Cooking Cheap

I haven’t actually made this yet, but it sounds good for a Tuesday dinner and it cleans out some stuff in the freezer and fridge. I’ve got some smoked chuck roast in the freezer, just a few ounces but it goes a long ways. Left over pot roast would be a decent substitute. I’ve got some dried shitake mushrooms that are many years old. Some green onions that have a day or two left in them and some bargain bin pepper jack cheese that’s not going to keep much longer either. This would also give a change to use my new scale to impress your with my precision.

Filling:

1. Defrost the beef
2. Rehydrate the mushrooms for an hour or two. Squeeze dry, remove stem.
3. Dice beef and mushrooms,
4. saute in a small amount of oil, toss in a minced clove of garlic and the chopped white parts of the green onions. Cook a little bit. Might use some beef soup base (bullion) if it gets too driy
5. Let cool (or fridge it for later)
6. Mix with grated pepper jack cheese before using.

My hope, no, my plan is that the mushrooms will get a bit of the smoke flavor and be less blah. If soaked long enough, they may even get an appealing texture. The jack cheese should mellow down and meld the mixture when baked. The onions and garlic are there because it’s onions and garlic. The pepper part of Pepper Jack will probably get lost, but it won’t hurt anything if it stays around.

Now for the part I don’t know yet. If I had left over store bought tortillas (mine where a lot of green colored so I tossed them), but if I did have some them I’d just make four enchiladas. I do have a lot of masa flour and tortillas aren’t hard to make. And home made ones don’t make good enchiladas in my experience and it would take 6 home make tortillas get the surface area of 4 store bought.

I’m already experimenting with the mushrooms, let’s go for it. Make the tortillas and let them dry in a towel for some number of hours, Might want to bake them a a little faster (higher heat, less time). Then do the filling (including the defrost time) and fry them a little longer. By longer I mean an extra 5 or 10 seconds per side.

They aren’t going to roll up (the homemade problem) so stacked New Mexico style would be the way to go. I have the dried pods to make a real enchilada sauce (and I need to use them one of these days) but I think a chili powder gravy would be less stressful on me (and cheaper) and if it all turns to chilaquiles in the oven I’m not out the pod costs.

A soft fried egg on top would complete the New Mexico style. I’ll probably forget that.

[Next Day]
[Short Version]
Not so good

[Longer version]
Shitakes and Smoked beef don’t go together all that well. I used too many dried mushrooms. I ate all so it’s not bad but it’s nothing to write home about. I did get the tortillas correct. You can use homemade tortillas for enchiladas, so that’s good to know but store bought is probably better.