Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Enchilada-town.

I believe I have mentioned before how much Andy and I dig on Mexican food -- we srsly like it.  I also believe I have previously mentioned that I am completely an utterly aware of the fact that our Mexican food is by no means authentic.  But, for lack of a better term, I still call it Mexican, or to be more precise: Mexican-ish.

We try to avoid cooking in the oven in the summer, so our Mexican-ish dishes become nachos, burritos, and salads.  But, we've had a few rainy days, meaning the temperature has dropped to a nice, cool 30 C, so we've taken advantage of the opportunities by making enchiladas.

We've had two recent winners in the enchilada realm.

First, inspired by my favourite chocolaterian, Hannah, and one of her recent chocolate reviews, we made enchiladas with choc-chilli-lime sauce.  Andy was so grumpy when he saw me put the block of chocolate into this tomatoey sauce, certain I was ruining his delicious sweet potato & bean filling.  But, once they were cooked he admitted that the sauce went beautifully with the enchiladas and provided the perfect amount of richness, tanginess, and earthiness simultaneously.

For the next batch, I was in the mood for green sauce.  But, we didn't have any typical green sauce ingredients (tomatillos, green chillis, etc).  So I improvised with a spinachy-gravy-type sauce, spiked with lime and hot sauce.  The filling was grated sweet potato and mushrooms.  Again, Andy was sceptical that these would be any good, but he gobbled up five or six of them in one sitting, so I think they passed the test.

Those are smashed potatoes on the side, an idea we've taken from BrisVegan and ran with in the past few weeks.  Smooshy, crispy, salty and oily, they are like a delicious lovechild of chips and mash potatoes, and we can't seem to get enough.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

enchiladas are some of my favorite foods, definitely my fave mexican food! oh and re your next post: sometimes i hvae issues commenting on your blog but if i'm persistent it's usually ok

Hannah said...

*blushes* I dare to say that this chocolate-inspired dish is even more enticing than the potato peanut butter pie!

And really, you're becoming *more* super-authentic by adding chocolate - I mean, this is practically a centuries-old mole recipe, right? :D

Vaala ◪ said...

I love how 30 C is cool! That's a hot summer day in Auckland (and I'm known to complain about the heat)! Your enchiladas both sound really good especially the choc-chilli-lime one 'cause it sounds so different. I've never tried chocolate in something savoury but it sounds like it might work quite well.

Mike K said...

Enchiladas are one of my favorites - chocolate in the tomato sauce sounds fantastic, and the green sauce looks good too. Great combinations for the fillings too!