Old School Baked Enchiladas

I grew up on baked enchiladas. They aren't Mexican, but they are very much a Rancho Mexican or Cal-Mex staple. Although in general I'll do anything for green sauce, this is one time I like red.

This recipe involves a number of steps (and shortcuts), it can be pulled together in just over an hour if you're rushing, but it's better if you give yourself an hour and a half, or make the sauce and combine the filling the night before. Any sides can be prepared while they bake. The fillings are also totally flexible. When I make chicken stock, I bathe the poached chicken with the red sauce and fill the enchiladas with the chicken, caramelized onions and cotija cheese. For a great vegetarian meal, use the filling below. To go totally old-school, use shredded cheese, and maybe even a can of sliced black olives.

This recipe makes two lasagne pans of enchiladas, enough to feed a crowd, or enough for leftovers. You can easily halve the recipe, but one can of sauce isn't quite enough for a pan, so make extra sauce and freeze it.

2.5 cups crumbled cotija or shredded jack cheese
20 corn tortillas

Quick Red Sauce (adapted from Jaqueline Higuera McMahan's delightful California Rancho Cooking)
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive or canola oil
2 t crumbled Mexican oregano
1 t ground cumin
2 28-oz. cans Las Palmas mild red enchilada sauce
1 bay leaf
1-2 T brown sugar

Saute the garlic over medium heat for 1 minute till fragrant. Add the oregano and cumin, stir to combine and add a teaspoon of water. Stir again, add the red sauce and bay leaf, and bring to a simmer. Cook 5 minutes, and adjust flavor with brown sugar -- 1 T punches up the flavor, 2 dulls the inherent bitterness of the red chiles. Reserve sauce.

Vegetarian Bean Filling
1/2 yellow onion, small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 t chili powder
1 t cumin
1 t Mexican oregano, crumbled
1 t salt
1/2 red bell pepper, small dice or 1 4 oz can diced mild green chiles
2 cups cooked beans (pinto, black or your preference) or 1 16 oz can
1 cup frozen corn, thawed

Combine the above ingredients with 1/2 cup cheese and reserve.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. While oven is heating, line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and spray with a light coating of canola or olive oil. Overlap six tortillas across the pan, spary lightly with oil and continue to layer the tortillas. Place in the oven for ~5-10 minutes until they are no longer raw but are not yet stiff.

Create an assembly line: Place the stack of tortillas next to a shallow pasta bowl filled with ~1 cup of sauce. Next place a clean plate, and then a 9/13 casserole. Put a thin layer of sauce across the bottom of the pan.

Dredge a tortilla lightly with the sauce and place on the plate. Place 1/3 cup of filling down the middle, roll it up and place it seam-side down in the casserole. Continue with half the tortillas, placing 8 up the casserole and finishing with two on the side. Spread a cup of sauce over the rolled tortillas, being careful to pour along the sides and at the edges of the rolled tortillas. Sprinkle with 1 cup of cheese. Cover with foil and repeat with the second pan.

Place the pans in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes. Serve with crema Mexicana, creme fraiche or sour cream and the hot sauce of your choice. Put a gravy boat of extra sauce on the table for those who want more.

Dinners Week of 08/09

Sunday: Dinner out in Berkeley after Peter Pan

Monday: Korean Braised Tofu*, soba noodles and pan-roasted pimientos de padron and shishito peppers; blackberries, plain yogurt and brown sugar for dessert

Tofu recipe was a definite keeper, riffed off of a recipe from Quick and Easy Korean Cooking, from my beloved Chronicle Books series. The pimientos de padron have been running hot, so the folks at Happy Quail Farms suggested we buy Shishito peppers, which she described as "just like the padrons but never hot." "Really?" I asked. "Really," she assured me. Not so, they have a different, floral but slightly more bitter profile and much tougher skins. The padrons win hands-down.

Tuesday: Shrimp Egg Foo Young

We had been talking about old school childhood foods. Mana made a lightened up version with just eggs, shrimp, bean sprouts and green onions, and a light oyster sauce. It was delicious with brown rice.

Wednesday: Tacos los Altos with friends

Too hot to cook.

Thursday: Shrimp, Pea and Orzo Pasta, Green Salad and Banana Bread

Aunt D brought her A game for sure. I used the Cook's Illustrated Banana Bread recipe as usual, but replaced half the flour with w/w pastry flour. Absolutely the best ever.

Friday: Grilled flank steak, potato-stuffed pasilla and bell peppers**, cherry tomato couscous***

Shabbat dinner with friends combined with major fridge cleaning in anticipation of vacation. I came across the two sides recipes this week, each made ample use of something that needs using from the CSA box. Both were outstanding, totally worth making again. R LOVED the peppers, MZ went for the couscous salad.

Saturday: Zuni Cafe for our anniversary

*Korean Braised Tofu

This recipe should be quite spicy, but since MZ isn't there yet, I changed the recipe quite a bit and we added gochujang at the table. So this is hardly Korean at all anymore, but it is very very tasty. It was great served over soba noodles, but I really would have loved it with short-grain white rice.

1 block firm tofu

2 T canola or grapeseed oil

2 T warm water

1 t white miso

2 T soy sauce

1 T mirin

2 garlic cloves, minced or run through a garlic press

4 green onions, sliced thin on the diagonal

1 T sesame seeds

Wipe the block of tofu dry and slice the tofu into 1/2" slices. Set the slices out on a jellyroll pan lined with paper towels while assembling the rest of the ingredients. Pat the tofu slices dry on top and sides.

Heat a 10-12" nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil and when it is very hot but not yet smoking, add the tofu slices. Brown on each side ~5 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the warm water and miso, whisk, then add the remaining sauce ingredients.

When the tofu is browned on both sides, pour the sauce over and around the slices, flip any pieces with a lot of garlic on top, cover and turn heat to medium. Cook for 3 minutes and serve. Garnish with additional green onions for a shot of color.

**Potato-Stuffed Pasilla Peppers

Adapted from a recipe on the Happy Quail Farms website, this recipe reminds me of the best street tacos we've ever had, served from a cart in Mexico City's main Zocalo. The tacos included grilled steak, peppers and onions with a smear of mashed potatoes, topped with cotija cheese. They were so addictive we went there on our last night instead of someplace fancy. So it was a natural to serve this with grilled flank steak. Serves 6

6 pasilla or green bell peppers
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
¼ cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup crumbled feta
salt and pepper
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350° and lightly spray a shallow baking pan that is big enough to hold peppers snugly together, holding each other upright (use balled up foil if they need propping). Slice the top (stem end) from each pepper and set aside. Keeping pepper shells intact, remove seeds and ribs. Arrange shells in prepared dish and bake while making the filling.

In a large skillet, over medium heat, sauté onion in olive oil while chopping the flesh of the pepper tops, discarding stems. Add peppers to pan and sauté while peeling and slicing the potatoes. Add potatoes and 1/4 cup water, cover and cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring half-way through, until potatoes soften.

Remove from heat and stir in mustard, cilantro, feta, salt, and pepper. Remove partially baked pepper shells from oven and fill with potato mixture. Return to oven and bake, uncovered, until filling is golden brown and peppers are tender, about 25 minutes.

***Cherry Tomato Couscous

The perfect foil for high summer produce, this recipe came together easily, was ridiculously tasty when freshly made, and overnighted well in the fridge for a delicious cold salad the next day. I made very few changes: I used whole wheat couscous; I added 1/4 t Dijon mustard to the citrus juice mixture in the bowl prior to whisking in the EVOO to emulsify the vinaigrette; and I added three thinly sliced scallions (which, incidentally, were extremely popular with the 4 yos at the table). Another winner from 101 Cookbooks!

Lovely Leftovers: Spinach Rice Gratin from 101 Cookbooks

I love 101 Cookbooks, I almost always want to make whatever Heidi sends out, although sometimes it takes me a while to get to the recipe. This one is in such perfect alignment with my refrigerator that I made it immediately -- and was not disappointed. It's easy to make and the results are savory and nutritious, and my refrigerator is a better place for it. Plus it was delicious and filling straight out of the fridge as I dashed out this morning.

I used a combination of spinach, baby chard and turnip greens because that's what I had from my CSA box, and I added an extra egg because the mixture seemed dry to me. I also used black oil-cured olives, but I think any flavorful olives would add that salty dimension such a simple combination requires. I was also skittish about the raw onions -- would they be too crisp, too strong? But no, it works well and added lovely pink flecks. And finally, I added the extra pine nuts on top, along with a light grating of cheese, before baking. It came out lovely.

Spinach Rice Gratin