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This is just
about our favorite meal. It's become almost a
tradition, every other Friday night. I've been
making enchiladas since I was a teenager, gradually
adapting the recipe to suit my tastes and ensure
consistent results. The Spanish rice that goes so
well with this was a recipe I learned from my
mother, who got it from a friend at work; I've made
some minor adaptations there as well.
I made a
number of attempts to make this dish vegan, but it
just isn't right without real cheese. The recipe
here serves two.
The
Sauce
1/3 onion,
chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon flour
vegetable broth, 1/2 cup or so
1 13-oz. container Bueno frozen green chile (thawed
if possible)
2 small tomatillos, finely chopped
1 Tbsp sour cream (we use Tofutti vegan sour
cream)
1/2 tsp oregano
2-3 tsp chopped fresh cilantro
olive oil
Preheat oven
to 325. In a medium pot, sauté the onion in
olive oil over medium heat. When it gets limp and
translucent, add the garlic, and then the flour.
The flour will make a kind of pasty coating on the
onions and garlic. Continue stirring a few minutes
until the mixture is golden in color. Add vegetable
broth a little at a time, stirring to make a small
quantity of thick, gravy-like sauce. Add the green
chiles and reduce heat to a simmer. Add the
tomatillos and oregano, and simmer for about 30
minutes. While the sauce is simmering, assemble the
enchilada ingredients (below), and then start the
Spanish rice. When the rice is cooking, add the
sour cream and cilantro and stir until well
blended. You may blend the sauce (partially) with
an immersion blender if desired.
Spanish
Rice
1/2 cup long
grain white rice
1/3 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup vegetable broth
up to 1/4 cup of your favorite salsa
olive oil or cooking spray
In a small
pot, sauté the onions and rice in the oil or
cooking spray over medium high heat. When the onion
begins to become translucent, add the garlic. Keep
sauté ing until the onion is translucent and
the rice turn opaque white (some of them may brown
a bit - that's good!). Add the broth and the salsa,
and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover.
Now assemble the enchiladas
Assembling
the Enchilada Ingredients
4 blue corn
tortillas
1/3 onion, chopped
1/2 cup grated asadero or jack cheese, or more if
desired
shredded
lettuce and chopped tomato, for garnish
Use two
large oven-proof plates. Put a small dollop of
enchilada sauce on each, then cover with a tortilla
and press to spread the sauce out. For each plate,
sprinkle with half the onions and about 1/3 of the
cheese. Add more enchilada sauce (generously), and
top with a second tortilla. Cover with the
remaining sauce (it should completely cover the
tortillas and spill over onto the plate) and
sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Put in oven to
bake.
When the
Spanish rice is done, the enchiladas will have been
in the oven 10 or 15 minutes and will be ready.
(They are baked only to warm them and to melt the
cheese - don't overbake or the tortillas will
become very mushy.) Spoon the rice onto the plates
and garnish with shredded lettuce and chopped
tomatoes. (I sometimes drizzle a little lemon
or lime juice over the lettuce and
tomato.
Serve with
sangria or Tom's
perfect margaritas.
Ingredient
Corner
Bueno frozen
green chile is really the best way to go for
enchilada sauce. You can use fresh chiles and roast
them yourself if you are a purist, but it is hard
to match flavor and texture of the Bueno
chiles.
Tomatillos
are small green fruits in husks, related to
tomatoes but with a tangy, citrusy
flavor.
Fresh
cilantro usually comes in bunches (if you don't
have it in your garden), which is way more than you
need for this sauce. It keeps very well in the
fridge, standing in a glass of water with a grocery
bag over it. Change the water regularly.
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