Mexican Dishes: Enchiladas

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From One Hundred & One Mexican Dishes by May E. Southworth, 1906.

Enchiladas are made of tortillas sprinkled with cheese, onion, olives, etc. They are adorned with lettuce leaves and radishes, but are always covered with hot chile sauce.

Tortillas are the national staple article of food, and are made of Indian corn ground on the metate, mixed with a little water and cooked on a flat surface over hot coals.

Sauces for Enchiladas

Chile

Cut open two chiles and take out all the seeds and thick yellow veins; put them on the back of the stove in cold water enough to cover them and let soak for two hours. Pour off this water and cover again with fresh water and boil fifteen minutes. Drain in a colander and save the water in which they were last boiled. When cold enough to handle, take a knife, scrape off all the pulp from the skin, and put in the water in which they were boiled and mix thoroughly. Fry two onions chopped fine in olive-oil to a delicate brown; add a teaspoonful of flour and allow that to brown also. Stir in the chile mixture, season with salt and let all thicken together.

Cold Colorado

Cook for fifteen minutes a half-pound of large Mexican sweet red peppers, after removing the seeds of all but two or three.

Take off the skin, put the pulp through a sieve and add one and a half tablespoonfuls of the Mexican sausage, salt and a little of the water in which the peppers were boiled. Bottle tightly and it will keep about three weeks in a cool place.

Mexican Chile

Toast ten chiles anchos (the dried pepper in the broad shape) and ten chiles posillos (the dried pepper in the thin shape), take out the veins and seeds and soak them in a quart of boiling water. Pass through a sieve twice, getting out all the pulp, and fry this chile liquor in two tablespoonfuls of boiling lard, which has been thickened with a tablespoonful of browned flour. While boiling add salt, a pinch of Mexican sausage, a pinch of sugar, a teaspoonful of cider-vinegar and a tablespoonful of oil. Cook all together in the lard for fifteen minutes.

Salsa Nuez

Scald and peel two tomatoes; add a minced onion and a few pepper seeds, season with salt and stew until thick. Strain and add a few chopped green walnut meats. Reheat and serve hot. This sauce is also used with fried peppers.

Tomato

Boil two pounds of tomatoes in a very little water and then rub them through a coarse sieve. Grind fine a half-pound of raisins, a quarter of a pound of blanched almonds, an ounce of garlic, an ounce of green ginger and a half-ounce of dried chiles; add these to the strained tomatoes with an ounce of salt, a half-pound of sugar and a pint of vinegar. Boil all together until thick.

Tortillas

Hecho en Casa

Take three cupfuls of sifted flour, a tablespoonful of lard, a level teaspoonful of salt and enough water to make it like pastry dough. Roll very thin and cut the size of a dessert plate. Have ready in a large frying-pan some hot lard, enough to float the tortillas, but not so hot as to brown them. Put in the tortillas, one at a time, and when they begin to blister they are done. This quantity will make about two dozen.

Tortillas de Patatas

Work a large cold boiled potato with a big teaspoonful of lard and a teaspoonful of salt into a pint of flour and add water until about the consistency of bread dough. Knead thoroughly and divide into chunks about the size of an egg and roll very thin. Brown very quickly on a smooth hot stove, turning often. When thoroughly cooked, place between a cloth and keep covered in this way until ready to use.

Enchiladas

Americano

Cut six large red chile peppers in halves, remove the seeds and veins and cook in boiling water fifteen minutes, then press through a colander. The sauce should be thick and smooth. Chop the dark meat of a cold cooked chicken, season with salt and add two tablespoonfuls of the pepper pulp. Beat two eggs without separating, very light, and add a cupful of milk. Mix a half-cupful of corn-meal with a cupful of flour and a little salt; pour the egg and milk in this, making a thin batter. Put a little olive-oil in a frying-pan, and when boiling hot turn in enough batter to make a thin cake about six inches in diameter. Shake the pan until the mixture is set, then put two tablespoonfuls of the chicken mixture on one side of the cake, roll with a knife and remove to the serving-dish. When all are made pour over the remaining chile sauce and sprinkle the whole with grated Parmesan cheese.

Domestico

Have ready two cupfuls of cold cooked chicken cut into small bits, over which pour the juice of a lemon and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Also chop two onions very fine and three hard-boiled eggs; grate a pound of good cheese, wash a large cupful of raisins and dry them; have three dozen green or ripe olives handy and the chile sauce piping hot. Dip the tortillas in the hot sauce, place on a large platter and on one-half of it put a little of the onion, egg, chicken, cheese, two raisins, one olive, and lastly a spoonful of the chile sauce. Fold over the other half and roll slightly. When they are all finished, sprinkle cheese over all and pour over what chile sauce is left.

Mexican

Boil eight large Mexican peppers until tender; remove skin and seeds and put the pulp through a sieve. Into two tablespoonfuls of smoking hot olive oil put two sections of garlic, a teaspoonful of fine marjoram and salt; add the pepper-pulp and cook slowly. Chop two onions very fine, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with a little marjoram and let stand in a very little vinegar.

Grate a pound of Edam cheese. Strain the sauce and return to the stove; dip a tortilla in the sauce, place on a plate and spread it with a teaspoonful, each, of the drained onion and the cheese; add two olives, two large seedless raisins and a tablespoonful of the chile. Roll the tortilla and sprinkle each with onion and cheese. After all are made, pour over the remaining chile and garnish with olives.

Nativo

Buy a dozen tortillas and put on a tin in the oven to keep warm. Remove veins and seeds from a half-dozen chile peppers and boil them with a small onion and a clove of garlic until all are soft. Press through a colander, with the water in which they were boiled and return the sauce to the stove to keep hot. Tear three heads of lettuce into bits, cover with a French dressing and mix with it a cupful of chopped olives and six hard-boiled eggs, chopped. Drop each tortilla in hot lard for a minute, then in the sauce; place on a hot platter and put a big spoonful of the salad mixture in the center. Sprinkle generously with grated cheese and fold over one side, and roll. When all are ready pour over the remaining sauce and serve hot.

Quesadillas

Make thin corn-meal pancakes six inches across. Dip one in hot chile sauce, lay on a plate and cover with raw onion chopped fine, grated cheese and stoned olives cut in half. Lay on this six other pancakes, each dipped in the chile sauce and covered with the onion, cheese and olives. Pour the remaining sauce over the top and set in a hot oven for a few minutes. Serve hot, cutting like layer-cake.

Southworth, May E. One Hundred & One Mexican Dishes. P. Elder and Company, 1906.

May E. Southworth

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