Cheese Enchiladas (and Sauce)

Ugh - so many recipes...so little time. Sorry it's been a little while since the last post. I'm still continuing on the Mexican theme. I LOVE enchiladas and yes, chicken and beef are fine, but for me, it's all about the cheese. I love me my cheese - I gotta have me some cheese. So, this recipe is for cheese enchiladas. I actually am including a recipe for homemade enchilada sauce, too, but frankly, I didn't like it as much as the stuff from the store. It's good, but different than what I'm used to. I recommend just using store-bought, but I included the recipe in case you want to try it. Here ya go!

Cheese Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1 lb of mild cheddar cheese, grated
corn tortillas
vegetable oil
1/4-1/3 cup finely chopped yellow onion (optional)
Enchilada sauce, heated
black olives (sliced)
sour cream, optional
guacamole, optional

Directions: (all this stuff about dipping the tortillas in oil is something I tried once and found to be kind of useless. Most recipes say to do this, so I'll leave it in here in case you want to do the whole "shebang", but for me, dipping in hot enchilada sauce was enough to soften the tortilla).
Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan on medium heat. You will need some tongs and a plate or tray to assemble your enchiladas. Using tongs, dip two corn tortillas at a time into the hot oil. When the tortillas start to bubble, lift and dip them into the oil 3 times fairly quickly. The goal here is to make the tortillas soft. If the tortillas are left in the oil too long they will get hard and be difficult to roll. If that happens just toss them out and start over. The other option is to go ahead and keep cooking them in the oil until they become hard. These can be used as tostada shells if you like.

Okay, back to dipping the tortillas 3 quick times in the oil. Once you do this, dip the tortillas into hot enchilada sauce to coat. Now put the tortillas on a plate to cool one minute. Add a handfull of the grated cheese and sprinkle some onion down the center of one tortilla and roll it. (you can also add some sliced olives before you roll it). Do this by grabbing one end of the tortilla and bringing it 3/4 of the way over to the other end. Tuck and roll the tortilla. Pick up the cheese enchilada with your fore fingers on the botton where the seam is. Let your pinky fingers cover the ends of the enchilada to keep the cheese from falling out while you move it to an oven proof dish.

Pour hot enchilada sauce over the top of the cheese enchiladas and let plenty of sauce run down the sides. Remember, the sauce is what makes it!
Sprinkle more cheese and onion on top in the desired amount.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place your enchiladas in the oven. Heat the cheese enchiladas until they look somewhat flat and the sauce is bubbling. This will probably take 15 minutes or more. Remember, you want to make sure the cheese inside the enchilada is melted.

Enchilada Sauce - Red

Ingredient
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced onion
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 1/2 teaspoons chili powder (I went to a hispanic market and got some really cheap (like 50 cents for a bag) - I just asked someone that worked there WHICH chili powder would be good for enchilada sauce. There are a LOT of choices of chili power, believe it or not).
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 cup salsa
1 (6 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups water

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the onion, oregano, chili powder, basil, ground black pepper, salt, cumin, parsley, salsa and tomato sauce.
2. Mix together and then stir in the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.