My in-laws have an impressive garden, and we get to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables!) of their labor! Lucky us! This week she gave us some zucchini. |
| Granny enjoyed the enchiladas! |
I made the in-laws a round of my enchiladas non-auténtico whilst visiting their house. It's a simple concoction. Into the sauce pan, add a glug of oil and sautée onions (this time omitted because of the granny's diet, but still tasty, I promise). Combine with 1 ample tbsp flour, spices (my beau-père is not a spice enthusiast so I didn't use the cayenne as per usual; I also didn't want to aggress the granny's stomach). I normally use some paprika, chili powder, the afore mentioned cayenne, and cumin), and mix. Slowly add a bit of stock of choice and a small can of tomato paste. Once all is combined, keep adding stock--maybe 2+ cups worth. I like saucy enchiladas so I make plenty. Bring it all to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. It'll start to get thick. Add more spices or herbs to taste. I don't add salt because I figure the stock has plenty. Remove it from the heat and let it cool. You'll be dipping your tortillas into it, so it's in your fingers best interest to wait. For this batch, I used sweet potatoes and chard for a filling. Sometimes I throw in beans, sometimes I throw in shrimp, or corn. I oven roasted the sweet potatoes with cumin, sautéed the stalks of the chard, and wilted the leaves. Sweet potatoes are not a regular part of the swiss diet, so the in-laws were curious what I was up to. They had this same reaction when I made them Thanksgiving dinner. To assemble the enchiladas, I dipped a corn tortilla into the sauce, placed it into the pan, plunked the sweet potatoes and chard into the middle of the tortilla and rolled it up, making sure the seam was on the bottom. Once the pan was filled, I covered it with more sauce and sprinkled on some asiago. I find that asiago is a better replacement for jack or "Mexican" cheese mixes. These suckers get baked at 200 for about 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is ooey gooey on the top. On the side, I served charred corn with shrimp and cilantro and lime juice. My beau pére was super brave! sweet potatoes AND corn AND spice! In one meal! I put out sour cream and avocados as well.
The in-laws wanted to know what mom thought--were they the right taste? did I do a good job? Mom answered that, in short, my enchiladas kicked ass. I am paraphrasing. She really said that they were comparable to what one might find at a restaurant. Thank you, mumsie! 
This morning I decided to make us another round of brunch. I made us a team USA brunch mom's first morning here. She's also had some Greatest Hits: mojo sauce with dorado and canary island wrinkled potatoes, zucchini pie, baozi, and a variety of salads because it has been freaking H O T. Because I am always dreaming of beans, I made us a beancentric brunch. A sort of huevos cuauhtemo, inspired by this post.
First, I toasted strips of corn tortillas and sautèed onions in my cast iron, liberally adding chili powder and cumin. Then I threw in some zucchini from my in-law's garden. I let that hang out, and used the immersion blender to combine a can of beans and the remaining tomato paste from the tube in the fridge. Again, I added some spices. Because spices are good. I threw the bean mess into the skillet, made three holes for the eggs, sprinkled some cilantro on top, and shoved the whole thing into the oven at 200° for 15 minutes.
good, filling, and yum.
