Today was a perfect example of how a meal gets created while shopping.
I went to a doctor’s appointment at 8:45 and afterward drove to El Super to pick up several items Suzette needed for the Bistro’s big Dia del Muerto meals this Friday and Saturday evenings.
As I was buying tortillas for Suzette I noticed how fresh they were and inexpensive at 40 for $.99. As I walked in I had seen that there was a special on fresh roasted green chili for $1.99/lb. so I decided to make green chili chicken enchiladas if chicken was inexpensive. When I saw that fresh thighs were $.89/lb. my mind was made up. I bought requeson and Monterrey jack cheese and then went back to get some tomatillos when I was unable to find canned enchilada sauce.
I also bought a 12 bottle carton of Negra Modelo, cilantro, gala apples for $.50/lb., radishes for $.33/bunch, an eggplant, a pineapple, four atlaufao mangoes, three avocados for $.99, bananas for $.33/lb., limes for $.50/lb., a gallon of milk for $2.30, oranges for $.50/lb., green beans for $.99/lb., and crema for $2.39/lb. So I had everything I needed for tropical fruit salad, chicken enchiladas, and a regular salad.
When I returned home I made a salad for lunch in order to use the PPI sautéed duck breast. I tore red leaf lettuce into a pasta bowl and added about ¼ cucumber sliced, a radish sliced, a tomato dip iced, several kalamata olives, about 2 oz. blue cheese, and the PPI sautéed duck breast cubed. I enjoyed the salad immensely.
I watched Federal Reserve Chairman announce the .25% rate cut and enjoyed seeing the market respond favorably.
My portfolio went from loss to gain for the day in a few minutes.
I went to the post office to mail a letter and then to a client’s to pick up a document.
When I returned home I started cooking around 4:00.
Green Chili Chicken Enchilada Casserole
10 tomatillos
24 white corn tortillas
2 onions
2 small heads of garlic
1 medium zucchini julienned
Six chicken thighs
A mirepoix of 1 stalk celery, 1 onion, and 1 carrot
1 tsp. Salt
½ lb. roasted green chili
1 lb. of requeson
1 lb. of Monterrey jack cheese
Prep
I started cooking at 4:00 by removing the skin from the six chicken thighs and simmering them for 1 ½ hours in a large sauce pan covered with water and with ½ of the mirepoix added plus ½ tsp of salt.
In another smaller sauce pan I simmered the tomatillos I had dehusked and rinsed and quartered covered with water and with the other ½ of the mirepoix plus ½ tsp of salt for 1 to 1 ½ hour.
Suzette arrived after this step and we divided effort. She in the kitchen and me chopping after I met with a client and she rested for a few minutes.
I then removed the chicken thighs from the stock boiling them had created and de-boned the meat and put it in a bowl.
Suzette removed the stem, peeled and seeded ½ lb. of green chilis and puréed them with the cooked tomatillos to make a green chili sauce.
I peeled and cut roughly 2 onions and 2 small heads of garlic. Suzette then pulsed them in the Cuisinart to reduce them to small pieces and then sautéed them in a medium skillet in olive oil for a few minutes until the onions turned translucent.
I fetched the 1lb. of Monterrey jack and 1 lb. of requeson and the bag of julienned zucchini strips I had previously prepped and corn tortillas.
Suzette grated the lb. of Monterrey jack cheese in the Cuisinart.
Assembly
Suzette fetched out largest Pyrex baking dish which is 9 X 15 or 17.
The first layer was chicken that had been chopped roughly to create bite sized pieces.
Suzette put Some chili sauce and chicken stock in a small skillet and heated it and soaked a tortilla in the sauce briefly and lay six soaked to covered the chicken for the second layer. She drizzled a little green chili sauce on each layer of tortillas.
Then Suzette added layers of cheese and zucchini and another layer of lightly soaked tortillas. Then the onions and requeson and another layer of lightly soaked tortillas. Then another layer of meat and finally the last layer of soaked tortillas and garnished the top with the remaining layer of grated cheese.
Suzette then poured enough green chili sauce the baking dish to fill it to the rim with sauce and put it into a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees and baked the enchiladas for 40 minutes until everything was heated thoroughly and the top starts turning golden brown.
We had called Mike Verhagen to join us for dinner and he did not arrive until 50 minutes later, so Suzette reduced the heat a bit to keep the top from scorching.
Avocado crema
While the enchiladas were baking I removed the skin and seed from three ripe avocados and mixed the avocado with about ½ cup of crema to make an avocado crema. I then de-stemmed and chopped ½ cup of cilantro leaves and stirred them into the crema. We tasted the green chili sauce and found it to be spicy, so I did not add any extra chili to the crema, so it could be eaten with the enchiladas to ameliorate any extra spiciness.
I fetched four chilled Negra Modelo beers from the garage fridge.
When Mike arrived we were ready to eat.
We removed the enchilada casserole from and Suzette cut chunks of casserole and placed them on plates for each of us. I served beers and we each spooned crema onto our plates and ate while we watched game 7 of the World Series.
We were rooting for Houston, so by the 8th inning around 9:00 when it became obvious that Washington would win, Mike said goodnight and Suzette went to bed. I stayed to watch Washington win and went to bed hoping the win would lift the spirits of those in our government from their absorption with impeachment.
I made my favorite after dinner beverage for Mexican food, Manzanilla tea flavored with a bit of honey and the juice of a lime. I blogged for a couple of minutes and then fell asleep.
I awakened at 2:15 as if an alarm had sounded and finished the blog as I drank a glass of water to settle my stomach from the second helping of enchiladas that I ate instead of dessert.
There were two types of white tortillas at El Super. I bought the lighter smoother form instead of the rougher heavier more granular form of tortilla, which resulted in the tortillas going into solution to create a soft creamy pastry like texture for the enchiladas, only interrupted by the bits of meat and diced julienned strips of zucchini.
This was the first time I have made green chili chicken enchiladas with my own green chili sauce. I liked it a lot and although prep and assembly involved a number of steps, they were not difficult.
This dish represents the essence of great cuisine, specifically Mexican cuisine, but generally any great cuisine that creates an elegant dish with locally available ingredients. It also represents how indigenous cultures create comfort food with indigenous ingredients.
I chose it as the third winter dish because it is wonderful to eat a steaming plate of enchiladas on a cold winter evening and because I was at El Super among all the freshly made and fresh ingredients.
The first was Boeuf Bourguignon and the second was spaghetti with meat and mushroom sauce. We now have three dishes to create menus for dinners without much, if any, further prep.
Bon Appetit
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