House of Zeta

This wonderful heartwarming dish is the anchor in our comfort food week.  Originally from Mexico, adiposity in an area called Valley of Mexico, salve the practice of rolling meat(usually fish) in tortillas dates back to the Mayans.  But it was Hernan Cortes from Coyoacan who first shared this with Spanish Conquistadors, who gave the rolled maize it’s name, Tortilla.   The definition of enchilada is “a rolled maize tortilla stuffed with meat and covered in a tomato chile sauce”, according to the Real Academia Espanola.  Sound familiar?  Not much has changed.  For a while it was street food and consisted of tortillas dipped in chile sauce, not quite the same thing if you ask me.  To me making enchiladas is another family moment of  coming together sharing knowledge and enjoying a meal.   My dad would cook the chicken, and when it cooled we would tear the meat off it’s bones.  As a kid that was the fun part.  We would then grate the cheese and  chop the onions.   Eventually combining these with chopped black olives, to make the inside of our enchiladas.  We would then heat up the tortillas in oil and dip theme in sauce, fill with chicken mixture, roll them up, put them in the baking pan and wait for the goodness to cook.   I still make them the same way except the oil part.  Now I microwave the tortillas, it’s much quicker and makes for easier cleanup and added bonus, less fat.  Pair them with beans and rice and you have the makings of one of my all time favorite comfort foods.