Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Homemade Tortilla Enchiladas
All put together and ready to tuck into the oven for dinner:
This batch was stuffed with some leftover shredded chicken, cooked brown rice, a (drained) can of black beans and one of corn, a can of diced green chiles and some grated sharp cheddar plus cumin, corainder, chili powder, Mexican oregano, salt and pepper. You'll also want a can or bottle of your favorite prepared enchilada sauce and some chopped fresh cilantro for garnish once you pull it out of the oven. Quick and easy, 100% from the pantry and leftovers, and the filling is just as tasty heated up by itself in a bowl as it is wrapped up and baked if you're short on time.
Anyway, as the title of the post suggests, I made the tortillas from scratch. More because I was too lazy to go to the grocery store than anything else, but it turns out flour tortillas are quick and easy and pretty much completely worth the effort and it's something I'm definitely going to continue to do. And in general, I find that I am making bread products from scratch more and more lately because I am so totally over all of the processed weirdness of 99% of supermarket breads and it seems like that and the overall quality are just getting worse and worse. So these totally win on that account, too.
The recipe I used was:
2c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. oil
3/4 c. warm water
Basically you just mix up the ingredients and knead for a bit until the dough smooths out, then let it rest for a while...like 30 mins. to an hour but I think you could let this go as long as works for your schedule. And generally speaking, longer resting (technically called retarding)=more flavor anyway. After that it gets divided up into eight balls, rested for a few more minutes, rolled out into thin rounds and cooked in a hot, dry cast iron skillet. That's it.
I gather that these are considered more of a tex-mex style tortilla in that they're thicker and chewier, and I liked that about them. And mine totally did NOT turn out round, but that's ok. I think getting them perfectly round takes either your Mexican grandmother, a whole lot of practice with the rolling pin or a tortilla press...none of which I have. Totally delicious nevertheless.
This batch was stuffed with some leftover shredded chicken, cooked brown rice, a (drained) can of black beans and one of corn, a can of diced green chiles and some grated sharp cheddar plus cumin, corainder, chili powder, Mexican oregano, salt and pepper. You'll also want a can or bottle of your favorite prepared enchilada sauce and some chopped fresh cilantro for garnish once you pull it out of the oven. Quick and easy, 100% from the pantry and leftovers, and the filling is just as tasty heated up by itself in a bowl as it is wrapped up and baked if you're short on time.
Anyway, as the title of the post suggests, I made the tortillas from scratch. More because I was too lazy to go to the grocery store than anything else, but it turns out flour tortillas are quick and easy and pretty much completely worth the effort and it's something I'm definitely going to continue to do. And in general, I find that I am making bread products from scratch more and more lately because I am so totally over all of the processed weirdness of 99% of supermarket breads and it seems like that and the overall quality are just getting worse and worse. So these totally win on that account, too.
The recipe I used was:
2c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. oil
3/4 c. warm water
Basically you just mix up the ingredients and knead for a bit until the dough smooths out, then let it rest for a while...like 30 mins. to an hour but I think you could let this go as long as works for your schedule. And generally speaking, longer resting (technically called retarding)=more flavor anyway. After that it gets divided up into eight balls, rested for a few more minutes, rolled out into thin rounds and cooked in a hot, dry cast iron skillet. That's it.
I gather that these are considered more of a tex-mex style tortilla in that they're thicker and chewier, and I liked that about them. And mine totally did NOT turn out round, but that's ok. I think getting them perfectly round takes either your Mexican grandmother, a whole lot of practice with the rolling pin or a tortilla press...none of which I have. Totally delicious nevertheless.
Labels: cooking food tortillas
