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Enchilada Night
May 5th is a busy day. Not only is it Cinco de Mayo and Derby Day, it is also National Enchilada Day. Fortunately, this week's newsletter has you covered.Perhaps you are looking for something simple and easy to cook for your family's dinner, or maybe you're just looking for something cool to make for Cinco de Mayo. Either way, our recipe for Tex-Mex Enchiladas fits the bill.
If you want to read our previous Recipe of the Week newsletters, I have been making them available from a new page on our website. Look here!
Enjoy this Texas Cooking recipe and have a great week!
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Tex-Mex Cheese Enchiladas
Cheese enchiladas are a Tex-Mex mainstay. A plate of enchiladas, refried beans and Mexican Red Rice is one of the meals that expatriate Texans long for. And although Mexican restaurants are found nationwide these days, take it from a Texan, it's not the same.
For the Enchiladas
- 12 corn tortillas
- 1/2 cup olive or canola oil
- 2 large yellow onions
- 2 cups grated Longhorn cheese (or the popular grated "Mexican cheese blend" works well)Chili Gravy (recipe follows)
For the Chili Gravy
- 2 tablespoons shortening or lard
- 2 ½ tablespoons masa harina
- 2 tablespoons chili powder (see below)
- 2 cups warm water
- salt to taste
- For the Chili Gravy, make a light roux by melting the shortening or lard in a skillet and stirring in the masa harina. Stir and cook a few minutes until the masa harina has browned a little. Add the chili powder, water and salt, and continue to stir and cook until mixture has thickened. Set aside and keep warm.
- For the Enchiladas, lightly grease a 9x13-inch Pyrex dish, and preheat your oven to 400°F degrees.
- Chop the onions, grate the cheese, and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a second skillet on medium heat. (It's ready when you see the oil "shimmer".) Have the corn tortillas ready.
Assembly:
- Putting the enchiladas together is just a series of steps. And if you're the kind of cook that freaks out when the kitchen gets a little messy, you might want to consider finding a good Tex-Mex restaurant instead.
- Pick up a tortilla with tongs and dip it into the hot oil for two or three seconds. This first step is to soften the tortilla.
- Remove the tortilla from the oil, letting the excess oil drip back into the skillet.
- Dip the tortilla into the chili gravy, coating both sides.
- Place the now-coated tortilla in the 9x13-inch pan, put a handful of grated cheese and onion on the tortilla, fill from end to end so that it is plump, and roll it up.
- Place the rolled tortilla seam-side-down in one end of the pan.
- Repeat ths process with the remaining 11 tortillas. The pan should be full.
- Pour the remaining Chili Gravy on top of the enchiladas.
- Sprinkle the enchiladas generously with more cheese.
Bake for about 10 minutes until the cheese is bubbly. Serve at once.
Makes four servings of three enchiladas each.
A word about chili powder: The most-recommended chili powder in Texas is Gebhardt's, and for good reason. Lately, I have started trying chili powders for sale in the bulk sections of the major H-E-B and Central Market grocery stores with great results. For the enchiladas in the recipe photograph, I used their "San Antonio"chili powder, which is darker in color and has a taste of cumin. Of course, you can always get your hands on some dried chiles pasillas and make your own chili powder. Behold the extraordinary powder for Tex-Mex enchiladas!
And remember this: Buy a product called "chili powder" -- not cayenne, not crushed red pepper, not ground red pepper.
The serving dishes in our photograph are Fiesta dinnerware.
Kitchen tools you'll need: 9x13 Baking Dish, Graters, Mixing Bowls, Oval Platters, Skillets, Tongs
Where to Buy Chili PowderLone Star List
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- Texas Monthly: A Farewell to Dairy Queens A recent spate of closures of the iconic restaurant chain has left many communities in the lurch.
- Texas Highways: 18 Places to Go in Texas in 2018
- JC Reid: Very sad to report the passing of Felix Powell, "the last of the barbecue barons," this past weekend. Listen: The life and times of Felix Powell.
- Barbeque Documentary Twitter: "Surprised and incredibly proud to win the James Beard Award for Best Documentary!" Congratulations! Watch the documentary now on Netflix.
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- Houstonia: Where Did Wink the Cat Go? - It was a dark and stormy night at El Gato Coffeehouse...
- LA Times: At 95, Mexican food expert Diana Kennedy is growing her own coffee and making her own tortillas.
- Cookbook Review: Hard Core Carnivore by Jess Pryles --- Buy the book on Amazon
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- May is Preservation Month - they are doing great things to the Sears in downtown Houston - "it's exciting to watch the 1939 Art Deco architecture emerge from behind the metal panels added during an early 1960s renovation. On the Fannin side of the building, you can see original glass block and decorative tile revealed for the first time in more than 50 years!" Rice, partners envision innovative future for retired Sears building in Midtown
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- What to do this weekend? Visit a Farmer's Market! COMPLETE LIST OF FARMERS MARKETS IN TEXAS
Nature Hills Nursery: Trees & Shrubs, Fruit Bearing, Gift Certificates
Request a Free Garden Catalog
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