Enchiladas

One afternoon last week, while J and D were playing outside and friends (unbeknown to us) were planning a Thai adventure, I made dinner. Had we not missed our friends' call I could have continued on my streak of foraging in the cupboards, getting takeout, or eating cereal for dinner. We always have plenty of food for J though I admit I'm not too creative and cycle through the same handful of options, poor guy. But at least he always has a well-balanced meal.
Anyway, back to the fairy tale turned reality. . . I found inspiration for dinner online in two different places. I'd bookmarked a creamy vegan bean & corn enchilada recipe knowing full well I'd make it non-vegan. That evening a chicken three- cheese enchilada recipe presented itself with a very simple homemade sauce. This was perfect considering the only thing I lacked for enchiladas was sauce. I merged the sauce of one recipe with the vegetarian filling of the other. I happened to have heavy whipping cream in the house and cut it with whole milk to achieve the half and half the recipe called for - I don't normally have heavy cream in the fridge. I think milk would work too, though it may need a bit of a roux to thicken it up.
D described these as "Paula Dean" enchiladas because they were that rich. They were soooooooo good.

Giving credit where credit is due, these are:

Three cheese, creamy black bean & corn enchiladas.

(In our house they will be referred to as "those" enchiladas; the ones that all others will be measured against.)

INGREDIENTS:

Filling:

1 can black beans, rinsed

1 cup frozen corn (or canned)

1 can fire roasted tomatoes (drained)

1 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)

2 TBS cream cheese

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper

salt & pepper to taste

Sauce:

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

3/4 cup milk

juice from drained tomatoes (~1/4 cup)

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper

salt & pepper to taste

For Assembly:

feta cheese

cheddar cheese

4-6 medium sized tortillas

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat Oven to 350

In a saute pan combine black beans, corn, and drained tomatoes (reserve the juice ~1/4 cup). You likely can't get all the juice out of the tomatoes and that's good. You only need about 1/4 cup (or less) of juice for the sauce. Add cumin, red pepper, salt, pepper and heat.

In a small sauce pan combine all ingredients for sauce. Heat on low/medium-low and stir often, being careful not to scorch the milk/cream mixture.

Once the beans and corn mixture is warm add the cream cheese and nutritional yeast, stir and continue to heat until cheese melts and mixture becomes creamy.

Keep stirring your cream sauce! Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

Heat tortillas in the microwave until pliable (~ 30 seconds for six tortillas)

Lay tortilla flat and line the center with filling. Top with feta cheese. Roll tortilla, place seam-side down in pan. [I used a 9x9 square pan for 4 tortillas (I only had 4! I had plenty of filling left over for 6 tortillas). Use a larger 9x12 pan for 6 tortillas.]

Repeat until tortillas and filling are gone. Pour sauce over the top. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

No offense to our friends, whose company we would have enjoyed, but these were worth missing dinner. Try them. You'll agree - they are fantastic. This is not my first time at the rodeo with enchiladas, but these out-shine all the others that in comparison I would call disasters. And let me know if you use only milk, or something else, in place of the cream!