Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sinful Sauce Showdown

This recipe is incredibly rich and sinfully delicious. It is the type of dish where you use the self-checkout at the supermarket when buying the ingredients in order to avoid the disdainful judging eyes of the cashier. It is a meal that you hope your guest don't come early while you are cooking it for fear they will see the copious amounts of bad for you components you are adding into the pan. But instead of feeling guilty for embarking on this full fat, creamy adventure I decided to go the opposite route. Knowing I don't cook like this often, I wanted to take full advantage. So what did I do? I doubled the queso sauce recipe below and decided I would serve it later in the week with pasta for Round 2 of this deliciousness.

Obviously needing to space out the number of days we indulged in this recipe, I stored my second batch of sauce in a sealed container and put it in the fridge until later in the week. I made the enchiladas on Friday and on Tuesday after work I started filling a pasta pot with water in order to boil some penne to serve with my much anticipated crawfish cream sauce. Right around the time my water started to boil Forrest sauntered into the kitchen and asked what was for dinner. I told him that we would be having the cream sauce that I made over the weekend on top of pasta. With an amazingly calm expression, he commented that we didn't have any of that left over. I explained that I wasn't talking about the few enchiladas that remained after our dinner party on Friday night, but about the very large container of sauce I placed all the way in the back of the fridge separated from everything else. Once again, Forrest mentioned that we didn't have that any longer. Certain that he was still confused, I (not so calmly) asked what had happened to it. He told me that he ate it. For some reason I couldn't believe what he was telling me. When did he heat up the sauce, cook pasta and have 6 people over to help him consume the 3 cups of creamy deliciousness laced with cheese and a full $16/lb of crawfish? This is when he revealed the true shocker. He ate it throughout the week - for a snack! with potato chips! I was livid. I couldn't believe it! I ranted and raved about how he turned a roughly $30 dish into a snack, we now had nothing for dinner, and I was looking forward to eating it again and wouldn't have the chance. Instead of apologizing, offering to go out and get us dinner to make up for it, or claiming ignorance, he looked at me and remarked, "It was so good too!"

Crawfish Enchiladas
Adapted from
Paul Prudhomme



Ingredients

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 cup canned green chiles, chopped
3/4 cup finely chopped green bell peppers
2 3/4 teaspoons of salt
2 3/4 teaspoons of white pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground red pepper (cayenne)
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
3 cups heavy cream
1 cup dairy sour cream
8 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese or other white (preferably non-processed) cheese (2 pounds)
2 pounds peeled crawfish tails
2/3 cup very finely chopped green onions
1/2 cup cooking oil
20 (6-inch) corn tortillas

Directions

In a large skillet melt ½ stick of the butter. Add the onions, green chiles, bell peppers, 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 3/4 teaspoon of white pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper, 1/4 teaspoon of oregano and the minced garlic. Sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often.

Stir in the cream and bring mixture to a rapid boil;

then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the sour cream;

with a metal whisk, beat continuously until the sour cream is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Add 3 cups of the cheese

and stir until melted. Set the sauce aside.

In a 4-quart saucepan melt the remaining ½ stick butter. Add the crawfish, green onions and the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of white pepper, 1 teaspoon of red pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of oregano.

Sauté over medium heat for about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the cheese sauce to the crawfish mixture

and stir well. Simmer until the flavors are well blended, about 6 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

In a small skillet heat the oil to 325º. Holding the tortilla with metal tongs, dip each into the hot oil just long enough to soften, about 1 second on each side; drain on paper towels.

Spoon about ⅓ cup sauce on each tortilla

and roll up tortilla; place seam side down in a baking dish.
Cover the tortilla from end to end with a generous amount of additional sauce. Then sprinkle it with the remaining cheese.

For the prettiest presentation, place the enchiladas under a broiler near the flame until the cheese melts and begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Or, bake the enchiladas in a 350º oven until cheese melts, about 5 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately.

Click Here for My Adapted Printable Recipe

14 comments:

Mal said...

oh wow, sinful is right. this look absolutely amazing

Taylor said...

Mmm I love fun, indulgent meals like this! In moderation of course :)

Sush said...

Oh you had me at crawfish! How's the little man...may we have an updated photo?
Happy Thanksgiving~

Woody said...

That was the best dip I have ever had on chips in my whole life! This recipe should be a entree and an appetizer.

Dining Alone said...

oh my that is over the top, but every once in a while that is OK :)

Christina @ Still Lucky said...

This is my kind of sauce! How I love sinful.

Mary Bergfeld said...

This sounds truly delicious. This is my first visit to your blog, so I took some time to browse through your earlier posts. I'm so glad I did that. I really like the food and recipes you share with your readers and I'll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

Alexander said...

Your recipe makes my mouth water. I am going to print your recipe and give it a try for Christmas .

Suzy said...

I hate to side with Forrest but I totally would have dipped this straight out of the bowl with some fritos :-) Makes me crave crawfish right at this moment.

karen said...

Looks wonderful. I'm trying it tonight, but with shrimp instead of crawfish because crawfish were $17.99 a pound (ouch).
One question, in the recipe, you say corn tortillas and show a picture of how to heat them, but the finished product is clearly flour tortillas. I'm trying flour tonight. Have you tried both? Do you find one works better than the other?

Elizabeth said...

Karen,

I have used both corn and flour. Flour tortillas are much easier to work with in this recipe because they break less easily and are a little larger. But corn tortillas have a more authentic Mexican flavor, but personally I prefer the texture of flour in most recipes. Hope you enjoyed them!

Beth Skipper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Found this on pinterest. I have made it twice now with flour tortillas and it is absolutely delicious! I subbed chicken for my daughter who doesn't eat crawfish. I love these!!

Unknown said...

Ohhh my goodness... This recipe is incredible! I halved the recipe and afterwards wished I hadn't. Way rich but you have to splurge once in a while right. I used corn and flour tortillas and both were great. I really love the corn the best. Thanks so much for sharing!