Sunday, October 6, 2013

Month 9 day 1: Enchiladas

I'm finally starting October recipes!
This month I have 5 issues:

  • Cook's Illustrated, September & October 2009
  • Food Network Magazine, October 2010
  • Cooking Light, October 2010
  • Cooking Light, October 2011
  • Every Day with Rachael Ray, October 2011
Today I made:
Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce, Cooking Light October 2011
with steamed corn


These enchiladas came out of Cooking Light's (always small) "The Enlightened Cook | Everyday Vegetarian" section. They're meant to be flavorful and hearty despite having no meat. I don't think they were really that filling though... after eating 1.5 servings and a donut I am satiated but feel like I might get hungry later on. Maybe this is because the filling is just one small can of beans and a cup of cheese! If I were to make this again I would pack them more fully, maybe with corn or something inside too.
But the interesting part of this dish is the ranchero sauce. Is this ranchero sauce, even if it's not really tomato based? The dominant flavor comes from two dried chiles, which are boiled and blended along with their cooking liquid with garlic, onions, etc. It was a little soupy, but tasted deep and smokey. Unfortunately, I think the overly-wet sauce wasn't good for the corn tortillas, which basically disintegrated. When we cut into the enchiladas we were surprised that we couldn't distinguish one enchilada from the next, and on the plate it just spread out a little like a cow pie...

I thought this was good, but G said it was nothing special, especially since we were just thinking about all the good September recipes last night. I guess those will be hard to top for him :-P I think I'll keep the recipe for the sauce at least, though. I imagine it would be good on many other dishes.

Although tonight was vegetarian, the next recipes this week are heavy on the meat! Our grocery bill was a bit crazy this week, double what my family of four spent each week growing up :-P Too much meat, plus stocking up on a few things, and a few impulse buys, including some pumpkin donuts and Susan's Ice Cream Essentials after Susan herself was at the store giving out samples. You have to go with the seasons and the local flavor!

This is apparently how much it takes to fuel two graduate students for a week:

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