Playing with my food: Pulled Pork Enchiladas

The strangest thing happened to me the other day... I was day-dreaming about the pulled pork I had recently made (that's right, I day-dream about food ... on a regular basis) and I thought to myself "mmm I would really like to make enchiladas with this." Then I remembered I've never made enchiladas before, and I had no trusty bookmarks to point me in the right direction.

Then, not an hour later, Best Recipes posted a link to their chicken enchiladas on twitter.  Obviously, at this point, I knew it was meant to be!

I didn't have the right ingredients to follow along with their recipe, or with the recipes I dug out in a few of my favourite cookbooks, sooooo it was time to start playing!

This was a lesson in how major improvisation in the kitchen can be such a good thing! Other Half also agreed by exclaiming "you're a genius." No biggie.

I wanted these to be saucy, cheesy and bursting with that irresistible pulled pork, so I didn't scrimp on the good stuff, and neither should you.

These are indulgent and filling and ooey-gooey goodness. Seconds, please! Read more for the recipe...



Pulled Pork Enchiladas
Serving: This makes enough for 4 mains, but there will be extra sauce, if you are doubling the stuffing, you likely will not need to double the sauce 

Ingredients

For the sauce:
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder*
1 tsp italian seasoning (trust me, it works)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes, undrained (I used San Romano)
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp of sugar (I didn't actually use this, I'm suggesting it in case you are not using San Romano tomatoes, which I find are much sweeter than regular tomatoes)

* Our chili powder is EXTRA EXTRA HOT so we need to use it sparingly or else our food becomes inedible, if you're using a more standard chili powder you could probably push this to 1 Tbsp quite comfortably

For the enchilada stuffing:
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped (optional - use other veggies if desired)
2 cups pulled pork - left overs are awesome!
1/4 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup cheese, shredded (we had marble on hand so i used that - but this would be amazing with some aged cheddar or a monterey jack!)
1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce from above

The extras:
4 8 inch tortillas
1/2 - 1 cup cheese, shredded
sour cream for serving (optional, did no use, but would be delicious!)

Directions

For the sauce:

1. Heat oil in saucepan and saute onions until translucent, add garlic and cook for another couple of minutes
2. Add the flour and cook for an extra minute until golden
3. mix in all of the spices and tomatoes
4. Using an emersion/hand blender, blend the mixture to desired consistency (ideal would be just until no large chunks of tomato remain)
5. If you think the mixture is too thick, stir in 1/4 - 1/2 cup of water until preferred consistency
6. Bring to a slow boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes

For the enchilada stuffing:

1. Heat oil in a frying pan and saute onions until almost translucent, add in the zucchini and cook until tender
2. Add the pork, and cook long enough so that the pork is heated through (assuming you are using left overs!)
3. Stir in the yogurt, cheese and sauce until well combined and of an even temperature then remove from heat

Prepare the enchiladas:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In an 8x8 or 9x9 glass baking dish spread a thin layer of the prepared sauce
3. Layout one or two tortillas in front of you (not in the baking dish) and spread about 1/4 of the mixture evenly across the centre (so it's in a line, not covering the entire surface)
4. Roll the tortilla into a cylinder, open ends are okay, and place seam side down in the baking dish
5. Finish off the rest of the tortillas in the same way and cover the enchiladas with good amount of sauce 
6. Cover with tinfoil and bake for 15 minutes
7. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for 10 more minutes
8. Turn the oven to "broil" and broil for about 3 minutes until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly
9. Enjoy!