Homemade Enchiladas

What's better than making your own whole wheat flour tortillas?

Making your own whole wheat flour tortillas while listening to Christmas music and dancing like no one is watching.


The other night, I had a friend over for dinner. This was the first time since I started this cooking-from-scratch adventure that I was brave enough to share a meal with someone just as it was coming out of the oven. (Someone who isn't Megan; someone who may or may not have put on a brave face and eaten what I made, even if it wasn't good.)  I have been enjoying my food--but while I've been taking pleasure in the experience of eating something that I've made entirely on my own, it's not always enough. I like to make things for other people--so, I was excited to have a friend over to cook for.

My guest--R--is a very picky eater. We joke all the time about how different we are; honestly, I've never had a friend who has come so close to being my complete opposite--a truth that extends to our eating habits. He's not a big fan of vegetables; needless to say, trying to decide on something that I could make that we'd both enjoy was a bit of a challenge. But--I'm always up for a challenge. Furthermore, I believe in compromises. So--enchiladas was the dish we decided upon. I found a recipe for vegetarian enchiladas that I had been wanting to try and I had everything I needed to put them together. Also, my grandma had given me a recipe for enchilada sauce a couple weeks ago--so it was perfect; I was going to get to try two different recipes in one meal. And, I was looking forward to making tortillas again--I made them a few weeks ago and, while they turned out decent, I wanted to play with the recipe in order to make them less dense.

So, on Wednesday night, I found myself dancing around the kitchen to Christmas music while I made my whole wheat flour tortillas and cooked up some enchilada sauce. (I figured it'd be good to have the tortillas already made for Friday and I was hoping that making the enchilada sauce a couple days before would allow the spices to co-mingle and deliver a nice rich taste when I was ready to use it.) Before I knew it, it was Friday night. R came over, chicken and sour cream in hand, and I got to work.

What I love about this recipe is that I can keep it in my back pocket whenever I'm entertaining people who aren't vegetarians. Alongside vegetables, R doesn't like beans either--the meat of my vegetarian enchilada. As a compromise, I assured him I'd make him his own batch as long as he provided his meat of choice. It was super easy to substitute his shredded chicken in place of my black beans and not at all inconvenient to bake the two separate. (The recipe yielded 12 enchiladas! I needed 2 baking dishes, anyway.)

Let me tell you, this enchilada recipe is now one of my favorites. It was easy to put everything together and they tasted so good. Even R agreed, going back for seconds and taking home leftovers. While the prep work was divided over two nights, that won't stop me from making these again. The way I see it, that's probably going to be a reoccurring situation--since I'm bound and determined to make as much as possible from scratch. I would recommend these enchiladas anytime; while the recipe is simple, the taste is great--thanks to the enchilada sauce, the recipe for which I will post below. As for the vegetarian enchiladas, I found the recipe here. And, while it comes with its own enchilada sauce recipe, I didn't use it. Also, I shredded the zucchini--in my attempt to hide the green vegetable from R--and I think I liked the texture more than I would if it was diced. But, I'm sure either way would still yield a delicious result!

Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients:
2 tbsp whole-wheat flour
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 cups vegetable broth
5 tomatoes (skined & pureed)
salt, to taste (optional)

Directions:

1. Whisk flour, cocoa, and spices together in a saucepan--with the burner still off.
2. Add 1/4 cup broth and stir into a paste.
3. Slowly whisk in the remaining broth.
4. Bring to a boil over medium heat and whisk in pureed tomatoes.
5. Allow to cook a few minutes and thicken slightly to the consistency of tomato soup.
6. Remove from heat and add salt if necessary.

That's all for now--Rosalyn