le blog de tranny

What better way to celebrate the introduction of someone new and dear into your life than by making chicken enchiladas from scratch and Mexican rice and beans for said person, your roommates and friends, and his roommates and friends in said person’s house while he makes Bloody Mary’s and chips and guac for everyone? I set myself up for quite the job it turns out.. and in a foreign kitchen no less! Luckily I managed to get through it with the help of my trusty sous-chef Andrea. The beans were nothing special.. I just put some black beans on the stove with a bay leaf, some oregano, and cumin and simmered them until they had that refried texture. The Mexican rice recipe was likewise quite simple. I basically followed this recipe I found on Epicurious:

Heat olive oil in a pan and add minced serrano chilis, a chopped white onion and some minced garlic. Saute for about 9 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Then mix in the rice and cook while stirring for about 2 minutes. Add as much chicken broth as you would normally add water along with some salt and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the rice is done. Mix in some tomato paste to give it that orange color. It’s basically this recipe except I added tomato paste at the end.

Not only was it my first time ever making chicken enchiladas, but I decided to make the enchilada sauce from scratch (since buying the bottled kind would totally be a cop-out). Surprisingly enough, Emeril has a pretty decent enchilada sauce recipe. I basically followed Emeril’s recipe to a tee — it can be found here. To prepare the chicken before shredding it, however, I turned to Rachel Ray as she is pretty good about coming up with working mom-esque shortcuts to preparation-heavy meals. Per Rachel’s suggestion, I brought some chicken stock to a boil and then added chicken breasts, a bay leaf, some oregano and a coarsely chopped onion, and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Then I fished out the chicken breasts and shred them with two forks. From then on it was Emeril all the way, no need to transcribe his entire recipe here. Time for pictures instead.

As I mentioned before, the flavour of the red enchilada sauce that I made according to Emeril’s recipe, pictured here below the rice, was spot on.

This foreign kitchen actually did not have a cheese grater, so I had to send a courier to my house to fetch one. Unfortunately, my sometimes culinarily ignorant housemate Ryan handed him a micro-planer instead of a grater, increasing the preparation time for the cheese by (what seemed like) a factor of 10.

Here’s a good before picture of the enchiladas:

And after.

And now for the spread!

The funny thing about this meal was that for days after I had leftover Mexican plate components (in addition to ~6 leftover enchiladas) — shredded chicken covered in the red enchilada sauce, guacamole, beans, rice, shredded cheese — to experiment with in various ways! That’s when I realized that most of the Mexican food I know is basically all the same ingredients presented in different ways (probably an obvious observation to many). Needless to say, the morning after I made Gordo-style chicken quesadillas with rice, beans and guac in them, red sauce chicken burritos, red sauce chicken soft tacos, and for dinner that night? Red sauce chicken burrito bowls! Don’t know when I’ll be making enchiladas again but I’ve already gotten a few requests, so I’m guessing it’ll happen soon. I was just so proud of myself for successfully feeding 10 people! I felt like my stepmom, only nowhere near as badass.

I’ve made this recipe twice now and I can safely call it mine. It’s super tasty and takes only about half an hour to make. It goes great with crusty bread and a nice salad (which is how I’ve had it both times). I use the thin tilapia filets they sell at Trader Joe’s. OK, here goes.

1. Lay the tilapia down in a baking pan. Season both sides of each filet with lemon juice, salt and pepper. (I read somewhere that tilapia pairs really well with citrus flavors.. like most white fish I suppose.)

2. Then, brush both sides of each filet with a mixture of olive oil, minced garlic and chopped fresh herbs such as chives, parsley and/or cilantro.

3. Broil the tilapia in the oven for about 4 minutes per side. Meanwhile, make the topping.

4. Saute sliced onions in a bit of olive oil until they are translucent, then add chopped baby heirlooms or cherry tomatoes to the pan along with minced garlic and other vegetables that make sense, such as sliced squash and strips of bell pepper, or spinach. You want the tomatoes to be almost stewed. Don’t forget to season with salt and pepper! Add some quartered pitted kalamata olives in the final minutes of cooking and cover the pan to avoid losing liquid. Turn off the heat and top with strips of fresh basil. Here’s what mine looked like the first time:

5. Remove the tilapia from the oven. It should look something like this:

6. Serve the tilapia filets with the sauteed vegetables on top. Here’s some pictures of the final presentation that are unfortunately a wee dark.

Again, the fish goes great with a chopped salad like the one Jane made (pictured below), or just a plain leafy green salad (like the one Caro made the second time) as well.