Tonight we had a birthday dinner for my mom. Because she loves seafood and Mexican cuisine, I decided to make some Seafood Enchiladas from the Ultimate Mexican cookmag I told you about a few weeks ago. This was a good idea indeed! I am not usually one to order seafood enchiladas. I usually like the basic cheese and onions enchiladas I grew up with, so this was a departure.
The procedure for this recipe is very easy, but takes some time throughout the day. You have to re-hydrate some dried chiles earlier in the day (this affords you time to take the requisite Sunday afternoon nap). Once that is done, the hard part is basically over. The rest is just mixing and rolling. The entire process takes less than a couple hours.
The recipe calls for either shrimp or crab. We decided to do a mixture of both. I mean, we are celebrating! Once the chiles are ready (re-hydrated and cut in pieces), you add the seafood mixture and some shredded Monterrey jack cheese. Roll this mixture up into some warm tortillas and it starts to look like enchiladas. The interesting thing about this recipe (which I would change should I do this again) is the sauce. It is basically a gravy (I am not kidding). This is a little discomfiting to my Tex-Mex loving heart. If I were to do it again, I would definitely add a lot of spice and change up the structure of the sauce (it has a LOT of flour in it).
The result: Very, very mild enchiladas. Not necessarily bad, but not enough flavor and spice for me. I would kick it up about 3 notches in the flavor department. But, mom loved them (so I guess these are a success!).
For an appetizer, I made a new guacamole recipe (I can't get enough of avocado based dips!). I really liked it but I think I will add cumin next time. These are the ingredients: green onion, cilantro, serrano pepper (seeded), avocado, lime juice, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper. Mmm! Oh and we tried out some new chips from
Food Should Taste Good. If you haven't tried these yet, check them out. They are multigrain (read: healthy) chips that really do taste good. If you go to their website, you can get a coupon!
Overall, Mom was happy. And you know that old saying, "if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Well, I think the converse is true as well.
1 comment:
the dinner was wonderful,I too would add just a little spice to the enchiladas,next time. loved the chips,and guacamole. thank you for making my fav.desert, chiros,they were great. the food was as good as it looked. so happy my daughter loves to cook.
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