope Pioneer Woman is paying you because you are her greatest promoter. I won't ban you (THIS TIME), but I'd like to get input from the Messicansperts here before I travel further afield.

vm, enchilada sauce isn't even salsa. Stop trying to trick me.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I ran the chicken ones by a girlfriend (who is Messican) and she labelled it "Tex-mex. Not Mexican."

Ooh, what you need is a chile relleno - I don't know how easy it is to make them at home, though; there's a good Mexican place near my parents' house. I haven't had one in aaages, and damn do I want one.

[Qingdai]

My enchilada sauce (not carefully measured at all), boil some water (in a pan big enough to put your tortillas in, corn tortillas). Stir in chile powder (heaping tablespoon or so), cumin (heaping tablespoon or so), then whisk in flour to thicken slightly (maybe a tablespoon). Let cool a bit, then put in tortillas to soften slightly.
Fill tortillas with a layer of meat or rice and beans, then some onions and cheese. Roll those suckers up. Keep going until pan is full of little enchiladas. Pour remainder of sauce over enchiladas, add cheese on top, then put in the oven you should have pre-heated to about 350º and let cook until the onions are done (an hour or so).

Highly scientific.
You can add garlic powder or onion powder to the enchilada sauce if you want.
I just use cheddar now, because I'm cheap, but if you have a nice goat cheese, cheddar or jack, that's even more delicious IMO.

The hardest part is the tortilla softening, too hot and the crumble in the sauce (just scoop out), not in long enough and they crack when you go to fill them.

[viscousmemories]

I looked at some canned enchilada sauce at the co-op today and almost took a picture of the ingredients to send to you, but I figured it wasn't anything you couldn't google. Especially since the spices used were listed as "spices".

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

vm, enchilada sauce isn't even salsa. Stop trying to trick me.

Okay, first of all, since "salsa" is the Spanish word for "sauce" you are all kinds of wrong.

Secondly, I'm not a real Mexican, but I know several and have cooked with them, so here you go. If you're not going to make your own enchilada sauce, buy El Pato (the duck) if you can find it. It's the real authentic shit that Mexicans, at least the ones I know, use.

Enchilada Sauce - El Pato Red Chile Enchilada Sauce 28 oz.

Use red for beef or cheese, green for chicken.

Or mole. MOLE MOLE MOLE MOLE!

[livius drusus]

Salsa is the Italian word for sauce too, but in English salsa means something specific AND YOU KNOW IT SO STOP TRYING TO TRICK ME.

I'll make my own sauce, at least at first, but El Pato is now officially bookmarked in case of failure.

[Demimonde]

This is my quick beef enchilada recipe. It is pretty similar to Q's but I put it together a little differently.

I lightly brown my beef with a little onion or garlic or whatever I have in a skillet on medium high heat and then that aside to drain in a mesh colander over a bowl to catch the good stuff.

Then pour a puddle of corn oil the size of your hand into a skillet on medium, I guess it would be about a third of a cup but I am not sure I never measure it. Add two tablespoons of flour and cook for a minute. Add a quarter cup of chili powder and cook for another minute.

Add two and a half cups of water and a small can of tomato paste. Stir to combine then add a teaspoon each of dried oregano and cumin. Also a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened.

Separate the drippings from the grease you've collected using a fancy gravy separator or do what I do. I use a metal bowl for the collection of the drippings and pop it in the freezer for a couple of minutes while the sauce is cooking and then skim off the cooled fat. Add the beef back to the drippings and add some of the sauce to the beef, just enough to coat, and check the flavor.

Then spoon that mixture into fresh corn tortillas. If you don't have access to fresh tortillas, get the store kind and refresh them. Take the number you need and place them in a damp tea towel, microwave for one minute or so depending on your microwave. Do this just before you fill them up or they can get rubbery after they cool. Not the traditional way to do it, but the best in my experience. Roll up the filled enchiladas so that they are about an inch wide slightly flattened, and place them in a lightly oiled baking dish.

Pour the rest of the sauce over the top, sprinkle with cheese, and bake until melty and bubbly.

[livius drusus]

That sounds great to me. While I'm being all hardcore, why not make my own corn tortillas? It's just masa and water, no? I've never made them with my own two hands, but my BFF has in my presence, and I've made chapati plenty of times thanks to my mom's afore-mentioned Pakistani cooking phase. It can't be all that different.

[Demimonde]

If anyone could do it, that would be you liv! I have never tried, never needed to, but I bet it would be fairly simple to do with a little practice and the right gear. I have never even seen them made in a home kitchen.

I say go for it!

Also, [thanks] for reminding me about an excellent, inspiring essay by Sandra Cisneros which I haven't read in forever. It barely relates except as the touchstone for her title and theme. Love it though, and I know you enjoy food writers:

Straw Into Gold

[Dingfod]

Get yourself a grinding stone and grind your own corn while you're at it.

[livius drusus]

Well, I make bread and pizza crusts fairly often and it hardly rises to the level of milling your own grain. People have been making unleavened bread on hot stones in the sun for millennia. Why? Because it's easy. Hella easier than baking bread which requires kneading, time and an oven.

[lisarea]

For some reason, I had this idea that there was something ridiculously difficult about making corn tortillas, like it was not unlike cooking meth or something.

Somebody please figure out why I thought that.

[Demimonde]

Because Big Tortilla wants your money, lisa.

[Dingfod]

Little tortilla quiero su dinero tambien.

[Demimonde]

In all seriousness, though, preparing corn into flour fit for human consumption is a really complicated process that is somewhat Breaking Bad levels of weirdness, I don't know how people ever figured it out.

To make hominy, field corn (maize) is dried and then treated in a solution of slaked lime (hydrated mineral lime) or ash, and water. This loosens the hulls from the kernels and softens the corn. In addition, the lime reacts with the corn so that the nutrient niacin can be assimilated by the digestive tract.[2] The soaked maize is then washed, and then ground into masa. When fresh masa is dried and powdered, that becomes masa seca or masa harina.

Wiki

Without the lime process, populations subsisting on corn would all die of malnutrition or something. At least that is what I was taught in school.

The tortilla part is after all that work has been done though.

[Demimonde]

double post

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by Demimonde

In all seriousness, though, preparing corn into flour fit for human consumption is a really complicated process that is somewhat Breaking Bad levels of weirdness, I don't know how people ever figured it out.

And bingo. That right there is it.

I knew I could count on someone here to forensically deconstruct my sloppy brain.

[mulebear]

Making Tortillas, Huaraches, and Tamales are not that difficult. Masa... Water... Mix... Form. There ya' go.

For a special treat... Make Papusas with Curtido. Don't forget the Cilantro.

[viscousmemories]

When I lived in Chicago some guy used to come to the bar where I hung out, selling tamales from a little cooler. I shudder to think about what I must've looked like hunched over the bar smashing those things into my mouth after I'd had way too much beer, but I did it regularly.

[Sock Puppet]

I like Demi's recipe fo sho, and I'm gonna try it myself (or modify a bit and do a chile colorado version). However, we definitely do the store-bought tortillas the Messican way, by warming them on a comal (flat skillet). Not enough to harden them , but enough to give them a more "done" sort of taste while still remaining pliable enough to get the stuff in them (you still soak them in the sauce before stuffing). In fact, if you end up using store boughten tortillas, get the ones that are still sort of doughy -- so you actually "cook" them yourself right before using.

Also, I don't know whether I mentioned this before, but Messican Cotija cheese makes everything better. Srzly. It's an extremely dry, white cheese that you grate into a fine powder and sprinkle on top. Note that for stuff like enchiladas, this is in addition to the gooey cheese you use inside and out, not a replacement. It just adds a pungent, salty cheesiness to the flavor. Add after removing from the oven, right before serving.

[livius drusus]

What do you recommend for the gooey cheese, Sack?

Demi, do you soak your refreshed torts in the sauce before stuffing? I've seen people do that on the teevee.

[Demimonde]

You know, I have never tried it. Since I put sauce on the inside and bake them in it, it always seemed like it would add a lot of messiness to the process.

[Sock Puppet]

Delicious messiness, dammit! Delicious. Messiness. Yes, it'll get your hands all gunky, and some of your torts will tear before you get them rolled up, but I find that if I don't soak them, the enchiladas turn out too dry and crunchy on the edges. (Okay, mebbe the microwave thing fixes that, I dunno.) Enchiladas that aren't thoroughly soft are an abject failure and will make me feel like I've wasted my time making them. Time that I will NEVER GET BACK.

Really, for the gooey cheese, any of your fave white cheeses will do. I go with a mozzerella/jack combo, roughly 50/50. The mozz makes it meltier and the jack sharpens it up.

[Demimonde]

See, that is the thing, I don't trust myself. I would totally fill up on yummy saucy tortillas and the enchiladas would never get made!

As it is, taco night usually results in us eating in the kitchen over the skillet/sink and they never even get to touch a plate, poor delicious things.

If the tortillas aren't still soft and warm from the tortilleria, the microwave thing really does wonders. It lightly steams them so that they are totally soft and pliable and ready to soak up the sauce.

I was at a loss as to what kind of cheese to recommend. I just point to the block labeled "Quesadilla Queso" in the case. I doubt that is it's official name though. I do know it comes from Oaxaca, because that is my friend's hometown and she grilled the guy once on it and was tickled after that.

ETA: Oooo! I found a pretty good article on Mexican cheeses that doesn't suck. Though I am not sure about their calling them "Hispanic cheeses." I thought that adjective referred only to people, not things. That is kind of a reverse oriental dilemma. Or perhaps I am making that up.

[Demimonde]

double post.