Chef Rick Bayless is a teacher, bestselling cookbook author, TV star,
gardener, yoga guy, and all around interesting person. He also tweets about his food on Twitter. I follow Rick Bayless on twitter
(along with 62,432 other fans) and love to see what he’s cooking and
eating. He has helped me cook brussels sprouts in bacon, and helped me make a lovely chipotle pumpkin soup
Last week, I saw Chef Bayless was giving away signed copies of his new cookbook, Fiesta at Rick’s, and since he is a master tweeter, he created Twitter Recipe Photo Contest. Here’s the how the contest works: read Rick’s tweet, decipher the recipe, prepare the dish, then photograph, submit, and hopefully win a cookbook. I thought, “What fun!” and, “Why not…”
Let me pause for a moment to remind everyone that tweets – twitter messages – are 140 characters long (including spaces). I’m not at all convinced I could tell you how to make a glass of iced tea in 140 characters, but here we have Rick Bayless’ Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas with Creamy Tomatillo Sauce and Melted Cheese:
Rst 1#tomtllos,1 on,3 grlc,3
serranos;puree;sear n oil 2 thkn;simr w 2c broth,.5c crema.Oil,micrwv 12
torts,roll w rstd veg,sauce, chs, bake
Impressive tweeting RB!
A quick trip to the grocery store, and we’re off and cooking…
Roast 1 pound tomatoes, 1 onion, 3 cloves garlic, and 3 serrano peppers. Puree.
Onto the comal… I left garlic skins on to roast, as well as the tomatillo husks, and roasted them on a comal I brought back from San Miguel de Allende. You can also roast your tomatillos, etc in the oven or in a dry skillet.
Puree: Remove the husks from the tomatillos, take the skin off the garlic. Remove the stem and seeds from the serranos; pop everything in a food processor or blender and let ‘er rip.
Sear in oil to thicken - this part was familiar to me. I grew up in New Mexico and it is a regular part of the enchilada-making process to sear the raw sauce in oil and allow it to thicken. How thick? That’s personal preference.
Simmer with 2 C broth and 1/2 C crema (that wonderful thick, tangy, Mexican cream). My sauce was pretty lumpy so I used an immersion blender to make is really silky. Add salt to taste.
Oil and microwave 12 corn tortillas. I’ve never tried this method of cooking the tortillas – it worked well. I also tried oiling a few and then toasting them briefly on the comal – which also worked. What I like about this method is that you can control how much oil you are putting into the food. That’s a big plus.
Roll with roasted vegetables
For the roasted vegetables I used: red poblanos, orange bell peppers, listada de gandia eggplant, tomato, zucchini, yellow crooked neck squash. All vegetables came from the garden.
Place the roasted vegetables in the middle of each tortilla and roll tightly. Place them close together in your baking dish so they stay rolled when baking and serving.
Top the enchiladas with roasted tomatillo sauce, add cheese, and bake
I used Asadero cheese on top, which complemented the firm texture of the roasted vegetables.
Bake in a moderate oven – say 350 degrees, just long enough to heat everything through and melt the cheese. In South Texas, tomatillo sauce often includes cilantro. I used a small amount of cilantro as a garnish and it added a lovely flavor element to the enchiladas.
The Twitter Recipe Photos Contest was fun and delicious. Plus, I learned how to make a delicious tomatillo sauce. I haven’t cooked with tomatillos before and I’m looking forward to trying this sauce in other dishes.
On top of all that – I won a cookbook! Here’s the link so you can see all the winning photos.
If you’d like to try your hand at Rick Bzyless’s Twitter Recipe Photo Contest, you can follow him on twitter: @Rick_Bayless and get the details of the challenge here.
Thank you, Rick Bayless, for a challenging and delicious contest. Amazing things have happened in my life as a result of Twitter.
Cynthia
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Cynthia McKenna is a therapist specializing in anxiety, depression, and healthy living. You can learn more about her work here.
