We’re still trying to believe that it’s May 4th, so Cinco de Mayo has gone unnoticed by us. That’s why the Cinco de Mayo Festival we had at home last weekend was not planned. It happened when I stumbled upon a little tortillaria called Mawi on West Esplanade near Transcontinental. I was just curious, but Will Avelar, the proprietor, knew Tom from his days as chef at Delmonico, then Meril.and we struck up a conversation about his background and his career, and his plans to grow the 2-year-old business into a pupuseria. He talked about the growth of his customer base from the Hispanic community to others from the neighborhood. He introduced me to some of the very interesting products for sale, like a special central American bean like our red bean, and the homemade tortillas as well as Mexican cheeses and other popular Mexican products you’d see down south. I was excited by this discovery, I enjoyed the visit, and I was suddenly jazzed to use these homemade tortillas. Ml and I had been talking about using some mole sauce given to us a long time ago that was in the freezer, or to make fresh mole from a Johnny Sanchez recipe we published last month. It was decided that we would make chicken enchiladas. I had some chicken breasts left from the chicken sandwich experiment the previous day.
Mary Leigh, meanwhile, was equally thrilled to work with some homemade tortillas. We had planned a while back to try our hand at making them ourselves from masa, but we wouldn’t know masa if we fell on it. We were still trying to figure out where we might find it when I stumbled on these, and they were authentic enough.
She went off to the store, probably to get away from the smell in the kitchen. I looked up chicken enchiladas and used a Bon Appetit recipe which called for garlic and beer as a marinade in which the chicken is later cooked. I added a lot of ancho chili powder and a tiny bit of cumin to the chicken. It smelled awful.
ML returned from the store about the time I took the chicken out of the pot. It shredded easily. I started some onions and bell pepper and tomatoes in a saucepan and added the shredded chicken, deglazing the pan with the garlic and beer mixture. This was shockingly delicious. I added some sour cream to this mixture and some flour to the beer broth. I took the tortillas and filled them with the chicken mixture and placed them seam down in a glass. I poured the chicken liquid over the thick tortillas and covered this in cheese, some Pepper Jack cheese, and some Tillamook cheddar. After a light dusting of Ancho Chili powder, it went into the oven to bake at 400 degrees.
Meanwhile, ML returned from the store and loaded up the Big Green Egg with poblano peppers, flank steak, tomatoes, and jalapenos. When this was roasted ears of corn followed. She made a smoky salsa and a bean and corn salad. We heated some Colby jack and pepper jack in a saucepan with a little cream, and this was a complete failure as a queso. We knew immediately that it wouldn’t work, when the melting point was not easily reached. ML also made guacamole, and I fried some of the tortillas, which were also too thick for frying, This was also terribly disappointing.
The enchiladas came out of the oven beautiful, with fat from the melted cheese bubbling around the perimeter of the dish.
It was a beautiful but enormous spread of food. It was also very good. The enchiladas were a little dry but had an excellent flavor. The flank steak was just about perfect and was sliced in thin slices for tacos.
Mary Leigh's smoky salsa is always a hit, and what is ever wrong with guacamole? We’ll be eating this long past Cinco de Mayo, but it’s hard to stop when you get carried away.
Avocado Crema
1 avocado
1 lime
½ cup sour cream
Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
Steak Marinade
½ cup olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lime
1 Tbs Ancho Chile powder
½ tsp Guajillo Chile powder
Mary Leigh’s Salsa Verde
8 tomatillos grilled until there is no hard surface
1 cup chopped cilantro
½ small white onion chopped
1 charred jalapeno
1 charred poblano
1-2 limes
Combine all ingredients in the food processor. Add salt to taste.
For Red Salsa (Add these ingredients to the Salsa Verde)
Add 3 tomatoes grilled till perimeter is soft
⅓ small purple onion
Chicken Enchiladas (makes 8)
8 corn tortillas
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans of beer
6 cloves garlic, preferably roasted
1 tsp cumin
2 Tbs Ancho Chili powder
½ small purple onion chopped
½ or whole jalapeno chopped fine to taste
1 small can of tomato paste
1 cup of chicken stock
2 Tbs flour
6-8 oz sour cream
1 chopped tomato
1 Tbs butter
1 lb Pepper Jack cheese and Cheddar grated
Marinade chicken breast in garlic and beer for an hour.
Put this whole marinade in a dutch oven. Simmer chicken in beer and garlic until it starts falling apart. Shred it.
Add tomato paste and chicken stock to the beer and reduce it on low heat.
In a skillet on high, heat butter till melted and add onions, jalapeno, and tomato, then add chicken. When this sticks, deglaze the pan with some of the marinade. Add the sour cream until the mixture resembles enchiladas filling. Turn off the heat and let this cool.
Back to the dutch oven liquids. Whisk in the flour and simmer some more, until this looks like a thickish sauce.
Fill tortillas and turn them upside down in a dish. Seam down. Pour the sauce over the tortillas and cover with cheese. Dust a little Ancho CHili powder on the top.
Bake at 400 until the cheese is melted and a little crusted.
