Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

This challenge was one that I was both looking forward to and dreading. Who doesn't love enchiladas? The thought of having to make them in time for a family reunion somewhere in rural country made very nervous. Mexican ingredients plus equipment and rural Australia in an unfamiliar kitchen in which others would be cooking as well.. I couldn't bring those two factors together. Did I mention that our family is huge? I decided then to make most of the components ahead of time and just put everything together at the last minute. That helped logistically but I think the dish's taste and texture suffered for it. I was pressed for time so I stacked the tortillas in a lasagna-like manner but that just made it not an enchilada but a Mexican lasagna. What an awful thought! When I recovered from the shock I decided to serve this with tortillas on the side plus some really good guacamole and tomatillo salsa and pretend nothing. Despite my horror, it all turned out fine, people were happy, ate everything in sight, some even complimented the cook. As for me? It was a good, stick to your ribs dish. Would I make it again? Sure. Would I make it at home, transport it to a far-away land and then  stupidly assemble it at the last minute while 24 people were hungrily waiting for dinner? Hell, no. 

In this challenge a rich, complex mole replaced the enchilada sauce. I also used roast pork instead of chicken. Any leftover roast pork can be used here but I got half a kilo of pork neck, cubed it into large chunks, added some stock, cumin, salt and cloves of garlic, covered and roasted it in a moderate oven until meltingly tender, about 2 hours making sure to add more stock every once in a while.

Apologies for the bad photo, this time I forgot about photography until I started digging into my plate.

Rick Bayless's Classic Red Mole

Makes 3 litres of mole

Ingredients

• Tomatillos, husked and rinsed: 5 medium or  500 grams, canned, drained
• Sesame seeds: 1 1/3 cupsRich-tasting pork lard or vegetable oil: 1 cup, plus a little more if necessary
• Dried mulato chiles: about 12 medium, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
• Dried ancho chiles: about 6 medium, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
• Dried pasilla chiles: about 10 medium, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
• Garlic cloves, peeled: 8 
• Unskinned almonds:1 cup
• Raisins: 1 cup
• Cinnamon, ground: 1 teaspoon 
• Black pepper, preferably freshly ground: 1/2 teaspoon 
• Anise preferably freshly ground: 1/2 teaspoon
• Cloves, preferably freshly ground: 1/4 teaspoon 
• Firm white bread, darkly toasted and broken into several pieces: 2 slices 
• Mexican chocolate, roughly chopped: 56 grams
• Chicken broth: 3 litres
• Salt
• Sugar: 1/3 to 1/2 cups

Directions

1.   Preliminaries.  On a rimmed baking sheet, roast the tomatillos 4 inches below a very hot broiler until splotchy black and thoroughly soft, about 5 minutes per side.  Scrape into a large bowl.  In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds, stirringly nearly constantly, until golden, about 5 minutes.  Scrape half of them in with the tomatillos.  Reserve the remainder for sprinkling on the chicken.

2.   Brown other mole ingredients.  Turn on an exhaust fan or open a kitchen door or window.  In a very large soup pot (I typically use a 12-quart stainless steel stock pot or a medium-large Mexican earthenware cazuela), heat the lard or oil over medium.  When quite hot, fry the chiles, three or four pieces at a time, flipping them nearly constantly with tongs until their interior side has changed to a lighter color, about 20 or 30 seconds total frying time.  Don’t toast them so darkly that they begin to smoke—that would make the mole bitter.  As they’re done, remove them to a large bowl, being careful to drain as much fat as possible back into the pot.  Cover the toasted chiles with hot tap water and let rehydrate 30 minutes, stirring frequently to insure even soaking.

Remove any stray chile seeds left in the fat.  With the pot still over medium heat, fry the garlic and almonds, stirring regularly, until browned (the garlic should be soft), about 5 minutes.  With a slotted spoon, remove to the tomatillo bowl, draining as much fat as possible back into the pot.

Add the raisins to the hot pot.  Stir for 20 or 30 seconds, until they’ve puffed and browned slightly.  Scoop them out, draining as much fat as possible back into the pot, and add to the tomatillos. Set the pan aside off the heat.

To the tomatillo mixture, add the cinnamon, black pepper, anise, cloves, bread and chocolate.  Add 2 cups water and stir to combine.

3.   Blend, strain, cook.  Into a large measuring cup, tip off the chiles’ soaking liquid. Taste the liquid:  if it’s not bitter, discard all abut 6 cups of the liquid. (if you’re short, add water to make up the shortfall).  If bitter, pour it out and measure 6 cups water.  Scoop half of the chiles into a blender jar, pour in half of the soaking liquid (or water) and blend to a smooth puree.  Press through a medium-mesh strainer into a large bowl; discard the bits of skin and seeds that don’t pass through the strainer.  Repeat with the remaining chiles.

Return the soup pot or cazuela to medium heat.  When quite hot, pour in the chile puree—it should sizzle sharply and, if the pan is sufficiently hot, the mixture should never stop boiling.  Stir every couple of minutes until the chile puree has darkened and reduced to the consistency of tomato paste, about a half hour. (I find it useful to cover the pot with an inexpensive spatter screen to catch any spattering chile.)

In two batches, blend the tomatillo mixture as smoothly as possible (you may need an extra 1/2 cup water to keep everything moving through the blades), then strain it in to the large bowl that contained the chiles. When the chile paste has reduced, add the tomatillo mixture to the pot and cook, stirring every few minutes until considerably darker and thicker, 15 to 20 minutes. (Again, a spatter screen saves a lot of cleanup.)

4.   Simmer.  Add the broth to the pot and briskly simmer the mixture over medium to medium-low heat for about 2 hours for all the flavors to come together and mellow. If the mole has thickened beyond the consistency of a cream soup, stir in a little water.  Taste and season with salt (usually about 4 teaspoons) and the sugar.

This makes a huge quantity of mole which you can freeze for other dishes.

Corn Tortillas (from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen)
Makes about 15

• Masa harina: 1 ¼ cups

• Hot water: 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons
  

Pour hot water over masa harina, cover and let sit 30 minutes. Add cool water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is soft but not sticky. Divide the dough into 15 balls and cover with plastic wrap.

Heat a large (two burner) ungreased griddle or two large skillets, one on medium-low and one on medium-high.

Put a ball of dough between two sheets of plastic. If you don’t have a tortilla press, press to a 5-6” circle using a heavy frying pan or bread board or other heavy, flat object. Put the tortilla into the cooler pan or cooler end of the griddle. The tortilla will probably stick, but within 15 seconds, if the temperature is correct, it will release. Flip it at that point onto the hotter skillet/griddle section. In 30-45 seconds, it should be dotted with brown underneath. Flip it over, still on the hot surface and brown another 30 seconds or so. A good tortilla will balloon up at this point. Remove from heat and let them rest while cooking the remaining tortillas. Use quickly.

Enchiladas (serves 8)

Ingredients

• Roast pork: 500 grams (read introduction for instructions)
  
• Olive oil: 3 tablespoons (use more as needed)
• Salt and pepper
• Small Corn tortillas:12  (5-6 inch/13-15 cm)
• Cheeses: 170 grams cheddar, pepper jack, Mexican cheeses can be used. Just be sure they melt well and complement the filling
• Coriander for garnish, chopped and sprinkled optional

In a small skillet, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Dip the edge of a tortilla into the oil to check – it should sizzle immediately.

Using tongs, put a tortilla into the pan and cook until soft and lightly brown on each side, about 15-20 seconds per side (at the most).

Drain on paper towels.

Add oil as needed and continue until all 12 tortillas are done.

 In a baking dish large enough to hold four separate stacks of tortillas, ladle a thin layer of sauce.

Lay four tortillas in the dish and ladle another ½ cup (4 ounces/112 grams) of sauce over the tortillas.

Divide half the pork among the first layer of tortillas, top with another ½ cup of sauce and 1/3 of the grated cheese.

Stack another four tortillas, top with the rest of the pork, more sauce and another third of the cheese.

Finish with the third tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese.

Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.

To serve, transfer each stack to a plate. Spoon any leftover sauce over the stacks and sprinkle with cilantro, if you wish. The stacks may also be cooked in individual gratin dishes.

Serve with optional tomatillo salsa and guacamole.