My favorite standby to order at a not-as-great Mexican place is cheese and onion enchiladas. You can't really mess up a cheese enchilada. Or at least that has been my experience thus far. It seems to be a safe bet whereas ordering the chicken or beef can sometimes go terribly wrong. Mom's favorite though, is a Chile Relleno. She has tried one in every place we have been to and has had some that were good and some terrible ones. When we were on vacation in Savannah, several years ago, she got a hankering for Mexican. I got out our trusty area guide and found a fancy place in town. We had passed by a hole-in-the-wall joint earlier in the week and she wanted to try that instead. It was a risk that proved a bad move. Our waiter was defiantly Puerto Rican and her Chile Relleno was a mass of meaty goo with little traces of poblano pepper covered in a bit of cheese. It seemed more like a beef and chile casserole (which actually sounds really good) and she was far from impressed. I don't even think the chips were very good-it is really sad when the chips are no good!
Another time, while she was visiting in Raleigh, Tee and I took her to our favorite downtown mexi-spot, El Rodeo. ( I love their Tierras de Pollo dish which is chicken in a spicy chipotle cream sauce) There she had a Chile Relleno that had not been battered fried and she deemed it the best yet.
This past Mother's Day was right after Cinco de Mayo and I was itching to cook up some Mexican. I decided to try my hand at Chile Rellenos for Mom and figured Cheese and Onion Enchiladas would be a nice pairing.
Everything turned out to be very good although I did run into a few minor issues with the roasting of the poblanos. I wish we had videoed me outside by the grill trying to blister the peppers with a blow torch (Mom's range is a glass flat top...no gas flame). The blow torch method didn't exactly work. It was a fun attempt.
For the sake of those looking for an easy peasy recipe, I will share my quick recipe for the cheese and onion enchiladas with you.
Easy Peasy Cheese and Onion Enchiladas (Mexika Style)
Preheat oven to 350
12 oz Mexican style cheese*
6-8 flour tortillas
1 large onion, rough chopped
3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and rough chopped
1 can green chiles
1 can enchilada sauce
*I used one package of a Kraft cheese blend with a touch of Philly cream cheese...I thought it would add a nice smoothness and it did.
1. Spray a 9x13 casserole or cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a bowl, combine 10 oz of cheese, onion, tomato, and green chiles.
3. Spoon a generous amount of the cheese mixture along the center of a tortilla.
4. Roll the tortilla around the mixture and place seam side down in the baking dish.
5. Continue until the cheese mixture is used up.
6. Pour the enchilada sauce over all and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes until bubbly!
How simple is that? There are lots of ways to tweak this recipe to your taste or even step it up by adding your own home-made sauce. You could add in ground beef or chicken. You could add jalapeno to spice them up. You could throw in some black beans or even some vegetables...like spinach or chopped zucchini. I prefer corn tortillas, but our store only carries really small corn tortillas and the flour ones are very soft so they bake with the sauce and filling to make a really nice tender enchilada.
About my Chile Rellenos...well, that's another story!
Yumalicious Dishes!
