The first annual Yellow House Day of the Dead celebration is over, with smiles all around. The Herbivore declared the event "so fun!" mostly, I think, because she was allowed to have three of her neighbourhood cronies attend. After dinner they held an impromptu dance in the living room.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before the dancing and before the eating, there was the cooking. I made the filling and sauce for enchiladas, the Herbivore built the enchiladas, and the baby helped scatter the cheese over the top. The recipe for the sauce and filling follow. They are based on Mollie Katzen's recipes from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.
Vegetarian Enchiladas with Salsa Verde
2 large onions, chopped
2 large red peppers, chopped
1 large zucchini, chopped
8 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
10 tomatillos, chopped
1 large poblano chile
1 handful chopped green onions
1 handful chopped cilantro
1 handful chopped basil
salt and pepper, cayenne, oregano, basil, cumin, chili powder
olive oil
1. Put one medium saucepan and one large frying pan on your stove and pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil into each. Turn on the heat to medium, heat up the oil, then add half of the onions and half of the peppers to each pan.
2. Into the saucepan, which will hold your salsa verde, now add 5/8 of the garlic. Into the frying pan, add the remaining garlic and the zucchini. Now saute the veggies for about eight minutes.
3. Into the frying pan, which holds your filling, add the spices. You can do as I do and use a bought spice mix. Mine is called Shannon's taco seasoning mix and I pick it up at For Good Measure. Or use salt, pepper, cayenne, oregano, basil, cuming and chili powder to taste. This dish gets a lot of flavour from the salsa verde, so don't season the filling as strongly as you would if you were making tacos. Turn the temperature down to low-medium and cook for another five minutes or so. Then allow the mixture to cool.
4. Into the saucepan, put the chopped up chile and green onions and cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Now add the tomatillos to the saucepan, put the lid on, and heat to boiling. Then turn the temperature down to medium-low and cook for 10-15 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool.
6. Once the filling (in the frying pan) is cool, add 1-2 cups of shredded monterey jack cheese, with or without chiles as you like.
7. Once the salsa (in the saucepan) is cool, scrape the contents in the bowl of a food processor, add the basil and cilantro and puree. Add salt, cayenne and black pepper to taste.
To build the enchiladas, get yerself some child labour. I find that the Herbivore is willing to help me with a dish provided that later, when folks are eating it, I give her 100% of the credit, even if I did 90% of the work. This is something I am totally willing to do! In the case of the enchiladas, she even farmed some of the work our to her little brother.
The finished dish (with low lighting, unfortunately):
More post-mortem coming soon, including my mother's recipe for chiles rellenos in the Puebla style.
