Recipe for "enchiladas-2"

NAME

     ENCHILADAS-2 -  Enchiladas  with  meat,  black  olives,  and
     cheese
     For many years, I've been involved in Latin American ``soli-
     darity  work''  here  in  the  San  Francisco area, and as a
     result, I have learned some of its culinary pleasures.  This
     recipe  originated from the back of a can of enchilada sauce
     in Mexico, but was refined  by  a  special  Chilean  refugee
     friend  who  won  a  scholarship  to the California Culinary
     Academy (in San Francisco) and now cooks ever-so-lusciously.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 6-8)

     800 g     ground meat (mixed ground beef and ground pork)
     1         medium onion
     1/2          green pepper
     5         garlic cloves
     1 bunch   cilantro
     2.5 ml    red pepper
     2.5 ml    salt
     3-5 ml     cumin
     100 ml    wine or sherry
     90 g      black olives
     350 ml    enchilada sauce (1 can)
     100 ml    tomato sauce (1 small can)
     12        corn tortillas
     200 g     monterey jack cheese
     125 ml    sour cream (optional)
               oil

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Chop onion and garlic; place them in a frying  pan
               with  the ground meats.  Saute them without adding
               fat.
          (2)  When meat is brown, add the chopped  green  pepper
               and  most  of  the  cilantro  leaves  and cook for
               another minute  or  two  (until  green  pepper  is
               cooked bright green).
          (3)  Drain well, then add about 50 ml of the  enchilada
               sauce  and  cook  for  a  few  minutes longer. Set
               aside.
          (4)  Make the sauce:  into a saucepan, pour the remain-
               ing  enchilada  sauce (from the can).  Add the can
               of tomato sauce.  Add the wine or  sherry,  cumin,
               salt,  red  pepper,  and  cook  for  10-30 minutes
               (depending on how compulsive you are). The  flavor
               should be smooth (not gritty) and spicy.
          (5)  Collect together everything that you will need for
               assembling  the  enchiladas. Grate the cheese onto
               wax paper. Have the olives handy (you'll  be  cut-
               ting them in half). Lightly oil the baking dish.
          (6)  The frying pan from which  you  drained  the  meat
               mixture  still  has some of its grease left in it.
               Take 4 tortillas from their package, separate them
               from  each other, then one-by-one, slide them over
               the frying pan surface on each  side,  to  moisten
               them  slightly  with  the grease. That done, stack
               them in the frying pan and heat  them  until  they
               are soft and pliable.
          (7)  The final  assembly requires a bit of manual  dex-
               terity  and  speed:  Take the tortillas, and place
               them (bumpy side out) in  the  oven  dish,  curved
               into  a ``U'' shape, each right next to its neigh-
               bor.  (At this point, start heating  your  next  4
               tortillas  in  the  frying pan.  I usually wind up
               preparing 10 tortillas in all.)
          (8)  Place a small handful of cheese into the U of each
               tortilla,  followed  by  an  appropriate amount of
               meat mixture, and finally  several  olive  halves.
               Then  curl  one end of the tortilla around to tuck
               into the opposite end, and carefully rotate it  to
               conceal  the seam.  Each tortilla should be filled
               firmly (not too loosely) but not  overflowing  the
               ends.
          (9)  Once all the filling is used up and the enchiladas
               are  now filled tortillas, pour the sauce over the
               top, helping it run into all the crevices.  Sprin-
               kle lightly with remaining cilantro leaves.
          (10) Cover with aluminum  foil  and  bake  for  20 - 30
               minutes, just until the tortillas are soft and the
               sauce is slightly bubbly. Let sit for  5  minutes,
               then serve, topped with a dollop of sour cream.

NOTES

     If you fail to drain the meat well  enough,  the  enchiladas
     will  be greasy.  If overbaked, it tastes all right, but the
     tortillas lose  their  texture.  In  general,  however,  the
     recipe  is quite forgiving in its proportions.  Feel free to
     adjust the seasoning to your own tolerance for hot spice.  I
     like  to assemble this recipe at least 3 hours before baking
     to give the flavors a chance to blend. Left refrigerated for
     a day, the seasoning is even less aggressive.  Served with a
     salad (and some Mexican beer), it's a complete meal.

RATING

     Difficulty: moderate.  Time: 1 hour preparation, 30  minutes
     baking.  Precision: Approximate measurement OK, but time the
     baking carefully.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Karen Kerschen
     EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., USA
     karen@silvia.Berkeley.EDU