Enchiladas Two Ways

So here is a big pan of a dish that you can make on a Sunday and have for dinner for a few nights. It's Enchiladas Two Ways, meaning one big pan of vegetarian enchiladas and one big pan of non-vegetarian enchiladas. It doesn't take much more effort to make both fillings and they both bake at the same time. Once it's baked, the edges of the tortillas will be crisp and crunchy. The filling is warm, savoury and melting, and the sauce is piquant, spicy and quite luscious. I top it all with a fresh cool salsa and sour cream, but it's equally good without.

I have once again forgotten to include in this picture many essentials, including tortillas and the blend of spices I've pictured down below. Anyway, in addition to those things you will need onions, ground beef, refried beans, cheddar cheese, tomato sauce, garlic, lemon juice, fresh tomatoes, spring onions, chili peppers, a lime or lime juice, cilantro, plus odds and ends of olive oil, salt and pepper.
Fry a chopped onion in some olive oil. I had half a leftover red onion, so that's what I used. The quantity itself doesn't matter that much.
Once the onions are cooked, add in the ground beef and brown it. Then skim off the extra fat, leaving only a few spoonfuls in the pan for moisture and flavour. Then season with salt and pepper, but go easy on the salt because later you will add some of the tomato sauce and this will bring up the seasonings too.
Now make the enchilada sauce. I use a blend of spices, including each of the ones lined up here. They are, in no particular order: nutmeg, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, dried crushed chilis, ground coriander seed and cayenne pepper. I like my enchilada sauce hot and spicy and piquant. It should feel thick and rich--just delicious basically, and this stuff really is just that.
Put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan and just throw the spices in. I give rough amounts below, but really put in as much as suits your own tastes. I also put in my garlic puree (and this was the last of it, so I will be making more soon, and showing you how). Stir this mix up in the heated oil for a minute, then add in the tomato sauce and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, with a lid slightly ajar on top. It will thicken and the sauce will cook. Once it's been simmering for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and add the lemon juice to sharpen up the flavor and give it that special tangy-ness that enchilada sauce has to have.
Now to assemble everything. Grate up a big pile of cheese.
For each vegetarian enchilada, scoop some refried beans straight out of the tin, spread it on a tortilla and sprinkle with some cheese. Do this with each tortilla and line them up in a sheet cake pan...
...Just like this.
For the beef enchiladas, add about 3/4 cup of the finished tomato sauce to the browned beef and stir it in.
Then do the same with each tortilla, filling with beef and cheese, rolling up and lining them up in a pan.
I've made 8 of each type because that's how many tortillas came in a two packets.
Spread the tops of the enchiladas with the remaining sauce, then sprinkle with the remaining cheese. These go in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350F.
Meanwhile, chop up the tomatoes, spring onions, chili peppers (minus seeds) and fresh cilantro and put them all in bowl. Squeeze over the juice of the lime and season with salt and pepper. That's the fresh salsa.
I don't have a picture of the finished pans but here are some beef enchiladas plated up complete with salsa and sour cream. Bon apetit!

Ingredients:

16 tortillas

500 gm ground beef

1 onion (any size, any type)

2 cups (roughly) refried beans

2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, or anything similar)

4 cups tomato sauce

2 TBSP lemon juice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried crushed chilis

1/2 tsp ground coriander seed

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

3 cloves fresh garlic (or 1 1/2 tsp garlic paste)

1 cup cherry tomatoes

3 spring onions

1 chili pepper, deseeded

juice of 1 lime

olive oil

salt

pepper

Recipe Profile:

Recipe Type: DINNER

Recipe Classification: VEGETARIAN, NON-VEGETARIAN