Let's Cook Some Enchiladas!

Mmmmm I do love some Mexican food. 75% of the time when Scott asks what I want for dinner I say, "a fiesta." Because that is what it is... a party! Mexican food is always a party especially when it involves avocados. Since Harris Teeter has been nice enough to sell avocados 2 for a dollar and change avocados are plentiful in our house!
I wanted to make some food for a friend of mine. I wanted to go gluten-free because she is sensitive to that lil stinker. If you need to know what gluten is, click here to read the post where I teamed up with Google to get you some impressive results. 

I decided on enchiladas because, as you now know, I love a good fiesta and you can make enchiladas with corn tortillas (<-- = naturally gluten free!!).

Here are Scott and Cora throwing a fiesta about a year ago.

Now that I have you in the mood for a good first, let's go ahead and get it started with a look at the ingredients. I did my best to estimate how much I used of each ingredient. But, honestly, the whole thing was a bit random!

• 8oz bag of frozen corn (I used half of a 16oz bag).
• 2 medium onions. I was inclined to throw in 2 more onions and then I remembered that not everyone in the world likes to sautee an onion and eat it as a meal like I used to. I heart onions!
• about 24oz of black bean and pinto mix. I'm just guessing. I looked at a bag of 32oz black beans and decided that I used about 3/4 that amount.
• 1 yellow pepper
• 3/4 bunch of cilantro. Some people think cilantro tastes like soap. Craziness, I say. Cilantro is delicious. 
• I always overdo the garlic (not in my opinion, I love stinky breath). So, I went with one teaspoon sized scoop of minced garlic.
• Half a package of Trader Joe's soy chorizo. I would have gone with a whole packet but I didn't know how spicy my friend likes her enchiladas. You can easily leave this out if you don't like spicy or soy.
• One package of taco seasoning.
• 28oz of enchilada sauce. Scott used to make his own enchilada sauce and it was delicious but he hasn't made them in forever and he forgot. Boo!
• About 6oz of shredded cheese. I used cheddar but you can use any kind you want!
• Corn tortillas. I used 18.

This makes a lot of enchiladas! I made about 6 really big enchiladas for my friend and about 12 normal sized ones for Scott and I.

How to make an enchilada fiesta:

First, Start the beans. Scott learned from a master chef that you should cook your beans long and slow. And, trust me, he has not forgotten it. I hear about the bean philosophy a surprising amount. I should also tell you that we use dried beans so I started soaking them the night before.

Next, I cut up the onions and pepper and threw them in a pan on the stove with a little olive oil. Once they were pretty tender I tossed in the garlic.

I thawed out the frozen corn in a pot of water. Then I drained them and put them back in the pot.

You caught me... it looks like I was still chopping up the pepper while I heated up the corn.

Cilantro washing, de-steming and chopping was next on my list. This is no one's favorite task... ever! Once the cilantro had been chopped I threw it in with the corn.

Next, I mixed the onions and peppers in the with corn and cilantro. Then I tossed the Soyrizo package in. Now is probably a good time to preheat your oven. 350 degrees works!

I heated and stirred the whole mixture on the stove (still minus the beans) for 2 or 3 minutes.

Finally, the beans were cooked. They took about an hour and 15 minutes because I like them to be really soft. I say that like I know what I'm talking about. I have probably cooked beans 10 times in my entire life. So, I drained the beans and combined them with the other fiesta ingredients.

Get your pans ready. I sprayed a little nonstick stuff on so it would be less cleaning later. And get your tortillas out.

Spoon a bit of the fiesta party on your stove into each tortilla and do your best to roll it up without the ingredients exploding out and without the tortilla cracking and crumbling. Don't go too crazy though. It is going to happen. Luckily, the whole thing will be covered with enchilada sauce and cheese.

Once the tortillas are all rolled up and looking good (or good enough, anyway) pour on that delicious enchilada sauce.

Now, coat the cheese evenly over the top and throw that cinco de mayo wanna be into the oven!

About 30 minutes later it will be ready! Or maybe only after 15 minutes when someone walks in the door, smells the deliciousness, and has no patience to wait!

I'm not going to lie to you... one of the reasons I wrote, "enchilada party" on this photo is because I was trying to cover up the crumbs at the bottom of my stove. The other reason is because I was already in my favorite program, Paint, and I got the "write on photos itch."

Here is a better look at how your enchiladas look if you try too hard to get those suckas tight-rolled.

And here is how they should look if you make them like a normal person:

See that empty red space in the pan above... I filled that with some jasmine rice. Yum!

If there's one thing you take from this enchilada recipe it should be the bean cooking advice... Start cooking beans immediately. As soon as the thought of beans for dinner has entered your mind throw them on the stove. Or better yet, rewind time by a day, soak them over night and start cooking them an hour before you decided you wanted beans in the first place.

If there are two things you should take from this whole she-bang it is that I love onions and garlic.

I don't know what ever happened to Cookin' With Chris. It looks like it is all me now! Can anyone think of a good name for my cooking show?