Making Cheese Enchiladas brings back memories
I grew up eating my Aunt Diana's cheese enchiladas...she owned her own restaurant "Montalvo's" in Harlingen, Texas and everyone passed her recipe around because it was the best. I learned to cook in the kitchen at a young age because I loved food and wanted to replicate all the food I ate in someone elses kitchen, to my stomach. My Aunt taught anyone who was willing to learn how to cook, to cook well. Fideo, picadillo, arroz con carne, and enchiladas were some of the staple meals that she taught me and my brother.
To this day, we use my aunt's recipe, however isn't written down anywhere (it was at one time on a napkin, but think it got lost). I am going to attempt to write down the recipe for her chile con carne even though I don't cook using written recipes...never have. I eyeball everything. Each time I write down a recipe I know a step or two is missing, either that or I might estimate amounts a bit differently. Here is my attempt in writing the recipe down and if you try the recipe I hope you enjoy your enchiladas :)
Recipe:FIRST:15-20 corn tortillas (please use good torts from a local tortillareia)
Most people deep fry their torts and use veg or canola oil, however I use olive oil and pan fry (trust me just as good, you don’t miss that fried corn tortilla flavor)
One hot skillet with oil (about 1 tablespoon) ok to add more oil as you fry your torts…but start with small amount please, we don’t want these torts soaked in oil.
Heat skillet, not smoking…but just about
Add tortillas (about 4-5 at a time) and flip. Tortillas should be soft and pliable
Place on paper towel to cool
Once all torts are pan fried, it’s time to stuff them, I use a mixture of American and Cheddar cheeses, and it’s always best when you get a good quality cheese and shred it yourself.
Stuff and roll each tortilla by hand and place in baking pan (make sure you first coat a layer of sauce on bottom of pan…very important!)
Once tortillas are finished, and pan is full…cover in chile con carne sauce (recipe below) then top with cheese and bake in 400 degree oven for 20 min (cover if you are afraid of enchiladas going dry) good idea to do this if you aren’t used to making enchiladas regularly.
THEN:1 lb ground beef (not chuck and not sirloin)
1/2 yellow onion finly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp of cumin
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
4 tablespoons of flour
4 tablespoons of good quality chili powder (preferably fresh from Mexico if you can) I would say to purchase chili powder from a local meat market like *Aguilars* in Edinburg
roughly 2 cups of water
salt and pepper to taste
in a screaming hot pot, add the ground beef and sear
lower heat quite a bit (from high to low) add onions and garlic...and chop up beef in pot. Cook the beef/onion/garlic mixture slow and low (about 30 min)
Once it's finished, add cumin, a little bit of salt and a little pepper(not a lot) and stir
turn heat up to med/high then add tomato paste and cook down
add flour (one tablespoon at a time) this is a crucial step because it determines the thickness of your sauce...you can always add more later if you want it thicker, so be safe during this step. I like a lot of sauce (like my aunt's) so I use about 4 tablespoons.
cook the flour down with the meat...it will be pasty, but you need to cook the flour for at least 8 min so it doesn't taste like raw flour...it's not an ingredient, it's a cooking agent.
once flour is cooked down, slowly add water, but don't stop stirring...keep stirring the meat mixture and adding water until it's a consistency that you enjoy (it should be soupy but very thick) I use more or less a total of 2 cups of water.
Once sauce is at a consistency you enjoy, slowly add the chili powder. All chili powder is different, so taste the powder before you add because you might have a very spicy powder opposed to a mild chili powder which I recommend. At this point, salt to taste. You won't need to add any more pepper because the chili powder will have taken the place of that peppery bite.
I assure you if you follow this recipe you will end up with a gorgeous chile con carne sauce as seen in my photo. Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you! I'm happy you all are interested in trying this recipe, and also one last thing...you MUST eat with saltine crackers, or you aren't mexican! Bon Appetit!
