Ethnic Night + Enchilladas = Success!

Man oh man, tonight I made enchilladas with this Rockin' Robin's recipe that I found a couple years back. You can't buy little seasoning packets here in Cyprus so I've learned to modify and make things work. My reputation of just making it taste good was totally boosted and I have a huge head about it. But seriously, I'm gonna brag on this recipe!!!

Rockin Robin's Raving Enchilada Sauce

makes about 2 cups

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 4 Tbs Gebhardt Chili Powder
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 heaping tsp. garlic powder (with no salt added)
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon (less than 1/16 tsp.)
• 1/3 tsp. sugar
• 5 Tbs. cold water
• 5 Tbs. white flour

Directions:

In a 2 quart sauce pan add the chicken broth, chili powder, cumin, salt, garlic powder, cinnamon and sugar (the sugar is a little secret to eliminate any bitter taste from the chili powder).

Use a whisk to mix everything well. Heat to a boil, reduce heat to a low boil and cook for 3 minutes.

Whisk frequently to make sure all spices dissolve. This is important for flavor and a nice smooth sauce.

While the sauce is on a slow simmer/boil, add 5 tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl.

With another whisk mix 1 tablespoon at a time of flour. Whisk vigorously to avoid lumps. If you have lumps here, you will definitely have lumps in your sauce.

After 3 minutes of cooking sauce, turn the heat up to high. Very slowly, pour the flour mixture into the boiling sauce. Here you must whisk the sauce vigorously while adding the flour to avoid lumps.

After all the flour is added, continue to whisk for one minute. You can turn the heat down to medium during this time. Just make sure the sauce is boiling.

Turn off the heat, this enchilada sauce recipe is done.

You will notice that as this sauce sits it will form a "skin" on the surface. This is normal and in fact the longer the sauce sits the thicker this skin becomes. All you have to do is peel the skin off and throw it away.

Then I fry up some ground beef with onion, garlic, pepper and worchester sauce. Once the beef is almost ready I put a bit of the enchilladas sauce in it.

For vegetarians:
Instead of meat I sautee'd mushrooms, onion and spinach with fresh garlic and oil. I also cooked some beans and then stuffed it with cheese. The sauce was awesome with the veggie enchilladas mix!

To assemble the enchilladas, cover a casserole dish with a layer of the sauce. Place a flour tortilla in the dish and put as much cheese, meat or veggie mixture in it. Roll it up tight and repeat until the casserole dish is full. I like my enchilladas saucy so I poured lots of the Rockin' Robin's sauce over my stuffed tortillas and cover it with cheddar cheese. Mmm...the only thing it was missing was sour cream!

Julia whipped up some awesome guacamole with fresh garlic, onion, tomato and lemon. And at the last minute I made some Spanish rice that I totally forgot to do! Dinner was about 15 minutes late. =)

The sun came out today and my laundry almost dried. It's been hard keeping clothes clean with all the rain and our washer acting up so much! But Sarah blessed us with washing and drying a load so I have pants for tomorrow! Yay! Pictures next time...