I love watching the Top Chef Texas competition on Bravo. Although they claim to be impartial on the judging, I sometimes find that they tend to leave the troublemakers on till the very end. For some reason, people like to watch drama. I feel that those of us that watch it regularly watch it for the cooking. For example, I do not remember during what season, but Mike Isabella broke chef code by not only stealing Richard Blais’ dish, he also denied it! He should have been immediately eliminated, yet Top Chef grants him the winning dish and $20k. Not cool!
This week on the Texas edition, the 16 competing chefs had to create dishes for a Quinceañera. This type of celebration is big; girls are presented to Society as young women. As my husband and I were watching, I was appalled at what was being created and labeled as Mexican food. For one, this is a cooking competition, and they decided to purchase the corn and flour tortillas already made. Corn tortillas are easy to make, and flour tortillas, although hard to make, they could have purchased the ready to cook ones, which are fabulous.
My idea for this post came from the poor Keith that was eliminated because he made enchiladas with flour tortillas. When I see Keith talking about making flour tortilla enchiladas, I found myself talking to the TV saying, "flour? flour? what the hell?". The judges criticized the other chefs for not telling him that enchiladas are not made with flour. But, I actually think that they didn’t tell him because the only Mexican chef was on the other team.
Enchiladas Potosinas are little orange pockets of love! The name is taken from the city they were created in, San Luis Potosi, which is located in central Mexico. The first time I tried them was at Malinches restaurant in Monterrey, Mexico. My sister was very good friends with the owner. I used to go so often, and always eat the same thing that they did not even ask me, the just brought the enchiladas out for me. I learned how to make them and here is my way.
2 Ancho chiles,
1-large garlic clove (2 if small)
4-cups of Maseca Masa Harina
1-teaspoon salt
water as needed (to soak chiles)
1-cup shredded Chihuahua cheese
½-cup of shredded Cotija or Añejo (they are the same cheese)
Crema Mexicana
Avocado
1-sliced onion
Comal (cast-iron skillet)
Slice the onions into rings and soak in a bowl with cold water and about ¼ cup salt. This is the trick to make onions less pungent. Set aside the bowl and rinse thoroughly when you are ready to serve the enchiladas.
So here we go, soak the ancho chiles in hot water for 5-10 minutes. Once the chiles are soft, peel as much of the outer layer as you can. Remove the seeds and the veins and put in the blender, add the garlic, salt and about ¼ cup of the cooking liquid. You are looking for the consistency of a lose paste. This is what you will use to form your tortillas.
Add this pasty liquid to the masa harina. You are looking for a consistency that is not too wet, firm but soft. I always stop adding the liquid as soon as the dough forms easily into a ball and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.
I like small enchiladas, as cocktail appetizers, but you can make them the size you want. You can use the quart size ziplock bag. Open on the sides, place your tortilla ball in the middle, close the bag and use a large plate or pan to make into a tortilla. Place on the comal for 1-2 minutes only on one side. Remove and fill on the uncooked side with both cheeses. Close and make sure you press to close. You can use a fork to make sure the pocket is closed. Return to the comal and cook thoroughly, you can tell when they are cooked when the dough doesn’t look raw.
Serve them on a plate; sliced avocado on top, sliced onions, crema Mexicana drizzled on top, and prinkle with cotija cheese. They are great by themselves or accompanied by refried beans and rice. If you have left over enchiladas, cover them tightly a freeze them. They can be reheated anytime with a little oil in the pan.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
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