Saturday, January 6, 2007

Second Recipe - Enchilada Sauce

Well, here's the second recipe. I love this enchilada sauce. I made it by trying a dozen or so other recipes, and putting together all of the things that I liked best about all of them. I think it works wonderfully with cheese enchiladas, but if you stew some chicken or beef with Mexican seasonings, and use that as a filling, you can get marvelous results.
I like using the larger flour tortillas, and they are wonderful when you first cook them. If you don't eat them right away, though, they can get soggy upon reheating, especially if you cheat and do it in the microwave. Corn tortillas have a wonderful flavor too, though. Whichever you use, heat them up in the microwave before filling and rolling them, to make them easier to work with.
Before filling the tortillas, either dip them in the sauce, (which I prefer to do), or include some of the sauce with the filling.


INGREDIENTS:

½ cup ground red chilies* (See note below.)
2 cups beef stock
¼ cup oil
½ onion, finely minced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced

Flour mixture:
3 Tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. salt

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
Tapatillo sauce


PREPARATION:

1. Heat ½ cup ground red chili in 2 cups beef stock in saucepan until hot.

2. Place oil in saucepan and sauté onion. When transparent, add garlic and sauté for one minute.

3. Add flour mixture, and cook while stirring for 1 minute.

4. Slowly add chili/beef stock purée and cook and stir for 2 minutes.

5. Add tomato sauce. Simmer for at least 10 minutes, or while you prepare the other ingredients for enchiladas.

6. Add a few shakes of Tapatillo sauce to taste.

Will keep in refrigerator for 1 week or may be frozen.

*Note:

For the Red Chilies, don't use Chili Powder. I use "guajillo" chilies. They are the large, dark red, dried chilies that you can find in Mexican food stores. Just get a bag and grind them into a powder using a food processor.

Once again, please let me know what you think. I love hearing about other people's experiences.

Enjoy.