December 9, 2014 Green Cornish Hen Enchiladas, Guacamole and octopus salad

December 9, 2014 Green Cornish Hen Enchiladas, Guacamole and octopus salad

First, I apologize to those who regularly follow this column.  When I am on deadline for a court filing, as I was this week, things can get strung out a bit.

Second, Cornish Game Hen Enchiladas is a slight misnomer.  The original intent was to make vegetarian enchiladas with Mexican squash and mushrooms and requesón because Willy, who returned from Ireland today, had invited his friend Eli Hicks for dinner and Eli is a vegetarian.  Instead what happened was Eli did not come for dinner but one of Willy’s other friends, Will Phipps came instead, who is not a vegetarian.

At around 5:30 after a ride, I went to Pro’s Market with Willy and we bought 4 Mexican squash, mushrooms ($3.49/lb.), 1 lb. of shredded mozzarella cheese ($3.99/lb.), 1 lb. of requesón (Mexican cottage cheese at $2.29), 40 fresh made white tortillas ($1.99), two octopus ($2.99/lb.), a small papaya ($1.29/lb.), a bunch of cilantro ($.50), LaLa Mango yogurt ($2.50/32 oz.), 4 small avocados ($.99), a few limes ($1.29/lb.).

Green Chili Enchiladas

When I arrived home, Suzette was ready to cook.  She and Willy de-boned the PPI Cornish Game Hen and chopped the meat in small cubes yielding about 1 lb. of meat.

We had a 24 oz. can of Mexican green enchilada sauce and a 16 oz. bottle of Garduno’s green enchilada sauce that she combined.  She first heated a small skillet and put some of the green chili sauce in a skillet and soaked the tortilla in the chili sauce to cook it slightly.  Then she laid the soaked tortilla into a 9 X 15 glass pyrex baking dish and repeated the process until she had filled the entire bottom of the dish with soaked tortillas.

Then I sliced four Mexican squash lengthwise into long thin slices and I sliced four or five white mushrooms into slices.

Suzette added a layer of Mexican Squash mixed with sliced mushrooms to the layer of soaked tortillas and then a layer of shredded Mozzarella, another layer of tortillas and then a layer of Cornish game hen and another layer of tortillas and more cheese.

Then Suzette poured the remaining green enchilada sauce and cheese on top of the enchiladas and allowed it to sink into the crevices in and around the layers of tortillas until it filled the dish to its rim.

Then Suzette put the dish of enchiladas into a 350˚ oven for about 45 minutes until the cheese melted and everything was cooked thoroughly.

While the enchiladas were baking, I made a guacamole with 4 avocados, 3 Tbsp. of onion, juice of one lime, 2 Tbsp. of fresh chopped cilantro.  Willy and Will added Cholula sauce and squeezed a clove of garlic into the guacamole and gathered some chips and started eating while Suzette made the octopus salad.

Octopus Salad

This is the recipe that Mavi Graf taught us in PV last Friday.

Suzette cooking octopus

Cooked octopus

Bob Chopping upoctopus

Suzette added the ingredients to the boiling medium.  The secret to this dish is to add the skin of a papaya, whose enzymes soften the octopus.  Suzette dipped the ends of the tentacles into the boiling water to make them curl and then dropped the entire octopus in and simmered the octopuses for 20 minutes, which turned out to be about 5 minutes too long, because the octopus became a little tough, but not too tough to eat.  I chopped the two boiled octopuses into cubes, while Suzette made the salad with chopped celery, tomatoes and a green onion and lime juice.

When the octopus salad was ready, we plated hot wedges of cooked enchiladas.  Each person garnished their enchiladas with Mexican crema, guacamole and ladled spoonsful of octopus salad onto their plates.

We ate a lovely meal with Will and Willy and drank beer and discussing their latest experiences.  Will is director of Friday Fun Nights at the UNM Student Union and thinks up, organizes and markets interesting events for students at UNM’s Student Union, which sounded very interesting.

The lighter, more delicate flavor of the PPI Cornish game hen actually came through a bit more than I would have expected when we ate them the first night they were roasted. I now need to find a recipe that uses requesón.

Bon Appétit