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This photo is from Adán Medrano's blog, where he shows how to create a genuine enchilada. See his blog entry here: https://adanmedrano.com/enchiladas-rojas-tortilla-valentine/
Editor’s Note: Adán Medrano is a chef, film maker and author who has championed the unique cuisine served in home kitchens across south Texas crafted by cooks of Mexican descent. This cuisine is Texas Mexican, and Medrano has written books and produced a documentary – Truly Texas Mexican – on the topic. el Restaurante publisher Ed Avis interviewed Medrano on August 5, 2024. This is the third of three parts of that interview, edited slightly for clarity. Click here to read the first part. And click here to read the second part.
Ed Avis: You mentioned previously that one of your favorite Mexican dishes is the simple agucate taco. What else?
Adán Medrano: I would say I like the cheese enchiladas of the Texas Mexican kitchen.
And how are they different from cheese enchiladas at Chuy's?
That's a good question. The main difference is the idea of the enchilada. At Chuy's, the enchilada is a tortilla that is used as a wrap to hold something that is flavorful, and you pour a gravy or salsa over that. It's a French technique. And the sauce, the enchilada sauce, privileges heat. And they do that with chili as well -- one-alarm chili, two-alarm chili, and three-alarm chili. As a matter of fact, Torchy's, in their promotions, say eight chilies. This results in identification overly of the heat in Mexican cooking.
In the Texas Mexican enchiladas, we take out the seeds from the chile ancho, which is the basic chile, granted there's not hardly any heat, really. And you make a gravy, a salsa out of the chile, and then you dip the tortilla in it so that it becomes soaked in the chile sauce, in the chile liquid that you make. It's chile and spices. That's your enchilada. You can eat it like that. Enchilada is the past participle of the verb enchilar, which means to chilefy, to imbue with chile.
So when you're eating Mexican food, you say, “me enchilé.” I ate too much and I'm burning up. “Me enchilé” is I'm overcome and infused with chile. That's what enchilar means. So enchilada, tortilla enchilada, is a tortilla that has been chilefied.
You can have a dry enchilada. They do it in Mexico. In the making of the masa, in the liquid, you put pureed chile guajillo, which turns it bright red. That's why you have the red tortillas, because the tortilla is enchilada, it has been chilefied.
And what you fill it with simply adds to it. Like in my cheese enchiladas, I use cheddar. My mother used the white queso fresco, which I use most of the times, but more recently in my demos, they've asked me to use the yellow. And then that becomes a tart foil to the taste of the salsa, of the chile.
So you're really eating very, very soft really good flour or corn tortillas that are infused with this beautiful, beautiful sauce. That's the enchilada.
Click here to read a recipe for tortillas enchilada on Medrano's website.
Click here to read the first installment of the Adán Medrano interview, in which he explains why Tex-Mex is not Texas Mexican. Click here to read the second installment, in which he describes why "cuisine divorced of culture has no legs." And learn more about him at https://adanmedrano.com/
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