I Made My First Enchiladas... and Gave Myself A 'Mexican Foodie Badge of Honor'
March 16, 2025 |
| My first ever enchiladas - March 2025 |
Happy Sunday beautiful people,
I made my first ever enchiladas (pronounced en-cha-la-da) and I cannot keep calm.
I will not pretend to know the history of this dish, and when people have it, but will mention that it is a Mexican dish...one of the four Mexican dishes I can proudly brag about.
There is a large Latino population here in Lancaster (a little over 40%), and though my Spanish is non-existent, my love for their food is on another level...and one of my best Summer events is the Hispanic Heritage Event in Downtown Lancaster (my shop was one of the vendor at the last one).
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| Having a burritto at the 2022 Hispanic Heritage Month Event hosted by the City of Lancaster - October 2022 |
- Hispanics: People who speak Spanish (the Spanish language). It includes countries like Mexico, Spain, and most of Central America and South America - countries like Brazil speak Portuguese.
- Latinos (male) / Latinas (female) / Latinx (gender-neutral): These terms refer to people from Latin America, which includes all the countries south of the U.S. and Canada.
- Mexicans: People from Mexico - who are both Hispanic (because they speak Spanish) and Latino/Latina/Latinx (because Mexico is in Latin America).
In short, Hispanic refers to the language spoken (Spanish), while Latino/Latina/Latinx refers to geographical and cultural origins (Latin America). And while all Mexicans are Hispanic and Latino/Latina, not all Latinos are Hispanic because of the Portuguese-speaking countries like Brazil...and not all Hispanics are Latino/Latina because of countries like Spain.
Hope that clears things up...now let us get back to food stories.
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| My Quesadilla attempt, will do a recipe |
I mentioned that enchiladas are one of the four Mexican dishes I can brag about. The other three are:
- Quesadillas - tortilla with fillings and cheese,
- Taco - shrimp tacos are the best and the secret is in the spices,
- Burritos - confused this with wraps for the longest time, but I know define a burrito by the fact that the fillings can be a full meal on their own e.g if it has rice and beans
One thing is clear though, Mexican food always starts with a tortilla. I will share recipes for the three dishes I mentioned, but today, I want to focus on the new kid on my block - enchiladas. I forgot to take photos of all the steps, but here’s what I did:
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| Filled the tortilla with the cooked turkey |
1. Work on the filling - I used grounded turkey (yes I use turkey way too much, check out my last turkey dish - turkey shepherd's pie). I pan fried green peppers, onions and the turkey and seasoned with Southwest Spice Blend, salt and black Pepper, then added a spoonful of green salsa (salsa verde).
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| Put sauce and cheese then baked |
2. Assemble the enchiladas - Once the turkey mixture was ready, I placed it in tortillas. I put a small amount on one half of the tortilla, rolled it up, and placed the seam side down. I made five rolls, then poured the green salsa over the top and sprinkled with Mexican cheese blend.
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| I was too eager to eat and forgot to take a photo from the oven :) |
3. Bake and Eat - I put the rolls on broil mode for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese. While that was happening, I mixed some sour cream, hot sauce, salt and black pepper. After I removed the enchiladas from the oven, I drizzled with the sour cream mixture on top and garnished with green onions.
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| This was actually my second round - looooove it, will def make them again |
Will definitely share recipes for the other dishes I mentioned.
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
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