Red Chile Enchiladas -- Stacked, (almost) the way my mama made them -- Part 1 of 2

I've been promising this entry to a lot of people for a long time -- like before I even started this particular blog. And it has taken a lot longer to write than I thought it would. In fact, this post took longer to write than it takes me to make enchilada sauce and enough enchilada plates to feed my entire family.

The most important part of red enchiladas is the sauce. It is possible to buy commercial enchilada sauce, which I was intrigued to find on Amazon. Old El Paso, Ortega, and other companies manufacture enchilada sauce and most of the commercial varieties are good enough for most people. If you want to control the amount of "heat" in your enchilada sauce, however, your best bet is to make it yourself.

My mother, it should be noted, always used commercial enchilada sauce. On the other hand, she usually lived in areas where really good sauces were available locally. While I was living in New England, however, I found it necessary to learn how to make my own enchilada sauce.

This recipe is basically a gravy or white sauce recipe. You start with fat, add thickeners and seasonings, and then liquid. If you are familiar with making gravies, this is going to be a snap. I generally make 3 or 4 quarts of sauce when I make it, but it is quite simple to make smaller batches. You'll see the big batch being made in these pictures, but I will include quantities for both small and big batches in the recipe at the end.

The first step is to mix the thickening agent (flour, in this case) and spices. I use a cup of unbleached all-purpose flour:

And a cup of chile powder. Almost any chile powder will do, but some are much hotter to the taste than others. If you have a variety of chile powders available to you, you may have to experiment and/or mix varieties in order to get the amount of "heat" you want.

 Add one Tablespoon ground cumin powder and one Tablespoon granulated garlic.

Put it all in a bowl:

And mix:

Until the mixture is homogenous:

Next pour one cup of vegetable oil (just about any oil will do, though I generally use canola oil) into a large pot. (If you are making a small batch, a skillet will work just fine.)

Once the oil is heated, add the flour and spice mix:

Whisk the flour and spices into the oil and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes. At first the roux (fat/flour mixture) will look fairly smooth:

But by the end of the 3 minutes, the mixture will be clumping a bit:

This step is the only tricky part of this entire recipe. If the heat is too high, the flour and spices will burn. I use a medium heat for this step but I watch constantly. If it looks like the heat is too high, I remove the pot from the heat and let it cool down a little before proceeding. I have, on occasion, burned the roux and had to start all over again.

When the 3 minutes are up, add 3 quarts of water. Hot water is best because it speeds the cooking process a bit.

There will be a lot of steam at first, but just continue whisking as you add the water. I generally stir the first quart of water in to make a smooth sauce and then add the additional 2 quarts.

Once all the water has been added, bring the sauce to a boil, turn down the heat slightly, and let the sauce boil at a fairly lively pace -- not simmer -- for 20 minutes. I don't whisk for the entire 20 minutes. Instead, I check the sauce every 4 or 5 minutes and whisk it thoroughly. Sometimes a little sauce will be sticking to the bottom of the pot -- just scrap it up with the whisk and mix it in.

Years ago, we had a word-a-day calendar that taught us the word inspissate. Forever after, we have talked about letting the enchilada sauce inspissate for 20 minutes.

At the end of 20 minutes, the sauce should be considerably thicker. Remove it from the heat and then either use it to make enchiladas right away, or bottle it for future use.

I keep a supply of glass quart jars on hand just for storing enchilada sauce. There are products still packaged in glass quart jars and I seek them out so that I will always have some on hand.

Enchilada Sauce -- Large Batch (Small Batch)

1 cup (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
1 cup (1/3 cup) unbleached white flour
1 cup (1/3 cup) chile powder
1 Tablespoon (1 teaspoon) granulated garlic
1 Tablespoon (1 teaspoon) ground cumin
3 quarts (1 quart) hot tap water

Mix together the flour and spices.
Heat the oil in a large pot (or a smaller sauce pan or skillet for the smaller batch).
Add the flour/spice mixture and whisk thoroughly. Heat for 3 minutes over medium heat.
Add 3 quarts (1 quart) hot water and whisk until smooth.
Bring to a boil, then lower heat so that the sauce is at a lively simmer or light boil.
Let the sauce boil for 20 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking.


Tomorrow -- the rest of the story.