Cheese enchiladas
 

Last night I made the simplest cheese enchiladas possible - monterey jack, onions, habanero peppers, ten minutes in the oven at 225C, with store bought red sauce, and it was still better than most I get in restaurants.

Why do most places insist on smothering enchiladas in gobs of that gooey industrial cheese? Sometimes they'll mix it with a brown sauce which is only slightly better.

So the question is, how do you like your cheese enchiladas - minimalist or gussied up with everything? Just curious

I Like Them
 

Love 'em like they do 'em at El Rancho in Austin and El Fenix in Dallas.

Couldn't agree more. Even worse is making them with flour tortillas :eek: :eek:

My version (learned from my mom) is close to yours, only difference is sliced black olives instead of the habaneros).

I like the "El Pato" brand of store-bought sauce

http://pics.mexgrocer.com/images/1280.jpg

As a SF Giants fan, I would have thought you would be eating Chicken Enchiladas. ;)

I've been making my own enchilada sauces--red, from store-bought dried chilies, and green from fresh New Mexico chilies. I used to really load up the enchiladas with cheese in the filling and on top, but have backed off of that practice and now sprinkle some grated cheese (monterey, colby, or sometimes some crumbled cotija) on top for as a garnish/color, so I haven't done purely cheese enchiladas for a long time. I rarely make quesadillas anymore and only make nachos (with lots of grated cheese, melted) for the future mister youreadyfreddie. If I'm using a red sauce, I usually fill the enchiladas with machaca (shredded beef), the green sauce is good with pork, chicken, beef, or shrimp. Cheese enchiladas would be good with both sauces.

Since I found my comal (flat, cast-iron griddle) packed away in a box, I have stopped using hot oil to soften corn tortillas for enchiladas and tacos. I just warm them on the hot comal and they roll up easily for enchiladas.

To summarize, there is a LOT less fat in the enchiladas I make now than there was in the ones I made when I first started cooking. Now, only I could find low-fat, corn tortillas that have good flavor.

A little OT, but last week I discovered that my local Chinese delivery place now uses flour tortillas as the "pancakes" for their moo shu. Color me shocked:eek:

I like to make my own red sauce, usually with beef; the canned stuff is too salty and never lives up to my flavor expectations. Other than that, very simple: ground corn tortillas filled with a couple of types of cheese and topped with raw diced onions.

ummm, it isn't that hard to make FAT FREE corn tortillas, masa harina, water, salt....you can even go fancy with it by putting some mexican herbs if you want, none of them add fat (could impact cooking however)

Where does fat come in, cooking them in a cast iron filled with lard? Using a little pam will be marginal amounts of fat, not even enough to count.


BTW, I generally go really simple but am sure to put some sauteed onions and peppers, yes in my cheese enchilada, I use simple cheeses, never that yucky cheese goo crap :)

Mine was some brand called Las Palmas. Only thing I might do different next time is dice some jalapenos to sprinkle on top. Luckily nobody has ever tried to foist a flour tortilla enchilada on me. In my mind that's a burrito.

Do you also make your own chile rellenos at home? We don't much care for those soft ones that most restaurants serve. We like to make them at home when we can get fresh Anaheim peppers.

How do you make your sauce?

Yay! An enchilada thread!

My enchiladas always fall apart in the oven. Any advice on how to properly prepare the corn tortilla so it doesn't disintegrate in the sauce while in the oven?

Funny, that is one reason I took over the cooking of enchiladas in our house - my wife's always fall apart! What I did was heated the corn tortillas (I think Mission brand) for 20 seconds a side on a hot skillet with some vegetable oil before adding the cheese/onions/peppers. Then when I baked them I only used a minimal amount of sauce, 10 minutes at 225C (450F or so). After they came out of the oven I put the remaining sauce on. They were very firm. I think what she does wrong is drenches them with way too much sauce in the oven.

It was probably the oil in the pan that did the trick, without the oil if they are not freshly cooked, they will not bend, and instead will break!

My .02: The tortillas don't need to be cooked, just heated on an iron skillet (which might be a little oily). And breaking once they are rolled depends to an extent on the freshness and brand. I'd support the comments on limiting the amount of sauce in the oven. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes mine break too.

I was talking about entirely fresh tortillas (see prior about masa harina), store bought have already been cooked of course they just need the moisture and quick heating to be pliable. Talking about sauces, I don't douse mine anyway, I leave the sauces except the smallest amounts to the table in the from of crema agria, salsa, and verde, so maybe if there is a sauce issue in cooking it is why I do not have any issue.

I generally find that if I did not oil or water the tortilla when warming, mine fall apart when using the store bought variety.

An old trick with "day old" (or days older) tortillas....

The "stacked" enchiladas popular in some parts of Mexico (actually, in some places, especially in Ciudad Mexico, more common than rolled). Also allows varying the components of the separate layers (sometimes a little strangely, as I recall encountering a fried egg more than once, and sliced avocado often).