Beef Enchilladas

Friday 11/1/2013

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Diary and Notes

The sheathed katana, honed and sharpened, passive, still. Then Iaido – the meeting with one’s own existence – action, the sword drawn, the cut, blood is flicked from the blade and clean now, it returns to sleep again. The enemy lies dismembered at my feet.

This is how it was foreseen.

But those who prepare for war are ever ready for peace. And those who are not called to fight, may sit, zazen, in the scented cherry garden and take their rest.

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Translation:

Today I was expecting to be home really late and to have to cook dinner in such a hurry that yesterday’s heroic effort would be put in the shade. As it turns out, my extra late Friday night will be next week and I got home today in good time to make dinner. I was planning to do chilli con carne and rice (with some tortillas) but as I had time, I made some enchiladas.

The chilli I prepared some days ago (cunning aren’t I?) Are you wondering what other tricks I have up my sleeve? So it was all pretty easy. Eve helped make the cheese sauce and I was in the process of taking a photo of her in a Rapunzel dress, stirring the sauce but something distracted me and I never got the shot.

Oh well, as you have probably already worked out, photography isn’t one of my strong points anyway.

Excellent dinner - although Isis and Eve wouldn’t try the enchiladas as they had beans in.

Fussy buggers.

Menu

Beef Enchiladas

Rice

Ingredients*

Enchiladas
Flour Tortillas
Chilli con Carne
Cheese Sauce

Chilli Con Carne
450g Minced Steak
100g Dried Pinto Beans
1 Onion
1 Clove Garlic
2/3 Red Pepper
1/2 Tube Tomato Puree
1 Can Chopped Tomatoes
1 TBSP Heinz Ketchup
1 TBSP Oil
Fresh Chillis
Cayenne of other Chilli Powder
1 tsp Smoked Paprika (see below)
2 tsp Cumin Power
1 tsp Dried Oregano (see below)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Fresh Coriander Leaves
Black Pepper

Cheese Sauce
Large Knob Butter
1 Heaped Dessert Spoon Flour
400 ml Milk
200g Cheddar Cheese

To Serve
Salsa
Sour Cream
Grated Cheese
Sliced Jalapenos
Mixed Lead Salad

Salsa
1/2 Onion
1/2 Tomato
2 Small Cornichons
1 Red Chilli
1/3 Red Pepper
Squirt Tabasco Sauce
2 tsp Tomato Ketchup
Fresh Coriander

Note: If I had some chipotle chilli powder I'd have used this and omitted the smoked paprika. Also, Mexican oregano is good if you can get it (only available online) otherwise normal oregano or marjoram (closer to Mexican oregano than Italian) is a good substitute. If I had a few tomatillos I'd have put these in too.

Preparation

Pinto Beans: Soak overnight. Drain the water and replace. Simmer for 1 hour until soft but not mushy. A pressure cooker is really useful here.

Chilli: Brown the mince (get it a little burned even) in a pan with the oil. Add the diced onion and cook until this is soft. Add the chopped pepper, chilli, chilli powder, paprika, cinnamon and minced garlic. Fry for about 5 mins then add the tomatoes, tomato puree, ketchup and a little water. Simmer gently for an hour or so, adding more water if it looks like its drying out. Add the pinto beans and cook another 1/2 hour. Add the cumin, oregano, some black pepper and if it needs pepping up a bit add some more diced chopped chillis. If its too hot then lucky you, when you make the enchiladas it wont seem as spicy and who wants bland food anyway?

Cheese Sauce: Melt the butter in the pan then add the flour. Stir to form a paste then add the milk (all at once, if you do it in stages it will go lumpy and you'll have to stir for ages to remove these). Keep stirring until it makes a nice glossy sauce then add in the cheese. Keep stirring until it's all metled in.

Enchiladas: Place a huge dollop of chilli in each tortilla and roll. Lay these in a baking dish and pour over the cheese sauce. Bake for 15 mins in a really hot oven.

Today’s Ratings:

Isis: Corn Tortillas - yum. Rest - Yuk.
Eve: Flour Tortillas, Rice - yum. Rest - Yuk
Olias: Once again Olias was the star eater of the day and loved the enchilada filling.

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*All quantities are very approximate and for a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 kids aged 4 years, 3 years & 6 months)

JCBorresen@GMail.com