(Sorry for the thread necromancy, but how'd our recipe thread get this out of date in the first place? Is some of it missing? I thought I'd posted here before.)
I count this as two recipes that go together because I don't usually make them at the same time. It's rather time consuming, but worth it. I make the sauce in advance, whenever I have time, and then prepare the filling when I have a few more minutes, and then bake up the enchiladas fresh for dinner. They could also be counted as one big recipe with stages, since the habanero in the sauce has to be balanced by the sour cream in the filling.
As most of you probably know, I like it spicy. Really spicy. Like, so spicy I have to make my own hot sauce because the supermarket doesn't stock anything hot enough for me. This recipe is
not that spicy. This is the recipe I make for my family, and store-brand medium salsa is about as hot as they can handle. I add more homemade habanero sauce to mine, my mom likes it just fine like this, and my sister, who really doesn't like spicy at all, puts some more sour cream on it, but we all love these. So if you can handle store-brand medium salsa, you can handle this level of spice. And you can adjust it as necessary. But still, be careful with those habaneros.
Habanero Red Enchilada SaucePrep Time : 20 minutes
Cook Time : 30 minutes
Yield : 3 cups
Ingredients:
ripe, bright orange habanero pepper
*HAZMAT1*1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1½ cups water
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 cups tomato puree
2 tsp cocoa powder
1½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt, or to taste
3/4 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp cinnamon
Equipment:
cutting board
knife
plastic or rubber gloves
measuring cup (½ and 1 cup)
measuring spoons (¼, ½, and 1 tsp, 1 wet + 1 dry tbsp)
2 small bowls
whisk
medium saucepan
blender
stove top (1 burner)
Directions:
Carefully cut and deseed the desired amount of habanero, observing level 1 hazardous materials precautions (see comments). One half of a small pepper, the size of a cherry tomato, when it's just ripe and bright orange, with the seeds removed, makes a medium sauce, which becomes mild when mixed with a quarter cup of sour cream in the enchilada filling. If you're not used to habaneros, start there. If you like it spicy, use the whole pepper, or even two, but not the seeds. Perhaps reduce the sour cream to make the result hotter. Leave the seeds in only if you breathe fire and have a fume hood or fan over your stove.
Puree the habanero with vinegar and ½ cup water. Measure out the dry spices and set them aside in a small bowl. Set aside the flour separately. Finely chop the onion and garlic and set them aside in a second bowl.
Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add in garlic and onion and saute for 2 minutes. Whisk in flour until well blended. Stir in the pureed pepper, then use the remaining cup of water to rinse out whatever pepper juice is left in the blender and stir that in, too. It's such a little bit of pepper, you don't want to miss any. Stir in the tomato paste and dry spices and bring the mixture just to a gentle boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool while preparing the rest of the enchilada filling. Store any remaining enchilada sauce in refrigerator up to 1 week.
Adapted from recipe found on
Cooking Classy.
Comments:
Some notes about habaneros, for those not familiar with them.
Habanero peppers are very hot, but if they're used correctly, can be delicious. They're typically the size of a cherry tomato, but can vary. Like most peppers, they start out green. Those are not ripe yet. Don't bother with them. When they turn yellow and translucent, they're okay, but a little weak. You might have to use a bit more to get the effect you want, and the flavor isn't as good. They're the best when they're bright orange, hot and flavorful. A dark red habanero is overripe. You can use those if you're feeling dangerous, but they're less sweet and flavorful and more darkly spicy. Use half as much, or less, of dark red pepper than you would a bright orange one. Sometimes the off-season hothouse peppers are also extra large, the size of a plum tomato. In that case, go by the size of the piece of pepper you want, not the proportion of the pepper, so to make this mild sauce starting with a huge, plum tomato-sized, dark red habanero, you'd only need a piece of the pepper's skin roughly the size of a nickel, and you might want to blend a small tomatillo in with it to make up for the dark red lacking those flavors that the bright orange had. It works, but it's better to just wait until you can get the little bright orange ones in the first place.
*Hazardous Materials, level 1Use gloves to handle habanero peppers once they are cut. The unbroken skin of the fresh pepper is safe to handle, but the inside is full of capsaicin, especially the seeds and membranes. Wear gloves while cutting and deseeding it and wash immediately anything that comes in contact with it. Cooking the seeds should only be done in a ventilated area, as burning them releases mustard gas. It is not harmful in these quantities, but is an irritant.
If you touch a cut habanero with your hands, wash with soap and water, repeatedly. Lava soap works well. Do not touch anywhere more sensitive, like your eyes, until you can hold that finger to your tongue for ten seconds without feeling any burning on your tongue. Then wash some more anyway, because capsaicin hurts.
Tomatillo and Habanero EnchiladasPrep Time : 1 hour
Cook Time : 30 min
Yield : 7-8 large enchiladas
Ingredients:
1 pound of diced meats - chicken, turkey, ground beef, Portuguese chorizo
3 tomatillos, diced (2 plum tomatoes would also work)
1 medium-sized Spanish onion, diced (1 large yellow onion is an acceptable substitute)
3 cups shredded cheese, sharp cheddar or Mexican blend
¼ cup light sour cream
3 cups Habanero Enchilada Sauce
½ cup black beans (optional)
8 burrito size flour tortillas
4 tbsp olive oil
Equipment:
cutting board
knife
large bowl
large soup or serving spoon
a plate larger than the tortilla shells
2 9"x12" glass or Pyrex lasagne pans
oven with bake and broil settings
oven mitts
flexible spatula
Directions:
Dice pre-cooked meats, like Thanksgiving turkey leftovers, supermarket rotisserie chicken, browned ground beef, and/or fully cooked chorizo. Use Mexican or Portuguese soft chorizo if available, or sautee hard Spanish chorizo in garlic, onion, and olive oil to soften.
Dice the tomatillos or tomatoes and the onion and stir with the meat. At this point you can add a couple shakes of garlic salt, lemon pepper, cumin, and paprika and set aside in the refrigerator for a couple hours or days, then pour off the excess liquid and proceed. Or you can skip the pre-preparation and just continue.
In the large bowl, add to the meat, tomato, and onion, 2 cups cheese, 1½ cups enchilada sauce, ¼ cup sour cream, and beans if desired. Stir until evenly mixed.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees with the rack set at the second highest position. Lightly coat the lasagne pans with olive oil. Pour some of the remaining sauce onto a plate.
Spoon ¾ cup of filling mixture onto a tortilla shell and roll it up, then roll it in the enchilada sauce on the plate to evenly coat it and place it in the baking pan. Repeat until the filling is used up, adding more sauce to the plate as necessary. Space the enchiladas in the pans so that they're not touching the sides or each other. It should come out to 7 or 8 enchiladas, which will fit four to a pan.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. The enchilada shells should be stiff and dry. Remove from oven and spread whatever sauce is left onto the enchiladas and top with the third cup of cheese. Return to the oven and broil on high for 4 more minutes or until the cheese topping is golden brown.
Use the flexible spatula to separate the enchiladas from the pan and lift them out. Top with additional hot sauce if desired. Serve with rice, corn, and/or beans.
