Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Last of the Enchiladas Verdes!

I love summer but honestly, I am so very much looking forward to fall when I can get more chiles and tomatoes.  I've now just used up the last of my green enchilada sauce on a casserole dish of enchiladas stuffed with summer veggies.

The beauty of having a stock of homemade red and green enchilada sauce in jars is that I can make up the enchiladas with whatever I have at hand - I have used tofu, seitan, potatoes, any number of veggies, nut cheeses - you name it. I end up making enchiladas with the same stuffing maybe twice - and then move on. Here are instructions for tonight's dinner of:


Summer Veggie Stuffed Green Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1/2 med-large red onion, 1/4" dice
1-2 summer squash, 1/4" dice (you need about one generous cup of diced squash)
3-5 orange & white Chantenay carrots, 1/4" dice
3/4 cup corn kernels (froz or fresh)
4 cloves of garlic, pressed or finely minced
1 serrano chile, stemmed & seeded, finely minced
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tb cumin seed
1/2 tsp whole white pepper
extra virgin olive oil, as needed
2 pint jars of green enchilada sauce
1 c toasted pumpkin seeds
1 package corn tortillas (12 ct)

Directions:
  1. Heat up a large cast iron skillet with 2 Tb or so drizzled olive oil.
  2. Sautee the carrots until they start to get browned and soften.  
  3. Add chile, onions & garlic and sautee til soft. Stir to prevent sticking.
  4. Add squash & corn.
  5. In a separate dry pan, toast the cumin seed and white pepper - grind in a spice grinder and add to the cooking veggies.
  6. In the dry pan, spread the pumpkin seeds and toast - medium flame, move them to keep them from burning but not so much as to dissipate heat.  They should pop like popcorn.  Once they are toasted, remove from heat in a cool dish (they will continue to cook and scorch in the hot pan).
  7. Spread 1/2 c of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 7" x 11" glass baking dish.  Put one tortilla in the pan, spoon some filling onto it.  Make sure it goes all the way out to the edge and roll it up.  Push it to the end of the pan.  The sauce on the outside of the tortilla helps soften it up and helps distribute the sauce a bit between the stuffed tortillas.  
  8. Fill the rest of the tortillas - just squish them in together - if you run out of space and have extra tortillas, usually I'll have 1 or 2 extra - shred the tortilla into bits, ladle more sauce on the enchiladas, and then place the tortilla bits in areas that have space or where tortillas may have split when you rolled them up. 
  9. Pour on the rest on the rest of the enchilada sauce, encouraging it to go down the sides into the ends of the stuffed tortillas with a spatula or spoon.
  10. Bake in preheated 350 oven for 20-30 minutes until tortillas are softened. Sprinkle generously with salted toasted pumpkin seeds and serve.

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