Enchiladas

Enchiladas were a evening meal staple growing up,or a lunch special in the school cafateria. My mother, multi-generational native of Central Texas, learned this recipe from my grandmother. Note that there are many kinds of enchiladas – green chile, chicken, red chili, beef, cheese – to name a few.

An enchilada is a corn or flour tortilla rolled around a filling and covered with a chili pepper sauce. Enchiladas can be filled with a variety of ingredients, including meat, cheese, beans, potatoes, vegetables, seafood or a combination of those. As an original Mexican street food enchiladas were simply corn tortillas dipped in chili sauce and eaten without fillings. From my youth I remember a gravy style enchiladas that were the dominant variety of enchilada found throughout Southern and Central Texas. These have a gravy-like chili sauce over either cheese filled or beef filled corn tortillas and are topped with a layer of cheese.

I suppose these are what I will put together, most recipes would ask for ground beef, but I am going to play close to vegetarian here.

Chili gravy is a cross-breed of flour-based gravy and chile sauce. It’s a smooth and silky substance, with lots of cumin, smoky chiles and pungent garlic. It’s not horribly hot, but it does have flavor. Traditionally, there’s no meat in chili gravy—it’s just fat, flour, chicken broth and spices. I’ve gone round and round trying to put this together, I had to call my sister to get my mothers recipe.

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