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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Not buying it: Enchilada sauce

Stumbled on a good looking enchilada recipe the other day on Cooking In Mexico that called for three cans of Enchilada Sauce. Well, at least I thought the recipe was on there, but when I'd bought the ingredients and tried again to find the recipe, I couldn't. Anyway, the recipe called for a can of black beans, can of pinto beans, a couple of zucchini and onions as the enchiladas' filling, with 3 cans of enchilada sauce to pour on top.
   As I'm always looking for a reason NOT to buy something, this was a perfect opportunity to try out an enchilada sauce recipe I had on hand. Though I'd never made it before, I modified the recipe to suit our tastes.
Enchilada Sauce
5 to 6 Tablespoons chili powder
3 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
scant 1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
30 ounces of water
1 - 6 ounce can tomato paste
Combine first five ingredients. Slowly add enough of the water to make a thin paste, then add rest of water. Cook 'til the sauce thickens enough to coat a spoon; remove from heat, then add tomato paste, stirring 'til smooth.
Tablespoon worked fine but using the scoop was quicker!
   Since I'd initially thought I'd just be tripling the recipe, I opened two extra cans of tomato sauce that I didn't need when I decided the enchilada sauce was tomato-y enough with just one. Perfect opportunity to freeze tomato paste in one tablespoon portions, to toss into future soups, gravies!
   I used my cookie scoop, which is a tad over a tablespoon if filled to the rim, so I didn't bother to fill it precisely. And I'm glad I found the time to post this morn, 'cause it reminds me: I forgot to get this pan out of the freezer! I know the paste is frozen enough now to toss together in some container.
   Care to share any other ideas for freezing small portions of __________ (fill in blank) for future use??

9 comments:

BLD in MT said...

Early on in our partnership Matt and I made enchiladas using store bought sauce. It was fine, but unimpressive. He called up his mother and got her recipe. We could never go back to store bought now. It is just so much better.

Anonymous said...

Thank You for the recipe as now is the time I rearrange my notebook by seasonal recipes and have included chicken enchilada's as one of those easy peasy summer meals...Now I don't have to buy the sauce:)
~~HUGS~~

Ro from Earthdownunder said...

Fantastic. My little man loves mexican but reacts to flavour enhances. We can now enjoy it again. Thanks champ

Maris (In Good Taste) said...

I love Mexican food and especially prefer it homemade.

MegSmith @ Cooking.In.College said...

This is soooo awesome!!! I need to do this for sure.

Jaime Mclean Dalrymple said...

I love this. I am actually in the middle of a post about this very subject. I am going through our week's grocery list and trying to eliminate all of the foods I can make myself. Enchilada sauce and croutons were both on our shopping list this week and I decided it was silly to buy these things when I can make them at home. I am loving your blog and so I am off to dip into the archives. You may see a string of comments from me today. I will try and hold myself back!

Lindy Mint said...

Is enchilada sauce really that easy to make? Betty Crocker had me fooled into thinking it was complicated.

I would make enchiladas more, except I just don't like the taste of the sauce out of the can. I guess I can be putting this back on my meal plan. Thanks!

mysoulforsale said...

Oooo! Oooo! I'm totally going to make this... anything Mexican that actually contains cocoa (as it should) is going to be yummy! Thanks for the recipe!

Dmarie said...

thanks, you guys, I just love hearing from you!
@Lindy, I cut back on the cocoa because I think that's what Hubby doesn't like in the canned stuff. You might try eliminating it altogether!
@mysoul, you might consider increasing the cocoa to suit your tastes!
My favorite thing about home cooking is the ability to be flexible!

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