Recipes

Enchiladas Potosinas

By Emmanuel Corona
 

In Emmanuel Corona’s life, three places are particularly meaningful – Mexico City, where he was born; San Luis Potosi, where he lived for part of his childhood; and Milwaukee, where he took much of what he learned in Mexico and built a culinary career and home. Some of his first food memories are of watching his grandmother and mother cook. Many of the dishes Corona has on his menu now at La Dama are ones they raised children on. “They would make mole, mole paste for the whole week and those [ayocotes] beans [an heirloom variety that originated in central Mexico] that I use over here, too. Those are, like, really typical” of the places where he grew up.

 

In their tiny kitchen, young Corona watched these women work. His grandma made blood sausage by hand. They both made masa cakes steamed in corn husks (tamales) and the egg, ham, and tortilla dish eaten often at breakfast [huevos rancheros]. The family would push carts of their homemade tamales around Mexico City, selling the savory handheld meals. When they moved to San Luis Potosi, Corona’s mother’s hometown, Corona had his first taste of enchiladas potosinas, which look more like empanadas and fell in love.

 

Huevos rancheros is the very first thing Corona learned how to make. His mother taught him because it was an easy, delicious dish to keep him and his brothers fed when she wasn’t home. It is home. It is childhood.

 

In the same way, Corona’s enchiladas potosinas – guajillo chile paste-seasoned masa topped with potatoes, queso, crisp lettuce and a green sauce – is a memory that’s now sprouted in his adopted hometown. Corona’s hands repeat the motions his mother’s fingers performed back home in Mexico – making the chile paste and mixing it into the masa dough, kneading, forming balls and cooking them in the comal (griddle). “She still makes them on Saturdays and sells them,” he says of the dish named after the city where it was born. “That dish means a lot to me. Every chance I get, I make them for myself and for my kids.

Ingredients

Serves 2

Step 1 - Masa Enchilada:

6 guajillo peppers (remove stem and seeds)

1 garlic clove

1 pound masa dough (for tortillas)

1 teaspoon salt

Water, enough to fill a medium saucepan three-quarters full

 

Step 2 - Salsa Verde Cruda:

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/4 onion, minced

2 garlic cloves

2 serrano chiles

6 tomatillos

1/4 cup water

1/2 bunch of cilantro

1 lime, juiced

Salt, to taste

 

Step 3 - Toppings:

2 large potatoes

2 large carrots

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

Water, enough to fill a medium-sized pot three-quarters full

 

Step 4 - Enchilada Sauce For Dipping:

4 cups water

3 Roma tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1/4 white onion

4 guajillo peppers, seeded

 

Step 5 - Forming Enchiladas:

Tortilla press

1 large Ziploc bag or wax paper cut into 2 pieces.

 

Step 6 - Making The Enchiladas and Plating:

6 tortillas

1 cup queso fresco

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup sliced iceberg lettuce

Olive oil, enough to coat a nonstick pan

Guajillo sauce

Potato-carrot mixture

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Salsa verde cruda

Instructions

Step 1 - Masa Enchilada:

Add water to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add to the pan the guajillo peppers and garlic clove. Cook for five minutes, turn off the heat and the peppers sit. Cover the pot for 10 minutes. Add the mixture to a blender and puree until you make a smooth paste.

In a bowl, combine masa dough with salt and the guajillo paste you just made. Knead the dough to form a ball that’s quite moist. Cover and set it aside.

 

Step 2- Salsa Verde Cruda:

Heat a medium-sized pan with olive oil. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft. Add chiles and tomatillos and sauté for three minutes. Add water and cook for another three minutes. Turn off the heat, let it cool down, then transfer the ingredients to a blender. Add cilantro and lime juice and blend until smooth, seasoning with salt and set aside.

 

Step 3 - Toppings:

Peel potatoes. Small-dice the potatoes and carrots and keep them separate. Bring water to a boil in a medium-sized pot. Add salt and bay leaf. Add carrots and cook for four minutes. Add potatoes and cook for another four minutes or until tender. Take them off the heat and strain, then put them in an ice-cold bath to stop the cooking.

 

Step 4 - Enchilada Sauce For Dipping:

Bring water to a boil in a medium-sized pot. Add all four ingredients to the pot, turn the heat down to medium and cook until soft. At around 15 minutes, let it cool down. Add to a blender and pour the sauce through a mesh strainer. Then, set it aside.

 

Step 5 - Forming Enchiladas:

Heat up a comal, or a flat griddle, to medium heat

Start breaking down the dough and form little balls with your palms (smaller than a golf ball). Open the press and position the Ziploc bag on the press. Place the masa ball in the middle of the Ziploc bag and close the press to flatten the masa (you want the tortilla to be around 4 inches in diameter). Open the press, carefully remove the plastic from the tortilla and place the tortilla in the comal. Cook for 40 seconds, flip the tortilla and cook for another 30 seconds. Flip the tortilla one more time until it puffs, then take it off and put it in a basket and cover. Repeat the step until you finish your masa. Makes about 20 tortillas.

 

Step 6 - Making The Enchiladas and Plating:

Heat up a nonstick pan with olive oil, dip the tortilla in the enchilada dipping sauce and place it in the heated pan. Add a little queso fresco to the middle of the tortilla and fold it in half. Flip it over and transfer it to a plate. Repeat the process to make four enchiladas per plate.

In another hot pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add the potatoes and carrots. Sauté until brown, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Once you have your enchiladas on the plate, top them with the potatoes and carrots, add some iceberg lettuce and more queso fresco and finish them with the salsa verde cruda. Enjoy!

Bio

Emmanuel Corona had been a longtime chef and colleague with Crazy Water for 20 years when he was asked about exploring a Mexican concept in the old Crazy Water space. Originally a resident of Puebla and Mexico City, Corona garnered his culinary skills from various sources. His first introduction to the food world took place at a very young age, watching his grandmother and mother cook. It was in those years that he learned the art of making mole poblano and mole negro, among other traditional favorites from the area. Corona and Peggy Magister began working together at her first restaurant in Cedarburg, The Fork Café. After five years, he followed her to Crazy Water, where he slowly incorporated many of his Mexican flavors into the Crazy Water menu. After 20 years, he and Peggy worked together to create La Dama Mexican Kitchen and Bar, where he is now the head chef and owner.

Emmanuel Corona

La Dama Mexican Kitchen and Bar

Emmanuel Corona

La Dama Mexican Kitchen and Bar

About La Dama Mexican Kitchen and Bar
 

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