Christopher Kimball, the host of one of my favorite cooking shows, America’s Test Kitchen once said, “I don’t care how long a recipe takes, as long as the result is worth it.” I couldn’t agree more. I bring this up because tonight I tried a recipe from my new mexican cookbook, Mexico, One Plate at a Time by Rick Bayless, and it took a long time and was a bit of a disappointment.
To start, I searched all over for the right cheese and couldn’t find it, so I settled on Cana de Cabra, which is a goat cheese with a bit of a blue taste to it. I got home and started on the sauce. First you slice open and flatten dried ancho chiles, toast them, soak them, then toss them in a food processor after which you press them through a sieve. I really must have just skipped over that part in my preliminary reading because it was quite a process. Oh, and my food processor overflowed and I got sauce everywhere. Boo.
Next you take this sauce along with some corn tortillas over to the stove, heat some oil in a pan and then dip the tortilla first in the sauce then in the hot oil. I tried this twice with two different pans and the tortillas crumbled. That was when I decided to take things into my own hands and make an enchilada my way.
I took the chicken I had from a roast the other night, stuffed it into a tortilla, tucked that in a small baking dish and repeated five more times. After the dish was full, I poured the sauce over the tortillas, and put some onions on top. I baked this for ten minutes then put the cheese over top and put it back in the oven for two more minutes. Once that was done and they were ready to serve, I sprinkled some cilantro and a little extra cheese on top.
The results were good, not great. I felt like the dish tasted authentic, but it was a little dry, maybe because I used some of the sauce with the two mistakes. Next time I try a recipe from this cookbook, I’m definitely going to thoroughly read it and hopefully I’ll have better results.
I’d give you the recipe but the time/benefit ratio of typing it isn’t worth it.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:59 am
[...] I made a bit of a mistake in thinking that last night might be that time. You see, I seem to have a problem with reading the directions before I make a recipe. I had perused it several times, but overlooked [...]
March 27th, 2008 at 3:59 am
[...] and again. Serve it with rice, sour cream, beans, ?? Original story at Recigiadadelaurentis.netred chile enchiladas, street style, sort of Christopher Kimball, the host of one of my favorite cooking shows, America??s Test Kitchen once [...]
November 24th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Hey there, long time lurker here with my first comment! My only daughter is getting married to her lovely mexican gentleman soon, and I’m tasked with preparing the wedding party! I thought enchiladas would be a nice snack, so trying to find a good enchilada recipe. What do you think? Any more suggestions?? Anyway, thanks for your hard work as ever…