enchiladas | Existential Ennui

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bechamel sauce, enchiladas, GOP, Mexican food, Ohio, Recipes, unions, wacko right wing

Blitzkrieg literally means “lightning war”. It became the Nazi method of surprise attack with overwhelming force. In American terms, think “shock and awe”.

It seems to me, that the assault on public employee unions is much the same. It seems to have been a plot hatched deep in the bowels of Republican bunkers, unleashed after a favorable 2010 election cycle. Strike while the iron is hot as they say.

Republicans in state after state are facing bills introduced by lock-step following drones of the Party hierarchy, all designed to destroy the union movement in America, and thus attempt to weaken if not utterly destroy the Democratic Party who gets most of its votes.

This is all being done against the wishes of the electorate. Poll after poll, even the deeply flawed and uber right leaning arm of the GOP, the Rasmussen, says that the public is overwhelming in its support of the rights of public workers to unionize. The people are not buying the rhetoric of the right plain and simple.

They are not buying the attempts of Fox and other wacko pundits to paint the union workers as grossly overpaid, and not sharing in the pain of “everyone else.” This from the mouths of jackasses who make millions a year. They are not buying the claims that the demonstrators are largely “paid socialists and commies”. In fact Stephen Colbert caught Fox in another of its deliberate lies. It claimed with appropriate footage that demonstrators were from other states, and were “agitators”. Trouble was the agitators were wearing t-shirts and there were palm trees in the background as they marched. Not exactly Madison I’m thinking.

Nothing is too much to achieve their business currying ends. In Ohio, Republican Senate leadership, removed a fellow GOP committee member and replaced him with another GOPer. Why? Because the sitting Republican was not going to vote for their union killing bill. So they just replaced him with one who would. Yeah, that is the lengths these evil people are prepared to go. No democracy for them. No. Just blatant blitzkrieg, good old shock and awe.

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Okay, so I try to keep my word, so here is the awesome enchilada recipe I concocted. Well, the new and revised version since I really, really don’t like Velveeta®. It’s not the taste so much, it’s the viscosity that leaves a gluey like lip smackin’ sensation. Not good.

What this recipe is designed to do is to eliminate the issue I have with traditionally baked enchiladas, namely the soggy, disintegration of the tortillas during the baking process. The sauce, just melts them away.

This is how I fixed that problem.

Sherry’s Basically Great Enchiladas

Poach a good-sized bone in chicken breast with the usual onion, celery, salt and pepper, bay leaf, until done. Or buy a roasted chicken and shred, or use some left over chicken you already have. Set aside, cool, and debone and cube. I’d say around 3-4 cups. (Any other meat or seafood is also acceptable)

Meanwhile, in a microwave-safe bowl, place 4 oz of creamed cheese, 1 tsp each garlic and onion granules or powder, a pinch of salt, 1/3 tsp pepper, 1 Tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 2 tables fresh cilantro chopped, 1 chopped jalapeno. Microwave just long enough to make the cream cheese stir-able.

Add chicken and loosen with a bit of milk if it’s too thick to stir easily.

Take your tortillas, flour or corn as you desire. Heat a burner (I have an electric stove, use a griddle pan if you have gas), lay each tortilla on it until it just begins to smoke, turn over and do the other side. Repeat with remaining tortillas (about 6). This leaves nice burnt bits here and there on the tortillas.

Fill the tortillas with about 2 Tbsp of the chicken. Place in a foil lined and oiled baking pan. When finished cover the pan with foil and set aside. I do this in the morning and leave them until ready to warm up for dinner. Otherwise place in oven at 275° for 30 minutes or long enough to warm through.

Meanwhile, make a roux of 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp flour in a pan. when melted and mixed, add 1 C warm milk. Bring to boil until thickened. Add 1 C shredded cheddar, Monterey jack, or other cheese of choice. Add 1 jalapeno diced, 1/3 c of green pepper. Loosen the mixture with a bit of milk again. You want this to be ladle-able.

Place the enchiladas and cheese sauce on the table, along with sour cream and salsa (home-made if you like –my recipe is on this blog under I think condiments or Tex-Mex) and green onions and ripe olives sliced for garnish, along with thinly sliced shredded cabbage. I know this sounds weird but the crunch is wonderful. (add it to the top of the enchiladas before the cheese sauce.)

That’s it!