I made enchiladas last night with an excellent Corn and Black Bean salad, which is really a corn and black bean pico de gallo. I guess it's safe to correct myself and say, I cooked all day yesterday. Had I bought enchilada sauce as well as tortillas, it would have been super fast and easy. But nooooooooo! I had to be cheap and make my own from scratch, well for the most part.
The first thing I did is research a ton of recipes for various things, such as how to make enchiladas, enchilada sauce, tortillas and so forth. I wanted to go the authentic route, but true to my form I found one recipe that sounded temptingly delicious so I took an idea from it and thus effectively ruined my authentic experience. *le sigh*
The tortillas, I'm proud to say, were indeed authentic.... at least, that is, to Northern Mexico after the Europeans arrived. Yikes, I guess I blew that too, kind of.
The thing is, I'm just not a big corn fan. I know, I know, I should be! I just am not. I don't hate it, I just don't love it for whatever reason. Corn tortillas just aren't that great for me. I won't sneeze at it by any means. If someone has cooked Mexican and there are corn tortillas, or anything corn for that matter, I will not hesistate to assist in ridding the cook of their creation. ;) It's just that if I am cooking, by choice I prefer flour tortillas.
So! I made flour tortillas. The recipe sounded a lot more difficult than it actually was. No, really. Probably the most difficult two parts were the shaping when rolling out and finding the right temperature. Outside of that, it really is simple. Does that mean it was quick? NO! It was definitely NOT a quick thing to do. It is time consuming, but not because it was difficult. It's the rolling out of each individual tortilla and the wait time to let it "rest."
More on all that later. I will post my step-by-step instructions for anyone who is interested and if no one is, then just because I feel like it.
As for the actual enchiladas, I combined an authentic verde recipe with a red one, which I am sure is not recommended because it becomes... well... golden is a nice term, but orange is probably more appropriate. Did I care? Heck no! I know chefs will tell you that presentation is everything and I say that's bunk. In the end, what matters most is taste and flavor. I am happy to announce that my enchiladas were so amazing, that the leftovers are in the refrigerator and I am extremely possessive over it and am guarding it with my life! I want it for myself and ONLY myself. ;) In fact, just thinking about it is making my stomach rumble for more.
If I had it to do all over again, I might fix some of the things ahead of time. Although to be honest, it will still take the same amount time no matter how far ahead you prepare anything because it still takes time to roll stuff out, cook stuff, etc. You're just spreading out the time over one day or more.
As for the family review? They LOVED it! All of them want me to do it again. It won't be soon, I can promise them that!
I started cooking somewhere between 2 and 2:30 yesterday afternoon and apparently I waited way too long to get started. We didn't eat until after 8:00 last night! That was a long cooking day and I'm not really sure why. When I think about what all I did, I can't figure out why it took that long.
Mostly it is, of course, that my stove stinks. I only have two working burners and unfortunately for me, one is large and one is small. Two large burners would be ideal because I could use two large pots at the same time, but a small burner eliminates that option. I must cook only one large pot at a time and that makes for an insane amount of time when cooking multiple things.
I couldn't boil the chicken while the tortillas were cooking. I couldn't cook the sauce while the tortillas OR chicken were cooking and so forth. I had to do each step one at a time. We really need a new stove, but hubby is adamant about that. The economy is not a good time for us right now.
In any case, below are links to my step-by-step instructions on how I made the meal.
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