Enchiladas a Deux for Easy White Girls, None of Whom Are In This Picture

The Rogues Gallery from the enchilada era

Back in the day, I made a mean enchilada. I’m not sure what I was cooking for dinner those days – it was the Gourmet magazine phase so it was probably fucking complicated – but the enchiladas would always make an appearance at our summer lake weekend. I liked them because they were easy to assemble in somebody else's kitchen and required minimal effort, even with a “homemade” sauce. Homemade sauce, you say? Well, yes, in a manner of speaking. It’s what happens when nobody can drive to the store and you’re working with what you have on hard. My go-to recipe is from the whitest Mexican cookbook of all time, the hallowed home of Corn Thing.

If you know me at all, you know that I'm likely to up my game, given sufficient time and enough new cookbooks. Hence the latest iteration of enchilada sauce, salsa roja, which really doesn't take all that much longer and is so infinitely superior in flavor as to more than compensate for the extra steps (and dishes).

As for fillings, take your pick: shredded chicken or ground beef with a little melty cheese mixed in is fantastic, and refried beans are also a favorite (I've been known to make those from scratch as well)(at least I'm consistent). If you can't summon refried beans from the depths of Guadalajara, store-bought is fine. I’d venture to suggest there are many delicious vegetarian options as well, which goes to show that I'm expanding my horizons. Sweet potatoes? Black beans? Zucchini? Corn? Any and all combinations of these things, loaded up with your favorite spices, is also fantastic, especially if you bind it all together with – you guessed it – melty cheese. (No, I haven't gotten to the point of making my own cheese yet, ha ha ha, COVID cheese making hobby notwithstanding).

OK, so now that I reflect upon it, I could make the sauce and the tortillas and the cheese for the filling and be extra, extra deluxe. but that would really be contrary to the spirit of this dish, which can be assembled and someone else’s wackadoo cottage kitchen when one is at least two sheets to the wind. I'll give you both versions of the sauce. I will not, however, give you the recipe for the actual enchiladas – if I can figure it out drunk, you most assuredly can too.

The first recipe is from Quick Mexican Cooking by Cyndi Douglas and Georgia Patrick. The second is Salsa rojo from SparkRecipes,.com. 

Easy white girl enchilada sauce

(the sauce is easy, not the girl)

2 heaping tablespoon shortening ( yes, you can use lard) or 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 heaping tablespoons all purpose flour or gluten free blend
2 heaping tablespoons chili powder
½ tsp garlic salt
2 cups of water

Melt the shortening over low heat. add flour, chili powder garlic salt, stirring constantly until it's just a little bit browned. continue to stir while adding the water. it will thicken quickly so add more water if you need to fit it.

This recipe makes 2 cups of sauce. As you can see, the whole thing is based on proportions so you could easily scale it up for however many people made it to the cottage that weekend. 

 

Easy but slightly more complicated enchilada sauce that you could clearly use for other dishes as well

6 guajillo chiles
4 large ancho chiles
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
½ medium onion, chopped
2 medium garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
½ teaspoon ground cumin
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped. I’ve used canned it’s been just fine.
¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste

(If you’re thinking to yourself, “What the hell with these chiles? I’m a Kroger person,” there’s an excellent teeny little Mexican grocery right next to Taco Tienda on John R, across the street from Red Robin and Target. You could go to Whole Foods or some fancy-ass grocery store and pay a fortune, or you can get these for roughly $2/bag. Which sounds better?)

With scissors, cut off the tops and cut each chile lengthwise in half. Remove the seeds and veins. On a dry skillet (or the griddle on your new gas stove, because dishes), toast the chiles about 3 seconds on each side, holding them down with a wide spatula until barely blistered and aromatic. Do not burn or they will become bitter. Submerge the chiles in a bowl of hot water and soak about 20 minutes.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet and cook the onion and garlic slowly until they start to brown, 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in the oregano and cumin and immediately transfer to a blender. Add the tomatoes to the blender. With tongs, lift the chiles from the soaking water and put them in the blender. Taste the chile water (yeah, for real). If it has a pleasant taste and is not bitter, add ½ cup chile water to the blender, along with ¼ cup of water. Otherwise, just go with 3/4 cup of water. Blend the mixture until the sauce is as smooth as possible, at least 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the blender jar as needed. Pour the sauce through a strainer into a bowl.

I swear to you this is worth it.

Simmer the sauce 15 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally. This recipe makes about 2 cups of sauce and is so superior to the other one, you could make a big batch and freeze it for up to 3 months for those days when you don’t really feel like cooking. Bonus: it will use up the rest of those bags of chiles.