The Gluten-free Chicano Cooks Comida de Cuaresma

Gluten-free Cheese Enchiladas for Lent or Not
Michael Sedano, The Gluten-free Chicano • fotos: Thelma T. Reyna

It so happens this is Lent, in the Catholic world many Chicanos are brought up in, but that’s not the reason for making Lenten food, that is, meatless meals. It also happens the Gluten-free Chicano has a long-standing antojo for enchiladas and, restricted to restaurant food for the past two months, I was sentenced to enchilada deprivation: red-sauced enchiladas invariably contain wheat flour to thicken the sauce. 

The Gluten-free Chicano cannot find good red enchiladas in most restaurants, where kitchens use wheat flour to thicken the chile sauce. At home, if you want a thicker sauce, use corn starch. El Gluten-free Chicas Patas thickens by using lots of chile.

Company was arriving and enchiladas are company food despite their simplicity. Not the company, the enchiladas. (The past two months, la familia Sedano was separated living in temporary housing as refugees from the Eaton Fire in Altadena. This week, the family reunited in a rental house in Pasadena. We have a home again, and that means a kitchen.)

Ready for the oven

The Gluten-free Chicano and his bull cook assembled sixteen enchiladas. We knew it was too many for a small gathering. Ni modo. No one should ever make enchiladas without planning for leftovers for tomorrow’s breakfast with an egg on top.  

Ingredients
Brown onion
black olives sliced or whole
Gebhardt’s chile powder
tortillas de maíz
salt
water
Optional: fried ground beef or roasted chicken

Executive Summary:
Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Dip tortillas one at a time into hot oil until the masa is soft and pliable. Stack on plate to cool.
Make a chile roux. Dilute with water. Boil down to reduce and thicken. Cool to touch.
Grate cheese.
Finely chop onion.
Drain black olives.
Dip tortilla in red sauce, both sides.
Fill with cheese onion olives and roll.
Decorate the baking dish filled with raw enchiladas with grated cheese mix.
Bake at 350º until cheese melts.

Provecho (frijoles and a salad)

Process

Grate a good cheddar, or for muy fancy, grate manchego, cheddar, mozzarella/jack cheese.

Chop the onion into ⅛" bits.

Drain a can of sliced black olives.

Put the onion, cheese, and olives into a bowl. Some gente add cilantro to the cheese mix.

Note well: some gente do not care for onions and olives. Reserve some cheese and roll up a half dozen cheese-alone enchiladas.

Dip tortillas in heated olive oil. Dip only one side and place the "wet" side down. Stack the wilted tortillas on a glass plate. Oil will collect so carefully reintroduce the oil from the tort plate into the sartén.

Enchilada sauce comes in cans. It's not bad, but it's not as good as making enchilada sauce from "scratch."

Gebhardt's chile powder makes delicious sauce. Use the pan from the tortillas, add more olive oil to the pan over low-medium heat. 

Making 16 enchiladas I begin with a ½" of oil and a glass (pint) of water.

Stir in half a bottle of Gebhardt's to the boiling oil. (You can substitute any ground chile mix or puro chile, but Gebhardt's has the right blend of garlic and comino for absochingaolutely delicious enchladas.) 

Cook the chile roux until all the oil is absorbed. If you wish, let the chile roux turn dark before adding liquid. I normally like a red enchilada so I add water while the roux is still red.

Boil and stir the sauce to reduce volume and thicken. Let the sauce cool ten minutes or until a finger dipped into the pan isn't scalded. It should be hot.

Set up an assembly line. The chile, the tortillas, the cheese mixture, a baking dish.

Dip both sides of a softened tortilla in the chile sauce. Lay the tortilla on your greased baking dish.

Practice makes perfect enchiladas. A big pinch of cheese-onion-olive mix at the edge of the tortilla and gently or tightly roll the enchilada and slide it over to the edge of the dish. Repeat as many times as you have wilted tortillas.

If your baking sheet or pan are on the small size, don't worry. Stack the enchiladas in two or more layers. They bake beautifully and separate easily when you serve them.

When you've laid down all your enchiladas, scatter cheese/onion mix across the whole shebang and put into a 350º oven until the cheese is totally melted, around 15 to 20 minutes.

The Chef, el Gluten-free Chicano, and bull cook Thelma T. Reyna

Deluxe Comida: Enfrijoladas

Visit this link for a detailed recipe to make a chicken-filled version of an enchilada using not chile but frijoles and sour cream.

Good Eatin' Tip: For additional Gluten-free Chicano recipes, search for "gluten" and "gluten-free" in Blogger's white search box located in the upper left corner of a La Bloga homepage.