Enchiladas Rojas

The title for this post, “Enchiladas Rojas”, may technically be wrong but I liked it more than “Wet Burrito”. Basically I made meat wrapped in a four tortilla baked with a red chilli sauce smothered with cheese and sour cream.

This will probably be the last Mexican inspired dish I make for a while because it came awfully close to becoming a Fail. My cavalier attitude towards cooking frequently gets me into trouble in the kitchen. I have trouble with simple things like frying an egg, pouring anything from one container to another, and my true Achilles heel is the quantity of spicy things I add to dishes. I love hot food but prefer flavour over ass melting heat.

I barley reigned myself in before this meal was a write-off but the collateral damage ended up being Jess’s food was on the dry side due to the limited amount of sauce I used on hers. This made 10 enchiladas with extra red sauce.

There really is three parts to Enchiladas:

1. Tortillas
2. Red Chilli Sauce
3. Filling

1. See my Tortilla post for easy Homemade Tortillas or buy some

 

2. Red Chilli Sauce

Ingredients:

-          2 tbs Butter

-          2 tbs Flour

-          5 tsp chilli powder

-          2 tsp cumin

-          2 cloves garlic

-          1 can tomato paste

-          1 can tomato puree

-          3 cups water

Directions:

Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add the flour browning it into a roux. Add the chopped garlic, chilli powder and cumin. Be careful with the amount of chilli powder! This was my downfall. Stir in the tomato paste and puree. Continue to stir and slowly add the water. Bring to a boil then turn down the heat and let it simmer until it is the thickness you are looking for. I had to dump some of mine out and water it down because the chilli was so hot my mouth was burning off so it ended up being thinner than I planned.

3. Filling

Ingredients:

-          1 package Beef mince

-          Half a fresh Jalapeno

-          Sliced black olives

-          Some kind of  grated Cheese 2 to 3 cups… maybe more if you like cheese

-          1 tsp chilli powder

-          1 tsp cumin

-          2 Green onions

Directions:

Brown the meat. Throw in the spices, olives, jalapeno and onion. Cook until the veggies soften a bit. Take the mixture off the heat and let it cool until you are ready to stuff the enchiladas. Mix the cheese with the filling.

You can get the sauce simmering before or after you make the filling. It will take 45 min or longer to simmer the sauce down. When you are all ready to go, pour enough sauce in a non-stick tray to cover the bottom. Put a handful of the filling in a tortilla shell and roll up. If you want them to be really juicy you can put some sauce in each or dunk the shells into the sauce before filling. When the tray is filled pour some sauce over the top of the enchilada. Sprinkle some cheese over top and bake in the oven until they are heated through and the cheese is bubbling on top. Serve with some sour cream and fresh jalapeno.