Ok, let's back up a day. On Saturday, the hubby and I decided to go to the new Whole Foods in the area. I am in LOVE. It's actually been my third visit to the fine establishment since its opening last week. I don't always go for the high-end grocery stores because many local (and cheaper) stores such as Shopper's Food Warehouse have much better aisles of ethnic goodies. However, one big advantage of going to a place like Whole Foods is consistently fresh products. I absolutely detest going to a grocery store with a recipe in hand and having to weed through a whole bin of moldy onions to find a single one suitable for human consumption. We decided to take advantage of all the incredible-looking produce to make the Tomatillo-Sauced Enchiladas. Although Rick Bayless suggested that canned tomatillos could be substituted for the fresh ones, we decided to pick up the fresh ones. Actually, we decided not to skimp on any of the ingredients and go totally fresh. The recipe calls for 1 cup of crumbled Mexican queso fresco to use as a garnish. I figured the Whole Foods would naturally have this cheese because their cheese section is about the size of our family room. The snobby cheese lady rather rudely informed me that they don't sell that type of cheese implying that it was cheap and almost dirty. I wouldn't mind getting a nicer and classier cheese by their standards but I really didn't want a cheese that would overwhelm the dish. I ended up buying asadero cheese which more of a melty cheese than the recipe called for but it did add a nice creamy texture to the enchiladas. We also decided to add sliced avocados as a garnish as well. It was probably the best avocado I've had in awhile. The recipe was pretty easy to follow and only took a total of about an hour to whip up. The best thing about the recipe (besides eating the food) is that it actually does not require assembling the enchiladas in a pan and baking for a period of time. Instead, it only requires baking the tortillas until warm, then dipping the tortillas in the tomatillo sauce and assembling the enchiladas right on the plate. Overall, I'd give the recipe a 8/10. I think the sauce had more going for it rather than the filling. The filling was spinach heavy which took away from the mushrooms. Next time, I would cut down on the spinach, use a mix of mushrooms like button and an exotic mushroom type and maybe add a little crab meat. Ok, here's my dilemma...I'd like to post the recipe but it clearly has been copyrighted. I know, it's probably not a big deal. But combined with my laziness and the fact I do work in the intellectual property field, I think I'll just let you contact me if you want more details. :)
Oh, this is the recipe which prompted me to want to start up this blog. I always love sharing my cooking experiences with friends and I figured this would be a good outlet to reach more people.
5 comments:
Good thinking using fresh tomatillos -- fresh tomatillos boiled for 10 minutes are what canned tomatillos wish they could be. I can understand though why he'd suggest it -- alot of his audience isn't someplace where you can get tomatillos year-round (like New Jersey).
Are the tomatillos roasted or boiled?
My other suggestion would be to try it with cotija cheese. It's very crumbly and generally has more flavor and saltiness than the plain old queso frescos.
"Next time, I would cut down on the spinach, use a mix of mushrooms like button and an exotic mushroom type and maybe add a little crab meat."
As soon as you do this, the recipe is different from the original and now your own right? ;-)
Dare ya to post at least your updated version. Not that I'd necessarily be able to tomatillo my own tortillas, but if I wanted to try... ;-)
Scott is right about the updated stuff as far as I know.
Rachel told me to tell you that your other option if you run into Mexican cheese snobbery is to use feta.
Sure, I have no problem posting it on the next go around.
To answer the question about the tomatillos, they were pureed and then simmered in a pan with the other sauce ingredients. The hubby commented that it's a bit out of character for Bayless because he almost always roasts everything. Naturally, it made the cooking time much shorter.
Unfortunately, they did not have any cojita cheese either but feta would have been a good substitute. Thanks!
Anish and I made this last night - yum. We had the same suggestions - a little too much spinach and a few more mushrooms would be better. Of course, with the current lack of spinach, we had to use frozen. Definitely not the same, but when it's all reduced down, it didn't make that much of a difference. I found the recipe online - I googled it and found it on the Martha Stewart website. There was actually a video on the site : Rick Bayless was a guest star and they made the recipe together.
As for the cheese, we went to Whole Foods and couldn't find the Queso Fresco either (although I KNOW I've seem containers of it at Costco). We decided to go with Feta, since it's something we'll use the rest of. The taste of Feta is a little strong, so we made sure to just sprinkle a little. Yum :)
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