Refrigerator Inspiration, or, "Whole Lotta Tex-Mex Goin' On"

Periodically, I draw upon J for inspiration and ideas for meals.  He has to eat the stuff, too, so I figure why not get his input.

This week he suggested enchiladas.  No problem; I was wanting to use items I already had laying around as it was, so win/win/win (10pts for the reference!).

I had a perfectly-good-never-opened pack of wheat tortillas (blasphemy to some, delicious to the rest of us), a ton of shredded cheese that would go bad in a week, and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce that were also destined for the "great-white-bag" in the sky.  Even better, I figured it would be a great way to use the last of the garlic chicken (from, "1000 Splendid Bulbs") in a creative way that wasn't just reheat-nation.


I always use The Pioneer Woman's recipe for enchiladas, but after making that recipe a time or two, I have begun to tinker with ingredients.  This time I used the substitutions as previously stated, and I made my own enchilada sauce, borrowed from Crescent Dragonwagon, a lady who deserves a blog post (and shrine) all her own.
  

"The Char" and subsequent liquid, "yum?"

I found C.D's recipe for enchilada sauce last night whilst thumbing through a copy of her book "Passionate Vegetarian," a huge cook-book for the vegan, veggie, and non-veggie alike.  The book is worth picking up a copy--it's a large tome with 1,000 recipes and ideas, each as excitedly page-turning as the next. Dragonwagon puts in personal notes on each recipe as well as small caveats and info-boxes whenever possible.  To be fair, the thing reads more like a manifesto-turned-textbook than a "cookbook." I admire those that cook passionately and speak/write about it likewise. She has an intense love of food that shows through the page and keeps you hungrily coming back for more. 

Included in that same book is a recipe for tofu-sour cream (which I believe could be vegan depending on the choice of ingredients), and for Chipotle con Crema (which is her tofu-sour cream blended with chipotle peppers and adobo sauce).  The tofu-sour cream looked interesting, as I have yet to cook on a serious level with silken tofu or umeboshi plums.  I'm quite certain I've tasted both, and enjoyed them, but never have I ever cooked with them.

Indeed, it was actually very hard to find the umeboshi plum paste, and when I did, it had that "saffron ain't got nothing on me" expense to it that screamed "rare."  It is a paste made from special plums that grow in Japan, and from what I've been made to understand, in few select areas in the Northwest. The wiki article can sum up better than I ever could, so I direct you there for further information. 

"A thousand baby seals delicately mouth-picked the plums from the trees,
then cried over them before processing."

The crema came together easy enough (no pictures, but the silken tofu made a noise during blending that was not unlike a zombie eating brains), as did the simple addition of the actual chipotles to make the "con crema." More an experiment than anything, both served as mere accent flavors to the enchiladas.  I think the enchiladas would have been fine without, but it was another layer of flavor that I was happy to provide.

Dragonwagon's recipe for enchilada sauce was tasty, but I found it lacking in areas.  I felt that the tomato was a bit on the overwhelming side and made it feel more like Italian/Tex-Mex fusion, and I will have to tinker with the spices next time if I decide to use it again. The upside was that it used only one canned ingredient and therefore was mostly fresh.   Another positive is that I tried my hand at charring a red bell pepper in the broiler, and didn't do too badly.  Looking back on the recipe, I realized I was supposed to char and then peel the pepper, but c'est la vie, this is how one learns, non? (reminds me of this old saying)

The 'ladas themselves were decent, the filling a improvised mish-mash of garlic chicken, onions and jalapeno peppers.  The only criticism here is that I used flour tortillas, and although I fried** them just as I have corn tortillas in the past, it just wasn't the same.

Despite many culinary gambles, however, this dish delivered on flavor and texture.  With the sauce and the cheese and the crema, it all came together in a hurricane of spice.  J remarked that the chipotles liked to aim right for the back of the throat and went through great lengths to tease me about it (I disagreed, mine stayed on my palate and made me happy).

 

And a final note before concluding: I was also too quick to call the "pulled pork" post "blood sweat and tears," as I have done all three at least twice more since then.  I'm beginning to think that it was less a quirky-yet-moderately-fitting title for my blog, and more self-fulfilling prophecy.  As I learn skills and try new ingredients in the kitchen, I am still reckless as ever, cackling and clanging and banging kitchen utensils wildly with a crazed, mad-scientest look in my eye.  Some call it passion, others call it madness. Mostly, I'm impatient.

***One could cut out calories in this dish by steaming instead of frying the tortillas to make them soft.  I say that if one is going to make enchiladas, why not strive for authentic taste over cutting calories?  What's a few extra minutes at the gym, right? (whoops, gotta go, I think my left arm is numb again, what a rascal!)