Middle Aged and Living Well

I was listening to a food podcast during a drive home a few weeks ago and the guy called the show asking what to do with his bumper crop of butternut squash.  It got me thinking and I thought of a sweet butternut puree with a rich earthy dried chile sauce and I was convinced I could create this  recipe with some inspiration from the top chef master himself Rick Bayless.  I looked through his cookbooks and didn’t see any recipe, so I made up the filling and based the sauce on his red chile sauce.  The sauce is not hot, but is rich and earthy.  I spent the day preparing and thinking about this dish.  In the end, I think I created a really nice fall enchilada.  Ok, the corn is a little out of season, but hey, I live in Southern California and I can find local corn pretty much year round.  The corn and the onion in the filling as flavor but more importantly add texture.  So give yourself some time and try this dish.  I would really like to here your thoughts.

For the filling:

• One medium butternut squash, split in half lengthwise and seeds removed
• One small yellow onion, sliced
• corn cut off one ear
• 1 tsp vegetable or sunflower oil
• 2 tsp of ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• black pepper

For the sauce:

• 5 dried pasilla or ancho peppers (name can change depending on what part of the world you live)
• 4 dried New Mexico chiles (again naming maybe confusing, long narrow red peppers, dried)
• 5 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 1 Tbl canola oil
• 1 cup of chicken stock (or veggie stock)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp honey (optional)

For the enchilada:

• 12 corn tortillas
• canola oil
• Cotija cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• lime wedges

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place both halves of the butternut squash on a sheet pan, cut side down, and roast until the flesh is soft, 45 minutes to one hour.  Once done, set aside to cool.  In the mean time, heat the oil in a small pan over medium low heat.  Add the onion and sweat the onion, 5-7 minutes.  We don’t need to brown it, we are only trying to soften then onion.  When the onion is translucent and soft add the corn, toss and remove from heat.  Scoop the butternut squash into a food processor and puree until smooth.  Add the cumin and cayenne.  Pour the puree into a strainer over a bowl and mix in the onion and corn.  Taste for seasonings and add salt and pepper  accordingly.  Let the filling drain while you make the sauce.

Heat a griddle or heavy pan on medium heat.  Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles and tear on side open so the chile can lie flat.  Toast the chilies one at a time on the griddle, pressing with a spatula.  The chilies will turn color and blister slightly.  Toast both sides.  It should only be 5 to 10 seconds per side, that depends on the heat of your griddle.  Place the toasted chilies in a bowl and cover with boiling water.  You may need to put something on top of the chilies to keep them covered with the water.  Soak the chilies for at least 30 minutes, but they get a little better if they can soak an hour or more.  While you are roasting the chilies, roast the garlic on the same griddle.  Roast the chilies until the skins are blistered and dark and the garlic is soft.  Peel the garlic while the chilies soak in the hot water.

Go have a beer or a glass of wine.

Add the chilies and garlic and about 1 1/2 cups of the soaking liquid to a blender and puree.  Get it as fine as you can.  Pour the puree through a fine mesh strainer and use a wooden spoon to press the puree through the strainer.  Heat the oil over medium heat in a 10″ frying pan until smoking.  Pour the strained chile puree into the hot oil, and cook and stir until the sauce thickens to the consistency of tomato paste.  Add the chicken stock (vegetable stock if you want to make these vegetarian) and stir and heat until bubbly to combine.  Season with salt and honey and taste.  The sauce will be a little bitter that will help offset the sweetness of the filling, but it should be pleasant.  If it needs more sweetness for your taste add some more honey.  Remove from heat and prepare to assemble the enchiladas.

Brush both sides of the tortillas with oil and place tortillas on two sheet pans.  Heat in the oven for 6 minutes, flipping the tortillas half way through the heating process.  Evenly distribute the filling to all 12 tortillas.  Place one cup of the sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 pyrex or other similar dish and spread evenly.  Roll tortillas loosely around the filling and place in the dish.  About 10 enchiladas will fit the length of the pan, the other two can go perpendicular to the the others.  Ladle the remaining sauce over the enchiladas, spreading with the back of the ladle all over the corn tortillas. Cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes to heat through.

When done, sprinkle with the cojita cheese and chopped cilantro.  Serve with the lime wedge and refried black beans.  The black beans are an excellent complement to the butternut squash.