November 11, 2012 Dinner - Shrimp Enchiladas with a Tomatilla Sauce and Lance Armstrong

November 11, 2012 Dinner - Shrimp Enchiladas with a Tomatilla Sauce

Luke and Willy were here for breakfast, which was eggs and bacon and fruit salad I made during the morning news programs from the PPI half of the Crenshaw melon from our garden and papaya bought last week at Pro’s Ranch Market and a pineapple ($.99/lb.) and three kiwi fruits (5 for $1.00 at Pro’s) Suzette and I purchased yesterday at Pro’s and the juice of one large lime ($.33/lb. at Pro’s).

After breakfast Suzette and I rearranged and hung pictures to get everything off the floor and then we went to Costco to buy black beans and a few things for Suzette’s business. 

We arrived home at around 3:30 p.m. and we peeled shrimp for the enchiladas and I rode abut five miles in a high cold wind and came home to watch the last quarter of the Dallas v. Philadelphia game while Suzette constructed a platter of enchiladas with the shrimp and the tomatilla sauce she made last night.

Last weekend we picked the tomatillas from our garden.  Although they were not fully developed due to late planting in July, we still had a basket full of them.  On Saturday Suzette chopped them up and cooked them with onion, garlic, chicken stock and dried oregano into a thick sauce.  They are slightly gelatinous when cooked. 

Then Suzette constructed the enchiladas by sautéing the shrimp with chopped onion, garlic, red bell pepper and oregano and then filling corn tortillas heated in the microwave with cheese and the sautéed shrimp mixture and laying the enchiladas in a large pyrex baking dish and covering them with the tomatilla sauce.

unfortunately, Suzette forgot to spread a thin layer of the sauce on the bottom of the dish before laying the filled tortillas in the dish so the enchilada's bottoms were tough.  Also the problem was compounded, because the shredded asadero cheese we chose was not a good melting cheese ($2.99/lb. at Pro’s Ranch Market).  So Suzette blended the sauce and cheese together to emulsify the cheese into the sauce and covered the enchiladas with the blended cheese and tomatilla sauce and then sprinkled cojita cheese on top and baked it in a 350° oven for about 45 minutes until the enchiladas bubbled.  The final result was wonderful; a pastry like tortilla coated with a thick sauce that was like something between a cake and a stew, but neither.  Not the gooey mess one finds at restaurants that use good melting cheeses.

Suzette heated the black beans in a skillet with about 1 Tbsp each of few chopped onion and red bell pepper and I chopped up about 2 Tbsp. of fresh cilantro ($.33/bunch at Pro’s on Saturday and sliced up one half of a small avocado (4 for $1.00 at Pro’s).  Suzette served  a wedge of enchiladas and we each served ourselves a large scoop of black beans and garnished the top of the enchiladas and beans with chopped cilantro, slices of avocado and dollops of crema con sal (Pro’s Ranch Market $1.69/lb.).

We drank Kirtland beer with the dinner and watched the doping case against Lance Armstrong for a rather somber dinner time. 

A bit of history.  Luke, Suzette, Luke's friend Angele and I took a trip to France in 2005 and were on the mountain finish of the 15th stage of the Tour de France in the French Pyrennes south of Lourdes (Luz de Ardins?) on what was perhaps the greatest day of bike racing in Lance's career where Lance caught the strap of a child's mossette along the side of the road about 300 yards above us and fell and Tyler Hamilton made the other leaders wait for Lance to get up and remount his bike, which had a bent frame and stuck brake pad and commence to race with a vengance that took him well past the group of lead riders in the GC and past a young rider who had ridden on a breakaway ahead of the pack to convincingly win the stage.  There can be no greater evidence to me of Lance's ability and determination. We had parked in the town town at the base of the mountain and walked up about two miles of the 9 degree 7 mile ascent of the mountain and stopped at an outdoor cafe constructed at a campground beside the road to eat and drink and wait for the riders to pass, because we could not or would not walk any further.   As Lewis Black said on the Jon Stewart show, he had to take drugs just to watch the Tour on T.V.  I think we should acknowledge that it requires drugs to compete successfully in a grand tour like the Tour de France and let everyone dope and see who is the best rider under the same daunting conditions of a grand tour.  I suspect that Lance would have won under any evenly matched race over the same terrain and weather conditions, as he did seven times in a row and a third finish since.  He proved to me that day that he is one of the greatest atheletes of all time.  

The enchiladas were incredibly delicious and filling.  I had not desire to eat anything else other than a few extra bites of enchilada and beans.  I guess a fair assessment of the meal was that it was a wonderful success with a few small issues that were obvious and could be fixed easily.  We have never made tomatilla sauce with our own home grown tomatillas before, so this was a very exciting meal and incredibly fresh tasting.   

Bon Appètit