La Enchilada, La Enchilada, dididididididididi, La Enchilada....

I love texmex (and actual Mexican) food, and it's always fun to find new, different, ways to consume many beans and spices!!

I've recently become very fond of enchiladas - they involve a lot of ingredients, and the prep time can be long, but they're actually really simple and the flavours are intense and gorgeous, and they're always an impressive dinner!! The below recipe will feed about 4 folks (or 2 folks for both dinner and the next day's lunch!!)

I make my enchiladas relatively soft on the spicy, so that the flavours can all shine through, but experiment with the levels of hotness - of the salsa, of the beans, of the salad...it's all experimentationpalooza!!

Enchiladas, ZB style

Ingredients

Bean Mix
1 can refried beans
1 can beans (red kidney, borlotti, cannelini, or even lentils!)

Salsa
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 to 2 fresh chillies, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
juice of 1 lemon
1 stock cube (optional)
splash of olive or canola oil

Guacamole
1 to 2 ripe avocados
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
juice of one lemon
1 fresh chilli, minced

Other
Tortillas (corn or wheat)
1 batch Casheez Sauce
1/3 cup kalamata olives, destoned and chopped
1/3 cup pickled chilli (jalapeno, fefforoni), chopped
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 to 2 carrots, grated
3 cobs corn
lettuce/salad leaves
1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped
juice of one lemon
ground cumin to taste
ground coriander to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
dash of olive oil

Method

Salsa

Heat the oil in a frying pan, and cook the garlic, onion and chilli until fragrant. Add the spices and cook until combined. Put in the tomato paste and mix well. Pour in the lemon juice and mix until fairly liquid. Add the can of tomatoes, and about half a can’s worth of water, as well as the stock cube. Cook until fairly thick, but still a little watery. Set about half to one side.

Beans

Put the remaining tomato mix back on the heat, and add the drained can of beans, and the refried beans. Mix until completely combined and becoming dry. Set aside.

Casheez Sauce

To the already made casheez sauce, add the chopped olives and chillies, and stir to combine. Set to one side.

Constructing the enchiladas

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius. Heat the tortillas (either in the microwave or in the oven) until softened. Pour a little of the salsa into a baking dish to cover the bottom.

Put a tortilla out flat, and put bean mix down the centre, leaving the top and bottom 2cm, and the left and right 4 cm clear of mix. Using about a third of the grated zucchini and carrot, dd grated zucchini and carrot on top of beans. Fold the top and the bottom of the tortilla in, and roll the left section over the bean mix, and keep rolling to the right. Place in the baking dish on top of the salsa.

Repeat with tortillas until you a) run out of bean mix, b) run out of tortillas, c) run out of room in the baking dish, d) run out of patience.

Pour the rest of the salsa over the now rolled tortillas in the baking dish.


Pour the olivey, chilli laden casheez sauce generously over the tortillas to fully cover.

Place the baking tray into the oven, and bake until the casheez is bubbly and gooey – about 30 minutes (though check at about 20 minutes).

Guacamole

Spoon the avocado flesh into a nice bowl. Add the minced garlic and chilli, and mash together. Pour in the lemon juice (and salt and cumin to taste, if desired), and mash until you reach your desired consistency. Set to one side.

Corn “Tyres”

Steam all 3 corn cobs until tender. Let cool a little and cut 2 of the corn cobs into “tyres” – cut the corn into half, and then those halves into thirds. Now you have tyres!! Set to one side.

Tex Mex Salad

Put the remaining grated zucchini and carrot into a bowl. Cut the corn kernels off the remaining corn cob, and add to the zucchini and carrot. Shred lettuce and coriander and add to the salad. Create a salad dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper and salt, whisk well, and pour over the salad to marinate slightly. Set to one side.


Putting it all together

Top the piping hot enchiladas with the guacamole and serve with sides of salad and corn tyres.

Eat until very full, and know that you’ve consumed many many tasty vegies!!

Vegan Cookery Classes

'kay, this is an advert!! For anyone in the Sydney area, I will be conducting an 8 week vegan cookery course starting on May 9, through the Sydney Community College.

The classes will be held at the Newtown High School of Performing Arts, and are evening classes - 6.30pm to 9pm.

The cost is $199 for the full eight weeks. That includes facilities and foods! I will be sourcing my veges and fruit through www.lettucedeliver.com.au, and am hoping to get a couple of local health food stores on board re sourcing exotic vegan ingredients!!

The full class size is 16, and I need a minimum of 8 enrolments for the class to go ahead. You can book online here.

This is the first time I've ever done anything like this, so everything is a learning experience! If it goes well, I'm hopeful that the class will roll over into the next semester.

I really hope to see a great turnout, and a nice cross section of folks - vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, vege-curious....All are welcome!!