Week 9 - Mothers' Day Especial

Since it was Mothers' Day, Kitchen Mom got her choice for dinner tonight.  She asked for enchiladas, so we got to work; kitchen ninja style.

Full disclosure.  I'd never made enchiladas before.  I'd eaten a lot of them in the past, but I'd never actually taken the time to think through what goes into making them.  Breaking it down was easy.  3 simple ingredients: cheese, sauce, and tortillas.  We toyed with the idea of store-bought sauce, but that just didn't seem right so we set out to make our own enchilada sauce from scratch (with a can of El Paso in back up just in case!)

For body in the sauce we minced a quarter of an onion and sweated it down in some olive oil.  Wes smashed up a couple of cloves of garlic that we put through a garlic press and added as well.

Once that was cooked through, we added a couple of spoonfuls of flour and made a quick roux (I like thick sauce).  Once the flour looked cooked, we added a bunch of spices that sounded Mexican: cumin, red chili powder, onion powder, and salt).  Then one small can of tomato paste went into the saucier.  I grabbed a whisk and Wes began to add chicken broth to the roux.  We went until it was a half as tight as I wanted it to end up (about 3 cups if I had to guess; add another cup of broth if you like thinner sauce).  When everything was incorporated, we left to sauce to bubble away.

Next was the tortillas.  Some day I'm going to make my own, but not today.  We took a package of store-bought corn tortillas and cooked them in a small skillet with a little bit of canola oil.  Each tortilla cooked for about 2-3 minutes per side, just enough so they were pliable and not raw.  I used the tortilla going in next to blot the excess oil off the one coming out.  We did the whole dozen, but only 10 ended up fitting in the pan.

While I prepped the tortillas (Wes still isn't up to frying quite yet), Wes went out and picked some fresh cilantro.  He cleaned it himself and I helped him get a good chop on it.  He also grated a block of cheese (we mixed white and yellow cheddar).  All of that went into a bowl and we also added 1/4 of an onion, diced and left raw.

We set the oven to pre-heat at 350 degrees, but moved the shelf to the top because we're going to end it on broil.  While the oven heated up, we set up our prep line.  And this is where it got interesting and messy!

  This was full on teamwork at it's finest.  We started the pan with a thin layer of the sauce at the bottom.  I took the hot tortillas and dipped each one in the still bubbling sauce.  Tongs helped, but ultimately it took fingers.  As I laid each tortilla, Wes took a handful of the cheese mixture and filled the middle.  I rolled them up and slid them to the side.  All 10 fit in very tightly.  Then Wes covered the whole mess in even more cheese.  Definitely not for the lactose intolerant.

We filled the whole pan up and it went into the oven for 15 minutes.  Once everything was good and bubbly, I switch over to broil for 5 minutes to finish the top.  While we were waiting, we heated up some black beans and a bowlful of corn.

How did it turn out?  Well, the El Paso is still in the cupboard.  Wes ate THREE!!!  And beyond that, well this picture says it all...

Happy Mothers' Day from the Kitchen Ninja!