Cheese Enchiladas

Cheese enchiladas sound like the simplest thing to make... take a tortilla, fill it with cheese, cover it with sauce, bake. Well, that's pretty much what we did here, but it took a lot of time and effort. I made the enchilada sauce from scratch. It tasted really good, and I really like knowing what my food is made of-- you know canned enchilada sauce has preservatives or additives. It took a little effort, but I think it was worth it. These enchiladas were delicious. Way better than most enchiladas at most Mexican restaurants. I guess it's quality of ingredients that makes these better than cheap-o restaurants. There's a Mexican restaurant around here that uses, I swear, canned spaghetti sauce as it's enchilada sauce. Or maybe just canned tomato sauce... I don't plan on going back to make a conclusive decision. Anyway, we had the enchiladas with homemade Mexican rice, which also took a bit of effort, but was really good. Again, I appreciate knowing exactly what's in my food, which is why this homemade rice is worth the effort.

Enchilada Sauce
8 T. flour
8 T. butter or chicken or pork drippings (next time I'll be using cooking oil to see if that works)
3 T. TexMex spice (recipe to follow)
2 T. chili powder
3 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. water
8 oz. tomato sauce
1 T. creamy peanut butter

Add flour and butter/drippings/oil to a heavy skillet. Brown for 5 mintues over medium. Add TexMex spice, stirring on med-low for a couple of minutes. Add chili powder and mix another minute or two. Add chicken broth, tomato sauce, and water, bring heat to medium. Stir and scrape and with spatula, working out the lumps in the mixture. Add peanut butter and bring to a light simmer, keep at light simmer for about 10 minutes. If you want it thicker, let it simmer a bit longer.

Tex Mex Spice
3 T. plus 2 t. cumin
3 T. granulated garlic or garlic powder
2 T. salt
1 T. black pepper

This spice mix could also be used to season roast veggies or season meat for tacos or taco salad.


Ok, now we can make...
Cheese Enchiladas
4 c. enchilada sauce
12 corn tortillas, warmed in microwave so they are pliable
3 c. shredded cheese (I used cheddar jack)
1 c. chopped onion

Preheat oven to 350. Dip each corn tortilla into enchilada sauce, stack on plate. Fill each with 2 heaping tablespoons of cheese and 1 tablespoon onion. Roll, place in 9x13 casserole dish. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, sprinkle cheese on top. Bake 12-15 mintues.

This was kinda messy to make, but that made it fun. Also, the onions in this were incredible. If you dislike onions I guess you could omit them, but they were so tasty and kinda crunchy. Also, I got the corn tortillas from the International Grocery. Does that matter? I don't know, but they were very good; we think better than corn tortillas from Walmart. This is long enough for today. I'll get into the rice tomorrow.