Tonight (November 23rd, 2014) I decided to try my hand at Enchilada's without any recipe. Really wing it. Turns out my winging it was fantastic, and far better than I anticipated. So here is the recipe which I will use again.
INGREDIENTS
Meat
2-4 lbs of cheap chuck roast (Cheaper the better really)
Spice Mixture #1 (Mix to your tastes)
Spice Island Chili Powder
New Mexico Dried Chili Powder
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Fajita Season Mix I had
Ground Cumin
Sauce
2-3 Tablespoons of Saffron Oil
1/2 stick of Butter
2 Tablespoons of Chopped Garlic
2 onions
Spice Mixture #2 (Mix to your tastes)
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Oregano (lighly)
Spice Islands Chili Powder
New Mexico Dried Chili Powder
1 Can of Crushed Tomatoes (28 oz).
Water
1 Package of New Mexico Dried Chilis
Water
Enchiladas
Canola or Vegetable Oil
Corn Tortillas
4 Cheese Mexican Shredded Cheese
Fresh chopped Cilantro
Limes (cut in wedges)
Sour Cream
INSTRUCTIONS
Meat
Liberally cover both sides of the meat in Spice Mixture #1. Then heat 2-4 tablespoons of Safflower oil in the bottom of a pressure cooker until very hot. Brown the meat on both sides, maybe 2-3 minutes a side. Add 6 cups of hot water, not quite covering the meat, then seal it and set it to 1 pressure bare and cook for 3 hours. Just let it cook slowly and soften up that meat.
When done remove from the heat, open pressure cooker with lukewarm tap water, remove meat and put onto a cutting board. Liberally sprinkle meat with more Spice Island Chili Powder. Reserve broth for the sauce below. Chop meat up with a knife or fork.
Sauce
In a large pot heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil and then put in half a stick of butter. When melted add the garlic and stir and then add the onions. Add spice mixture #2. Cook until the onions are soft, and then add can of crushed tomatoes. Swirl in some water (maybe half a can). Bring to a boil and simmer
for 1-2 hours.
At the same time put the entire package of dried New Mexico Chili Pods (whole) into a big pot of boiling water and boiled them for a good 2 hours. I probably over did this, but it didn't really matter. Drain them, and remove the stems and most of the seeds and throw the pods into the pot of tomato sauce.
The sauce cooks for probably a total of 3 hours, 2 by itself, then another hour with the pods. Keep it at a simmer and stir it often. It will get really thick.
Take 1 ladle of sauce and 2 ladles of broth and put into a blender. Liquefy for a while, then pour into a strainer over a bowl, using a spoon to press the juice through and keep out any pulpy stuff. Keep doing this process until all the tomato sauce is blended. Pour the blended and strained tomato sauce (which is a good orange color looking like either Enchilada Sauce or Tomato Soup depending on the way you see things) back into the big pan, and added the rest of the broth and then taste it. It might be SPICY HOT but don't worry. Add some flour, bring to a boil, and simmer for a while.
Enchiladas
Set your oven for 400 degrees (maybe 375 if you are lower altitude, I am 1 mile high).
Get a flat bottom pan, fill it with Canola oil, heat it till very hot, and then cook the corn tortillas about 20 seconds a side. Dry on paper towels.
Put a little sauce in a big glass casserole dish, spreading it around on the bottom. Take some of the meat and tear it apart if necessary put it into the cooked enchilada, and roll it up. Put the rolled enchilada in the casserole dish on the sauce. Keep doing this until you are out of meat (you might need 2 casserole dishes).
Then liberally cover with cheese. I like a LOT of cheese, you probably would want less, but I used a lot.
Bake for 10 minutes or until top of enchiladas with cheese is golden brown.
Garnish with cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and sour cream!
