29 September, 2008

Homemade tortillas & green chili enchilada sauce are what's cooking!

We love Mexican food at this house! With authentic tortillas not within easy reach I have started making my own. I have a friend here who makes corn (Tanya) and a friend here who makes flour (Megan). Thank you ladies for inspiring me!

I don't have a tortilla press - I think they are more trouble than they are worth. I use a rolling pin. My kids love to roll them out with their rolling pins. Now those are some pretty shaped "circle" tortillas!

Since we had leftovers from last night - I made them into enchiladas. Now that they are cooking I can post this!

Tortilla Recipe

2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
about 1 1/4 cup HOT water
2 T. oil (EVOO)

Stir all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Make a nice little hole in the middle and add the HOT water and oil. (The secret is the water has to be hot)

Knead for one minute and let rest for 5 minutes! Another secret is to LET IT REST! Go ahead and just try to use it right after you mix it. You will only try it once.

After it has rested for 5 minutes or longer separate into balls (about the size of a golf ball) Roll each ball into a thin circle (mine are never a perfect circle) Use extra flour so it does not stick to your already floured counter.

Cook on a medium hot DRY griddle for about 30 seconds on each side until bubbly. A fabulous trick my friend Tanya taught me is to put them on a plate and cover them with a kitchen towel to keep them moist. All these important secrets and tricks mainly come from hard tortillas and making and learning!

Last night I was rolling and my hubby was cooking! I think it is easier to have someone helping!
Lovely shapes!
Notice the towel that will shortly be covering the tortilla!
While the tortillas were being rolled out and cooked our fillings for our burritos were being cooked too!
Green Chili Enchilada Sauce before meat was added!
After meat was added! Adding meat is totally optional!
My aunt Judy put together a cookbook for her a group of ladies (West Jordan RS) and I was a happy recipient of one! THANK YOU! I love cookbooks that I can write in and alter some recipes and make them mine or just get inspired!

What started out as my Aunt Judy's red enchilada sauce that my husband said tasted like Taco Bell or frozen dinner sauce - He loved it! I prefer green to red sauce so I came up with this one!

Green Enchilada Sauce

3 T. butter
1 large diced onion
2 garlic cloves chopped
3 T. flour
2 cans mild green chillies
1 packet veggie broth
3 Cups water
S & P to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the diced onion and chopped garlic. Saute until clear. Then add the flour and let it cook for a couple minutes. Add the chillies, veggie broth, water and S & P. Let this boil and then simmer on low.

Use for enchiladas, burritos or just dip fresh tortillas in it. The longer it simmers the tastier and thicker it gets!

* I use Trade Joe's veggie or chicken broth packets that I had shipped over to Switzerland. If you are using a can of broth just make sure your total liquid is 3 cups!

Last night I added some ground beef! Do you want to know my secret for eating less meat? When I was sauteing the ground beef in onions and garlic I food choppered tons of mushrooms so they were the size of the diced onions. I could not even taste anything different. SHHH! I sauteed a big pan of my meat mushroom combo and then froze half of it. It was so easy to throw the defrosted cooked "meat" into the sauce.

Refried Beans

This is what we do for refried beans over here where they are around $4 A CAN! I take 1 can of refried beans (preferably one from Costco's 8 pack) and 1 can of pinto beans from Migros! Drain the water if you would like. I like them kind of saucy, so I don't always drain!

It makes a lot but you can add them to enchiladas the next day or make them into bean dip by adding sour cream, salsa, cheese, and garlic salt just to eat with tortilla chips!

* Aldi has the best tortilla chips that don't cost SFR 10! Look for the green bag!

Guten Appetit - Jenna!

7 comments:

Tania said...

Awesome! I'm most certainly going to make this! The ones you made for us when Kayleigh was born were so delicious and I am looking forward to making a heap of these!

Tanya D said...

Can't wait to make flour tortillas - yours are so yummy! I'm having my mom send me some mild green chiles in my next care packages so I can make your sauce. Yay!

Dolly said...

We live next door to a little Mexican family-they own a restaurant here in town. Fabulous food!

My husband would be so proud of me if I had enchiladas for dinner one night! Our favorite♥ :)

cowgurs said...

jenna! it's me, emily cowgur from long ago bunko! invite to your blog PLEASE so that i can know your swiss world! i miss your fiestieness. please tell me you use true jenna colorful language in your other blog, cause this is sooo tame for you. :)

Marcina said...

Yummy! I was looking for a good tortilla recipe, thanks!

Starr said...

Hi, I'm another American expat, living in England. All those yummy Mexican goodies that just can't be found in the EU can break your heart. I've loved making semi-homemade refried beans using the recipe on Homesick Texan's blog.

P.S. I found you from the comment on cjane -- Courtney & Stephanie are amazing! Did you know Steph when in Mesa? We were in the same ward in New Jersey a few years ago.

Jen said...

Ok... I don't visit your blog nearly as often as i NEED to! I'm sitting at the library while Porter is at school. Won't get home till 5pm. Might be too late for me to whip out a batch of tortillas tonight but tomorrow it's another mom's turn for carpooling so maybe I can give this a try then.

THANK you!!! You're the bomb girl!