Mom's Enchiladas - Secret Family Recipe

You should feel special. It's not every day I decide to post a super secret family recipe. But after having Mom's Worlds Famous Enchiladas last night I feel obligated to share.

The story goes, that WAY back when, before the dinosaurs, there was a little Mexican restaurant on the corner of my mom's childhood street called El Patio. Mom says, the "mother" or "grandmother" who was the main cook there invited her into the kitchen to witness the miracle of making enchiladas. And thus the recipe was born. Not sure how close this recipe resembles that of El Patio, but I don't really care since it's delicious.

Special note - these are not lo-cal, nor should they be. Period.

Ingredients:

• Corn tortillas (a dozen or two depending on how many you want to make - 20 fit in a 13X9 inch Pyrex)
• 1 lb Ground beef
• 1 T chili powder
• 1 can chopped olives - drained
• 12 c shredded cheese, more if you like cheese.
• 1 can Enchilada sauce (DO NOT use taco sauce/salsa. La Victoria - I think - has Enchilada sauce.)
• 1 chopped onion
• Optional: I can green chili's diced. Mom uses this. I didn't, but do now.
• 1 pint sour cream
• Vegetable oil - about 2 cups

Okay, ready for this.
First - turn on your oven to 350F.
Second - cook your ground beef and season with salt and pepper and about 1 T chili powder

Side bar on the super secret ground beef recipe:
Mom never EVER used the taco seasoning from a packet. Instead, cooking the ground beef using salt and pepper as seasoning, once it's cooked and drained - hit it with chili powder. That's your seasoning. I guarantee you you'll never use taco seasoning again.

Put enough oil in a skillet to submerge a tortilla. It depends on the size of the skillet. I usually use about an 8 in skillet. You'll be using this to "relax" the corn tortillas. See, corn tortillas are not very flexible when you get them out of the bag. This is how they did it at El Patio, so that's how we do it now.

When your oil is hot ( I usually pop in a small piece of a tortilla to see if it'll sizzle.) One at a time, dip the corn tortillas in the oil just long enough to make them flexible. Use tongs to flip it carefully to not break the tortilla.  Less than 3 seconds per side. DO NOT over cook - you're not making tostadas. If your oil is hot enough it is literally put the tortilla in, coat it, flip it, and bring it out. Drain them on paper towels.

Now - set up your assembly line. In this order

• Sour Cream 
• Ground beef 
• Cheese (in a bowl makes it easy to grab)
• Onions chopped
• Open the olives and green chili's if you're using it.

SHAKE the enchilada sauce. I use a can opener to pop a hole in the top to make it easy for pouring. So before you open it, shake it. Put a couple of tablespoons in the dish to coat the bottom. 

Take a tortilla on a flat surface (mom rolls them in the Pyrex she's baking them in - I use a cutting board and move them to the Pyrex).
Slather with sour cream down the middle. Just enough to coat it. A spoon full should do it. Make sure the sour cream extends to both sides. You want to be sure to get sour cream in each bite.
Next - put a spoonful of beef over the sour cream.
Next - cheese, onions, olives and green chili's if you're using them.
Roll the tortilla into a tube. Transfer it to the pyrex with the seam down.
Repeat until all the tortilla's are used.

The key is to not over stuff them. You'll get the hang of it. 

Family tradition, according to mom, is the cook gets to "test" one. So after you roll it and put all the goodies in it, the cook gets to eat it. Her theory was "Just n case, cuz you never know if it'll be good or not."  Plus, there's always one tortilla that gets a hole in it or ripped.

Now that you've got them all in a dish. Pour over the enchiladas covering each one of them, from end to end, completely. Don't just pour it over haphazardly, take your time. Use a small stream of sauce and cover each one lovingly.

Cover with cheese and remaining olives and chili's.

Bake at 350 until the cheese is bubbling. Let stand for as long as you can stand it (5 minutes) and dig in.