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Really Good Chicken Enchiladas

The best Mexican food isn’t always in Mexico, but the good dishes that turn up here are usually just a step away from their place of origin.

And so it was with the chicken enchiladas that I came across recently at Miracle Springs Resort & Spa in Desert Hot Springs.

They were a special for lunch the day that I arrived for a short vacation, and because I adore Mexican food, I had to find out their origin and get the recipe.

The person responsible did indeed come from Mexico.  Cecilia Ortega, who is a sous chef at the resort, grew up in Acatlan de Osorio in the state of Puebla, Mexico. And she certainly knows how to deal with chiles.

Her sauce is simple and straightforward, just dried red chiles soaked until soft, then pureed with onion, garlic and oregano. The filling is shredded chicken, mixed with a little of the sauce. The remainder goes over the top along with plenty of cheese and a scattering of sliced olives and green onions.

The recipe is long, but not difficult. The best procedure is to make the sauce one day, then cook the chicken and assemble and bake the enchiladas the next day. I’ve broken the recipe down into stages to make it easier to follow.

The California chiles that Cecilia uses are mild, so if you want a spicy dish, try blending a jalapeno chile with the sauce. Cecilia serves the enchiladas with beans and rice. Or you can lighten up as I did by substituting a lettuce and avocado salad for the heftier accompaniments.

CECILIA’S CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

12 dried California chiles (about 3 ounces)
¾ onion
3 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon oregano
7 1/2 cups water, about
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt or to taste
4 bone-in chicken thighs (about 1 ¼ pounds)
6 black peppercorns
8 corn tortillas
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 large green onions, including some of the tops, chopped
¼ cup drained canned sliced ripe olives

The Sauce:

Place the chiles in a deep saucepan and add water to cover. Bring to a boil. Press the chiles to submerge in the water. Turn off the heat and let them stand until softened, about 20 minutes. Drain

Remove the stems from the chiles and rinse out the seeds. Place the chiles in a blender container or food processor. Add 1/2 onion, cut in chunks; 2 cloves garlic, the oregano and 1 cup water. Blend until thoroughly pureed.

Place a sieve over a large bowl and pour the pureed mixture into the sieve, about 1/3 at a time. Press to extract the chile mixture and eliminate the skins. Rinse out what remains in the blender with another 1 cup water and put through the sieve.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add the chile sauce and bring to a boil. Rinse out the chile sauce container with a little more water and add to the pan with 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. The sauce can be made in advance to this point and set aside for later or refrigerated overnight.

The Chicken:

Remove the skin from the chicken thighs. Place in a deep saucepan and add 5 cups water, ¼ onion in one piece, 1 clove garlic, ½ teaspoon salt and the peppercorns.  Bring to a boil and skim. Reduce the heat and simmer, loosely covered, for 1 hour.

Drain the chicken and reserve the broth for another use. With 2 forks, shred the chicken and discard the bones. There should be at least 2 cups. Stir 1/4 cup of the chile sauce into the shredded chicken and set aside.

Enchilada Assembly:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat ½ cup oil in a small skillet. Add 1 tortilla and fry just until softened. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

Place 1/8 of the chicken mixture (about ¼ cup) on each tortilla. Roll and place seam side down in a 10x6 glass baking dish or other oblong baking dish.

When all the enchiladas are assembled, cover with the sauce, then with the Cheddar cheese. Sprinkle with the green onions and sliced olives.

Cover the dish with foil and bake at 350 degrees until heated through, 45 to 50 minutes. Uncover and let stand a few minutes before serving.

Makes 8 enchiladas or 4 servings.

A Beautiful Bowl of Red

The beef in red chile sauce that I ate at La Michoacana in Desert Hot Springs was so delicious that I determined to copy it. One taste simply wasn’t enough.

The restaurant provided enough hints to give me a start, and I filled in details based on long years of studying and cooking Mexican food.

The result is very good. It’s not quite as tangy as La Michoacana’s version, which is not a fault. The next time I might add a couple more tomatillos, the small green tomatoes that add an acidic note to Mexican salsas.

The color is the same vibrant red. And the flavor is slightly spicy. I think I was using the same dried California chiles as La Michoacana, because I bought them in Desert Hot Springs, down the road from the restaurant. 

Other California chiles might be milder, but you can always doctor the sauce to make it as spicy as you like. You can also use the sauce as a marinade for thin cut pork chops or milanesas. Grill or shallow-fry them and you have another delicious dish, carne adobada.

CARNE DE RES EN CHILE COLORADO
Beef in Red Chile Sauce

2 ½ pounds beef for stewing
5 cups water
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
2 ½ teaspoons salt, or to taste
10 dried California chiles, about 2 ½ ounces
½ pound tomatillos
¾ pound tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
6 black peppercorns
4 whole cloves
¼ teaspoon ground cumin

Cut the beef into bite-size pieces. Place in a Dutch oven. Add the water, a wedge of onion (about 1/3 of the onion), 1  clove garlic and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil and skim the surface. Lower the heat, cover and simmer 1 hour. Drain the meat, reserving the broth. Return the meat to the Dutch oven.

Meanwhile, spray a large heavy griddle with nonstick spray or coat lightly with oil. Heat over medium high heat. Place the chiles on the hot griddle and roast a minute or so, until fragrant. Do not allow them to darken and burn.

Remove the chiles from the griddle and place them in a large saucepan. Add water to cover. Bring to a rolling boil. Press the chiles down into the water. Turn off the heat and let them soak until softened, about 20 minutes.

Cut the remaining onion into 2 or 3 pieces and remove the husks from the tomatillos. Peel the remaining 2 cloves garlic.

Place the onion, tomatillos, tomatoes and the garlic on the hot griddle and roast until spotted with brown. Remove and let cool.

Drain the softened chiles. Remove the stems and rinse out the seeds. Place the roasted onion pieces, tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic cloves and the chiles in a blender container or food processor. and blend until smoothly pureed. You do not need to add liquid in order to blend.

Pour the mixture in batches into a sieve over a large bowl. Press to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids. Rinse out the blender with ½ cup of the reserved beef broth, and strain into the bowl. Strain the remaining broth. Set aside 1 cup and reserve the remainder.

Add the chile mixture to the beef in the Dutch oven. Add the reserved 1 cup beef broth, the remaining 1½ teaspoons salt, the oregano, peppercorns, cloves and cumin. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, 45 minutes. If the sauce should become too thick, thin with a little of the reserved broth.  Taste and add more salt if needed.

Serve with rice. Add refried beans to the plate if wanted.

Makes 6 servings.

Rosa's Mexican Lentil Soup

Good recipes turn up in the oddest places, like a thrift shop in Desert Hot Springs. I was  poking through the dishes when I ran into Rosa, who was discussing something in Spanish with her daughter.

What I wanted wasn’t a plate or a cup, but a restaurant close by where I could get genuine Mexican food.

Rosa knew of just one such place, her home. On that day she was planning to make lentil soup, carne asada and salsa, with fresh tortillas on the side. I couldn’t linger, but I did get Rosa’s recipe for sopa de lentejas, a Mexican style lentil soup with tomatoes, cilantro and a touch of heat from jalapeno chile.

Rosa adds crumbled bacon at the end, just a little, but it makes a big difference.  “You got to let it simmer so everything can come together,” she said.  And it does. The  bacon gently infuses the soup with its flavor.   

Rosa’s soup makes a wonderful dinner, along with a green salad, hot corn tortillas and fresh limeade—at least that’s the way I serve it. It’s a far better addition to my table than one more thrift shop plate.

ROSA’S SOPA DE LENTEJAS
(Lentil Soup)

1 cup lentils
1 tablespoon oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 small cloves garlic, minced
½ jalapeno chile, sliced, optional
1 pound tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup cilantro leaves
5 cups water
1 ½ teaspoons salt, or to taste
3 slices bacon, cooked crisp, drained well, then crumbled

Sort the lentils and wash them thoroughly. Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan. Add the onion, garlic and chile slices and cook until the onion is tender, about 7 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and cilantro and cook 3 minutes, mashing the tomatoes into the mixture as they soften.

Add the water and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, loosely covered, 30 minutes. Add the bacon and simmer gently 10 minutes longer to blend the flavors. Taste and add more salt if needed..

Makes 4 main dish servings or 8 servings as a first course. 

The Best Enchiladas Ever

It’s easy to make enchiladas. Just roll tortillas around cheese, pour canned enchilada sauce on top and bake. Well, if you insist. But that’s not the way I do it. I make enchiladas to enjoy the rich and varied flavors of dried chiles, which a commercial sauce can’t duplicate. 

The best chiles I have worked with came from Ensenada. Walking along Juarez (5th Street), I came across an open-air shop that displayed the most beautiful chiles I have ever seen. They were freshly dried, soft and silky, unlike older, stiff chiles that crack apart when you handle them.

I bought sacks of guajillo and California chiles and made enchiladas with them as soon as I got home.  They were wonderful, some of the best I have ever produced.  To brighten the color of the sauce, I blended in tomatoes, and I filled the tortillas only with cheese, and not too much of that, because I wanted to emphasize the rich chile flavors of the sauce, not the filling.

Enchiladas are forgiving. You can vary the chiles according to taste. New Mexico chiles will add more heat than California chiles, for example. Once I had only dried anchos on hand and no tomatoes.  They produced a dark, intense sauce that was very good in its own way.

The procedure is easy and not time-consuming.  Pressing pureed chiles through a sieve is a bit messy, but that’s the worst of it. The best is enjoying the wonderful aromas as you roast the chiles, grind them and cook the sauce. You can’t get that out of a can.   

ENSENADA ENCHILADAS
Oil
4 dried California chiles
9 dried guajillo chiles
2 roma tomatoes, about ½ pound
¼ medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 ½ teaspoons chicken seasoned stock base
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon flour
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
Salt
8 corn tortillas
3 cups shredded cheese, such as a mixture of Jack and Longhorn
1 onion, finely chopped
3 green onions, including some of the tops, chopped

Lightly oil a griddle and heat over moderate heat. When hot, add the California and guajillo chiles and toast lightly. This should take only a few seconds. Be careful not to burn the chiles. Place them in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand until very soft.

Drain the chiles, reserving the soaking liquid. There should be at least 2 ½ cups.  Remove the stems and seeds and place the chiles in a blender container.

On the same griddle, roast the tomatoes, onion quarter and peeled garlic cloves until spotted with brown. Add to the blender. Add the chicken stock base and ½ cup of the reserved chile soaking liquid.  Blend until pureed. 

Pour the sauce into a sieve over a bowl and work through as much of the pureed mixture as possible. Discard the solids.  Rinse out the blender with 1 cup reserved soaking liquid and strain into the bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium saucepan. Add the cumin seeds and fry 30 seconds. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add the sauce and the oregano. Season to taste with salt.  Bring slowly to a boil, stirring. Remove from heat and set aside. If the sauce  becomes too thick, thin with some of the remaining  soaking liquid.

Heat about 1/3 cup oil in a small skillet. Add the tortillas one at a time and fry on each side until puffy but not crisp. Drain on paper towels. Dip each tortilla in the sauce. Place on a plate and top with some of the cheese and chopped onion. (The green onions are for the topping.) Use about 2 cups cheese for the filling. Reserve the remainder for the topping.

Roll up each filled tortilla and place seam side down in a 13x9-inch glass baking dish. When all the enchiladas are rolled, top evenly with the remaining sauce, then with the remaining 1 cup cheese, any remaining onion and the green onions.  Bake at 350 degrees 15 minutes, until heated through.

Makes 4 servings.

Sweet Summer Calabacitas

The simplest cooking is often the best, as in this combination of squash, poblano chile and corn.

There’s no need to make it more “interesting” by devising elaborate seasonings and a clever presentation. The sweetness of summer’s fresh corn and farmer’s market zucchini is enough.

A dash of oregano delicately accents the flavor.  Or put in cilantro or nothing at all. And the chile adds just enough heat to provide character.

CALABACITAS CON CHILE POBLANO Y ELOTE
Zucchini with Poblano Chile and Corn

1 pound  zucchini
1 large poblano chile, roasted and peeled
1 ½ tablespoons butter
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 cups fresh corn kernels (2 large ears)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano, finely crushed, optional

     Cut each zucchini in half crosswise, then cut each half lengthwise into quarters. Now cut crosswise into ½-inch cubes. Discard the chile stem and seeds. Cut the chile lengthwise into ¼-inch-wide strips, then  crosswise into ½-inch pieces.

     Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion starts to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and corn and cook until the zucchini is almost tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the poblano chile, the salt and oregano and stir. Cook 2 minutes longer.

Makes 6 servings.

Fast Fish from Veracruz

The other day, I was bored with cooking (yes, it happens, even to the most dedicated of us), but starvation wasn’t an option. It was too hot to walk to the market, and I didn’t feel like driving to a restaurant.  So I poked around in the refrigerator to see what could be assembled into something reasonably edible. 

Ah, fish  Veracruz--that was it. An easy, forgiving dish.  In Veracruz each restaurant adds its own touch, which gives license to vary the sauce as you please. Mine included tomatoes, green onions, garlic, jalapeno chile, green olives from Baja and capers.

The Asian markets where I shop carry sticks of flash frozen fish, and I had a couple of these in the freezer. I didn’t even bother to thaw the fish, just sprinkled it with lemon juice and salt and placed it in the sauce to simmer until done.

To go with this, I made rice. Plain white rice would have been fine, but I like to get a little fancy as long as it doesn’t take work, so I put in a dash of a powdered condiment for rice that I had bought in Buenos Aires. This colored the rice yellow. And I speckled it with black Indian kalonji seeds. Meanwhile, I steamed some broccoli.

And there it was, a fine dinner produced by a bored cook in less than half an hour.

FAST FISH VERACRUZ

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 green onions, chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
3 roma tomatoes (about ¾ pound), peeled and chopped
3 slices jalapeno chile
Salt
Dash freshly ground black pepper
5 or 6 small green olives
½ teaspoon capers
1 (6-  to 7-ounce) frozen fish fillet
Lemon juice
Italian parsley sprigs

Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet. Add the onions and garlic and cook until tender. Add the tomatoes and chile slices and cook 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt, and grind in the pepper. Add the olives and capers and set aside.

Remove the fish from the freezer. Allow to thaw or cook frozen.  Wash, pat dry and sprinkle with lemon juice and salt.  Reheat the sauce. Lay the fish in the sauce and cook until tender, 5 to 12 minutes, depending upon whether the fish is frozen, thawed or fresh. Garnish with parsley.

Makes 1 serving.
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An East L.A. Salsa

Papaya and mango salsas may be interesting, colorful and tasty. But give me a genuine  East Los Angeles salsa any day. This one is modeled on a fresh green salsa that I tasted at Tacos Clarita, a traditional Mexican restaurant just east of downtown Los Angeles. 

The salsa was delicious spooned over a mulita, a gooey sandwich of melted Jack cheese and carne al pastor inside two large handmade corn tortillas.  It’s easy and quick to make—just grind jalapenos, tomatillos, cilantro, onion and garlic in a food processor, pour into a bowl and accompany with chips.

JALAPENO SALSA 

½ pound tomatillos
2 jalapeno chiles
2/3 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
½ cup coarsely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, halved
½ teaspoon salt

Remove the papery husks from the tomatillos and wash them well. Discard the husks. Cut the tomatillos in quarters. Cut the jalapenos in halves lengthwise. Remove and discard the stems and seeds.

Combine the tomatillos, jalapenos, cilantro, onion, garlic and salt in a food processor or blender and blend until pureed. Serve with chips.

Makes about 1 ½ cups.