- Dec 15, 2002
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A noble and brave Aggie started a thread recently regarding what should be considered the cornerstone of TexMex cuisine: the sweet clean cheese enchilada.
I noted that on a recent trip to Clute, Texas, I had the pleasure in partaking what I consider to be the best TexMex meal I've ever had at a restaurant there called El Toro. This was the Bandido plate with a fried egg over easy on top.
Since that time, I've pondered what made that particular plate of enchiladas so superior to any other I've ever had. Therefore, I set out on a quest to hone my skills at making the best possible homemade enchiladas.
Ingredients:
-storeshelf corn tortillas
-1lbs walmart generic american cheese
-1lbs Tillamook mild cheddar
-2 dried chipotles (seeded/stemmed)
-2 dried New mexicos (also seeded)
-2 dried colorados (etc)
-1 carton Swanson Beef broth
-onion, garlic, etc
Step 1:
I heated up a skillet and toasted the dried chiles, then once they bubbled and were kinda dark on both sides, then added enough water to make them all float. Once I did that, I boiled the water, turned off the heat, covered, and let them sit for 30 min or so to swell up.
1 onion diced into some crisco with a touch of salt until translucent, then 3 garlic cloves mashed and diced and then sauteed for just a bit to toast up the garlic.
I put the onion/garlic mixture into a blender with the chiles and the carton of broth and I pureed until it was smooth. I added a touch of allspice but nothing crazy. Dumped in about a tspn of mexican oregano and one of cumin, also. The chili broth was a reddish brown color.
Step 2:
In a pan, i put in 2tblspn of crisco and melted it, then added 2tblspn of flour, creating a roux and then browning it to a light brown color, then added the chili broth to make a gravy, stirring and cooking constantly until the consistency was right, which is like a thin brown gravy. Not watery, but not like a gravy you'd slop over biscuits. Tasted it, adjusted with salt, pepper until it was perfect.
Step 3:
I shredded the cheeses. If I can suggest something to you, it's freeze your block of cheese before you run it thru a shredder, esp the american/velveeta cheese. It turns into mush otherwise.
Step 4:
In a spot of oil in a skillet, I cooked each tortilla on each side for about a minute. Not long enough to cook them and make them stiff, but long enough to make them soft and greasy. I'll come back to this in a minute.
Step 5:
Once I had all the tortillas cooked and set out on a paper towel to try to absorb some of the oil and to cool down, I dipped one side of the tortillas into the gravy and then rolled up a wad of cheese and a scoop of diced onion in the tortillas into cigarillos. More on this in a minute.
Step 6:
I poured in a bit of gravy into my pyrex dish, laid the enchiladas into the gravy, then once the pan was full, i covered the enchiladas in the gravy, covered it with the cheddar cheese only (not the american cheese), and some more diced onion.
Step 7:
I baked at 385 covered in foil for 15 min, removed the foil and baked another 10min or so until the cheese started bubbling.
I let them cool for an hour covered with the foil before serving. I think this is an important step, and one that I think might could use some tweaking.
Notes
-These were fantastic enchiladas, but not transformative in the way where I could justify the time spent making them vs just going out. Better than meh, but not "best of". Def better than 2/3 of my local texmex joints.
-I think a lot of it is in the cheese blend. The generic velveeta is not good, and even though tillamook is solid, it's not like you can make up for the twang of the cheap cheese stuff.
-The chili gravy is awesome, however it needed one more chipotle and probably at least one of each of the dried chiles. I ended up mixing in a bit of a chili powder for extra punch, but it's just not quite there yet.
-The tortillas disappeared in the gravy...like mush. They came back together after a night in the fridge and reheated, but they still just kinda crumbled away. Was this because the tortillas were cheap or because I fried them too long? Hmm...
Next Time:
-I'm going to increase the chiles by 50%. I need a stronger punch on the gravy.
-I'm going to go to my deli and buy a lbs of american cheese that they have back there, maybe Boar's Head or Land o Lakes or whatever.
-I mentioned adding more chiles...i'm looking for that smokey punch that El Toro had. I watched a feature video on Sylvia's in Houston, and she made a point that they only use mesquite on an open flame to cook their meat. I think that's the key here...where's the smoke? Can I get that with more chipotles without killing it with heat? Can I use a touch of liquid smoke?
-I've got to use better tortillas, and I don't need to cook them nearly as long as I did. I want them to have a toothsome texture, but not like gum.
-Instead of rolling the tortillas, i'm going to fold them twice...a flip in half, then another flip in half so that they are wider and flatter. I'll be able to put fewer into the pan, but they will look more substantial and take less gravy to fill.
-I actually like a bit of carne in my chili gravy, but I don't want it just crumbled up ground beef.
WHAT IF...I cook a tri tip over mesquite so that it collects that smokey flavor, then I let it sit in its own juices for a bit. I can chip that tri tip into itty bitty bits to add to the gravy at the end, but most importantly I can use the drippings into the beef broth to tie it together.
I noted that on a recent trip to Clute, Texas, I had the pleasure in partaking what I consider to be the best TexMex meal I've ever had at a restaurant there called El Toro. This was the Bandido plate with a fried egg over easy on top.
Since that time, I've pondered what made that particular plate of enchiladas so superior to any other I've ever had. Therefore, I set out on a quest to hone my skills at making the best possible homemade enchiladas.
Ingredients:
-storeshelf corn tortillas
-1lbs walmart generic american cheese
-1lbs Tillamook mild cheddar
-2 dried chipotles (seeded/stemmed)
-2 dried New mexicos (also seeded)
-2 dried colorados (etc)
-1 carton Swanson Beef broth
-onion, garlic, etc
Step 1:
I heated up a skillet and toasted the dried chiles, then once they bubbled and were kinda dark on both sides, then added enough water to make them all float. Once I did that, I boiled the water, turned off the heat, covered, and let them sit for 30 min or so to swell up.
1 onion diced into some crisco with a touch of salt until translucent, then 3 garlic cloves mashed and diced and then sauteed for just a bit to toast up the garlic.
I put the onion/garlic mixture into a blender with the chiles and the carton of broth and I pureed until it was smooth. I added a touch of allspice but nothing crazy. Dumped in about a tspn of mexican oregano and one of cumin, also. The chili broth was a reddish brown color.
Step 2:
In a pan, i put in 2tblspn of crisco and melted it, then added 2tblspn of flour, creating a roux and then browning it to a light brown color, then added the chili broth to make a gravy, stirring and cooking constantly until the consistency was right, which is like a thin brown gravy. Not watery, but not like a gravy you'd slop over biscuits. Tasted it, adjusted with salt, pepper until it was perfect.
Step 3:
I shredded the cheeses. If I can suggest something to you, it's freeze your block of cheese before you run it thru a shredder, esp the american/velveeta cheese. It turns into mush otherwise.
Step 4:
In a spot of oil in a skillet, I cooked each tortilla on each side for about a minute. Not long enough to cook them and make them stiff, but long enough to make them soft and greasy. I'll come back to this in a minute.
Step 5:
Once I had all the tortillas cooked and set out on a paper towel to try to absorb some of the oil and to cool down, I dipped one side of the tortillas into the gravy and then rolled up a wad of cheese and a scoop of diced onion in the tortillas into cigarillos. More on this in a minute.
Step 6:
I poured in a bit of gravy into my pyrex dish, laid the enchiladas into the gravy, then once the pan was full, i covered the enchiladas in the gravy, covered it with the cheddar cheese only (not the american cheese), and some more diced onion.
Step 7:
I baked at 385 covered in foil for 15 min, removed the foil and baked another 10min or so until the cheese started bubbling.
I let them cool for an hour covered with the foil before serving. I think this is an important step, and one that I think might could use some tweaking.
Notes
-These were fantastic enchiladas, but not transformative in the way where I could justify the time spent making them vs just going out. Better than meh, but not "best of". Def better than 2/3 of my local texmex joints.
-I think a lot of it is in the cheese blend. The generic velveeta is not good, and even though tillamook is solid, it's not like you can make up for the twang of the cheap cheese stuff.
-The chili gravy is awesome, however it needed one more chipotle and probably at least one of each of the dried chiles. I ended up mixing in a bit of a chili powder for extra punch, but it's just not quite there yet.
-The tortillas disappeared in the gravy...like mush. They came back together after a night in the fridge and reheated, but they still just kinda crumbled away. Was this because the tortillas were cheap or because I fried them too long? Hmm...
Next Time:
-I'm going to increase the chiles by 50%. I need a stronger punch on the gravy.
-I'm going to go to my deli and buy a lbs of american cheese that they have back there, maybe Boar's Head or Land o Lakes or whatever.
-I mentioned adding more chiles...i'm looking for that smokey punch that El Toro had. I watched a feature video on Sylvia's in Houston, and she made a point that they only use mesquite on an open flame to cook their meat. I think that's the key here...where's the smoke? Can I get that with more chipotles without killing it with heat? Can I use a touch of liquid smoke?
-I've got to use better tortillas, and I don't need to cook them nearly as long as I did. I want them to have a toothsome texture, but not like gum.
-Instead of rolling the tortillas, i'm going to fold them twice...a flip in half, then another flip in half so that they are wider and flatter. I'll be able to put fewer into the pan, but they will look more substantial and take less gravy to fill.
-I actually like a bit of carne in my chili gravy, but I don't want it just crumbled up ground beef.
WHAT IF...I cook a tri tip over mesquite so that it collects that smokey flavor, then I let it sit in its own juices for a bit. I can chip that tri tip into itty bitty bits to add to the gravy at the end, but most importantly I can use the drippings into the beef broth to tie it together.
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