Turkey Day

Alright, alright, I guess I'll go ahead and skip over things that have been waiting longer and move pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving to the front of the line (just so I don't end up posting next Thanksgiving about what I did the previous year.) So I made a cheesecake. Shocker, I know. And it was a pumpkin cheesecake, another huge surprise at Thanksgiving, but what are you gonna do?
I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Spain by inviting all my American friends (and some Brits too, I mean, I guess the pilgrims were pretty much them , fresh off the boat) to come over and have a nice Thanksgiving feast. I would take care of the turkey, gravy and dessert, and they would provide the rest. And it turned out really well, and the best part was I got to keep all the leftovers and have a second Turkey Day and then some turkey-stock soup. Dericious. Just take a look at everything:

So, starting from the top and going clockwise we have: cranberry sauce (they actually sold cranberry sauce here at a British and American food store, but it still wasn't the giant cylinder we're used to, it actually had cranberries in it, but it was good), cheesey mushrooms, carrot and parsnip mash (courtesy of a brit), corn pudding (simple but extremely delicious), broccoli casserole (made with Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, also very delicious), a salad of lettuce, asaparagus, and orange, and finally turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes.

So now back to the cheesecake. I've actually made a pumpkin cheesecake before, but it was years ago and I don't think I liked it very much, I've never been a big fan of pumpkin pie. But just for this occasion, on my last trip over from America I brought a can of Libby's pumpkin puree. And I'll just remind everyone once again of how old school Spain can be, if you'll kindly direct your attention to the photo of the can opener that 'bites' around the edges of the can…and you have to do each 'bite' yourself. I tell you, the muscles I'm gonna have at the end of this...Anyways, finding a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake wasn't too difficult, and it's pretty well-known what flavors go well with pumpkin. So, my recipe is based loosely on one from good ole epicurious.com.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

crust
125 g butter
200 g maria cookies
fresh and already ground cinnamon

cheesecake
1 can pumpkin puree
600 g cream cheese, room temp, as always
about 100 g butter, also room temp
1 Tbsp cream
about 60 g brown sugar (until it's sweet enough)
big pinch of cinnamon
pinches of the following: ground ginger, clove, fresh nutmeg, and salt
3 eggs

topping
250 g quark (or sour cream)
lots of bourban
lots of sugar

First crush up the cookies and mix with melted butter. Then throw in the already ground cinnamon, mixing again. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a springform pan. Then take a cinnamon stick and grate it (it’s ok if you get some large pieces) directly onto the pressed crust, so that you get a nice sprinkling over the crust. Then put in the oven at 170 C for about 10 minutes
Now start mixing the cheesecake batter. Use your handy can opener (ahem), and open the pumpkin and mix it in a bowl with the cream cheese, then add the butter and cream and mix well. Now add the sugar and stir again. So now you have your basic batter and you can do what you want with the spices and alter them as you need. I start with a pinch of everything, just remembering that you always want more cinnamon than the other stuff (epicurious calls for 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon and just 1/2 tsp of the other three spices). But I'm not big on measuring, so I like to throw in and taste as I go (this is also why I put the eggs in last, but really, raw eggs never stopped me from eating dough). And remember to put in a touch of salt, as it’ll really bring out the pumpkin and spice flavors. Finally put the eggs in and give everything a good stir. Pour it into the crust and stick it back in the 180 C/350 F oven until the knife comes out almost clean and it's still wobbly except around the edges (maybe 35-50 minutes).
When you take it out, you can whip up the topping so it cools off a bit. Easiest part: it all goes on taste. Mix together the quark, powdered sugar, and bourbon until it’s sweet enough but you can taste the alcohol. Spread on top and put back in the oven for 10-15 minutes until it’s bubbling at the edges and take out and let cool at room temp. Finally, stick it in the fridge overnight and then on Thanksgiving stuff your guests full of turkey and sides until they think they can’t eat anymore, and then bring out the pumpkin cheesecake…

And it's only a month after the fact!

New Brownie Recipe

I give snaps to all the boxed brownie and cake mixes like Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, and Duncan Hines. They are delicious. There are some things I don’t want to buy pre-mixed in a box, but I’m all for brownie mixes. And they’ve gotten creative, with cheesecake brownies and turtle brownies, etc. I’m very happy to support them.

Because of these miracle boxes, I very rarely had to make my own, homemade brownies, and if I did it was only a few times following a recipe from my kids cookbook that came with large, colorful, plastic measuring spoons. Well I left that book at home and there ain’t no boxed brownie mixes in Spain (there is however, already-ready cake batter in a bag in the refrigerated section, ready-to-pour into a pan and bake. I don’t think I’m going to go that far). So, when the craving for brownies hit, I had to make my own and I’ve found a new standby. It might even replace boxed brownies one day…

I do love epicurious.com and that’s where I found this recipe. It’s actually a recipe for brownies with peanut butter frosting and then a chocolate layer. I made it to the peanut butter frosting (I had some so-so peanut butter that was going to get eaten on it’s own), but I couldn’t wait for the cooling of a top chocolate layer. These turned out great: the brownie itself was totally dense and rich but very smooth and moist, almost like a fudge. And the peanut butter frosting had a bit of nutmeg in it, so it was a bit spicy, a nice variation, but I’m holding onto this recipe especially for the brownies.

One last thing should be noted: in Spain there’s no word for brownie. When I told my roommate it was a thick chocolate cake, he took a piece and took one bite and said “esto no es pastel, es una bomba!” And then proceeded to claim it was too rich to eat a whole piece (I, of course, thought this was rather a moderate, regular-sized piece, easy to get down).


Peanut Butter Brownies

brownies
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (170g)
7 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (about 175g)
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped (75g)
1 1/2 cups sugar (300g)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup all purpose flour (125g)


frosting
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature (57g)
3/4 cup powdered sugar (90g)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


First, melt the butter and chocolate together, over the stove or in the microwave. Then add the sugar, vanilla and salt and stir well. Now crack in the eggs and mix in, and finally add the flour, mixing in until well combined. Now it's ready to bake, easy enough, huh? Now pour into a big baking pan (something like 13x9x2, but doesn't have to be) and bake in a 325 F (about 170 C) oven for about 30 minutes, but start checking around 15 to be safe, remember, you (or at least I do) want them a little underdone because then they stay moist.
While they’re cooking you can make the peanut butter frosting, but you have to wait until the brownies cool off a bit so it doesn't melt the icing completely. But the icing might be even easier than the brownies: mix everything together. First the peanut butter and butter, then add in the other stuff. Now remember, you can play around with all the ingredients; if you want, throw in some peanuts, if you like it really spicy, add more freshly ground nutmeg. It's your call. So when the brownies are cool enough, frost them, and eat immediately. Come to think of it, they might be even a little better slightly warm, I would put mine in the microwave to soften them up a bit, even though it was messier. So I say, throw on the icing when they're still a little warm inside and enjoy with a big glass of milk.
And p.s., remember to store in the refrigerator.

Tanti Auguri a Te

How fitting: my Italian roommate’s favorite dessert if Tiramisu. I have to admit that I don’t love apple pie. I don’t even like it that much. So I’m not as ‘American as apple pie,’ I’d have to say. But my roommate, he’d be as ‘Italian as tiramisu’ if that were a saying. It was his birthday this month so naturally, I put myself to making some tiramisu.

I’ve made it once before, but it was years ago and I don’t remember where I got the recipe, so I looked at my standby, epicurious.com and found a traditional, simple recipe. My one concern was the marsala wine: sure you could find it here, but there are so many substitutions (I found out online), one of them being sherry. So, as I’m in the land of sherry, it wasn’t a hard decision to throw in some Pedro Ximenez.

Being in the land of sherry (Spain) this also means that I’m in the land without my appliances, so the whipping of the egg whites had to be done by hand (yall should see my arm now), as did the whipping of the cream. The latter was a bit harder. I had already spent about 15 minutes (including breaks) whipping the egg whites to stiff-ish peaks, so I was getting sore. I poured the cream into a metal pan and began to whisk and after about 10 minutes not much was happening except lots of little bubbles, but no thickening really. Then I looked at the box and realized I was using light cream (of course it didn’t say it on the front, where one might think to put it), labeled on the side as 18% fat. So then I gave up and poured some of the cream in, not all though, because it was still mostly liquid. So, my words of advice before making this: get full-fat, heavy whipping cream, and get egg-beaters. Oh my poor KitchenAid mixer back home, missing me…

Tiramisu, alle Spagnolo

3 eggs
¾ c sugar
1 c mascarpone
½ c cream
2 c coffee
2 Tbsp sweet sherry (like Pedro Ximenez)
a bag of ladyfingers
cocoa powder

First I got the coffee mixture ready, and since I’m not a coffee drinker I used instant powder, two bags for two cups boiling water. Then I added the sherry, stirred and let sit. Next, I separated the eggs and over very low heat on the stove, mixed the egg yolks with all but a tablespoon or two of the sugar, whisking the whole time so they don’t cook and stick to the bottom of the pan. After about 2 or 3 minutes, they’re done so take off the heat, and mix in the mascarpone. Now comes the whippin’ time. Use your electric mixer or your muscles and beat the egg whites until soft peaks, and then add the remaining sugar and beat until stiff peaks and fold into the mascarpone mixture. Then whip your cream and fold that in as well. Now you’re ready to assemble. First, get yourself a clear glass container, so you can see the layers when you’re done. Dip each ladyfinger in the coffee just to get each bit wet, but not soaking (although some of mine ended up soaking, this could have been a cause of the excess liquid when I served it…) and lay side by side in the bottom of the dish. Then spread with a layer of the mascarpone cream and sift some cocoa powder on top to give a thin layer over the cheese. Now you just have to repeat everything. Dip ladyfingers, lay side by side again, cover with mascarpone, and then again with cocoa powder. I got three layers out of mine, but it depends how big your dish is. Then stick in the fridge until you eat it. Important: make sure you make this plenty of time ahead of serving it. Some reviews on epicurious said it tasted better the second and third days, but I only had time to do mine the morning of. So at least six hours before so that it has time to firm up in the fridge.
All in all, I was happy with it, as I think were the Italian guests, but I think that cream gave me the shaft, or else it was my excessive dipping of ladyfingers, because the bottom layer was especially liquidy, but it was eaten all the same.

Mexican in Spain

I’m going home in three weeks and besides seeing my family and my friends, there’s someone else I’m really looking forward to seeing: queso. Oh, my dear friend, he’s stood by me for so long, whenever I wanted, he was there, tasty as ever and he got along great with both chips and tortillas. He was always there for me, that is, until I moved to Spain and he stayed in Texas.

Queso doesn’t exist here because yellow cheese is hard to come by. They have so many great cheeses here, but they’re all white. No yellow cheese that’ll melt into a lovely puddle mixed with garlic, peppers, tomatoes, and onions. I did happen to find its cousin however, queso fundido. This is a lot easier to re-create, as it’s just white cheese melted to perfection in the oven and eaten with corn tortillas. I like to eat mine with a bit of chorizo, sometimes called choriqueso, which after regular queso, I tend to order a lot when I’m out in Austin.
The good thing about this is you don’t have to have a specific kind of cheese, just some good, white, melting cheese. I went to the deli counter at the store and asked what a good cheese would be to melt and they gave me some Danish or Dutch stuff, I can’t remember.

So with a bit of chorizo, corn tortillas, cilantro and a squirt of lime, I almost felt right at home.



Queso Fundido with Chorizo

a good helping of white melting cheese (depends on how many people you have)
about the same amount of cooking chorizo (not the already cured/cooked stuff)
plenty of corn tortillas
a handful of cilantro
a lime

It might be one of the easiest recipes ever, and it doesn’t have to be exact, as you can tell from the measurements above. It depends on how much you want to eat, and how much you like each ingredient. So first of all, preheat the oven to something pretty hot, around 400 F or 210 C and put the cheese in an oven proof dish (a lot of times it’s served in a heavy iron pan, but I didn’t have any oven-safe ones), and into the oven. To know when it’s finished, you just have to watch it until it’s bubbling and maybe a tiny bit brown around the edges. While the cheese is cooking, start the chorizo. If it’s in casings, as mine were, get all the meat out of it and put in a pan over medium heat on the stove. As it cooks it’ll start popping, releasing lots of grease and changing color. When it’s finished, it’ll be firmer. In the meantime, chop the cilantro roughly and heat your tortillas either in the microwave or in the oven with the cheese. And that’s pretty much it. You wait for everything to be cooked and hot and then you assemble: take a tortilla in hand, and spoon on some cheese (you know you’ve got the right cheese if it’s super stringy and starts getting more so as it cools). Then add some chorizo, a sprinkling of cilantro and a tiny squirt of lime juice. Roll up and don’t drip grease on yourself.

Málaga and Sevilla

Shame on me. I've been very bad and neglectful of my restaurant reviews. I went to Sevilla and Málaga this summer. Yup, about a half a year ago, and took many pictures (of food, of course), and I went to Berlin in August and still haven't posted any of those, oh right, and there's some other city where I seem to eat a lot in...Barcelona. And of course there was Rome this month…So now, I'm going to attempt to get back on track, and this will include being up to date with my recipes too, as I've just had a Thanksgiving dinner at mine and don’t want to be posting about it in February. I’ll start with a quick montage of Sevilla and Málaga, and do other trips, and when I get to Barcelona the reviews will be more detailed.

Ahhh Southern Spain. I don’t think there’s anything I can say about it that hasn’t been said. It’s warm, loud, and fried. I lived in Málaga for a semester a few years ago, and I told my señora that I was a vegetarian (at first, then I succumbed) because I was afraid of Spanish meat. Afraid of things being served with the heads, feet, and tails still on. Afraid of ham legs hanging from ceilings of every restaurant and bar. Afraid of eating an entire fish (be it a tiny fish), bones and eyes and all. I’ve given in to the ham legs now and I do have to say I am a fan of jamón Serrano. It’s too bad I avoided Spanish food at all costs those few months in Málaga because they have some good stuff, and on my trip there this summer, I went to a wonderful restaurant I had never even noticed before.

We passed it walking down the street on the way to our hotel and Dan immediately stopped and took a look in at La Campana. After dropping our things off, we returned immediately. This place was more of a bar, standing room and a few bar stools around about 3 tables only, and it was all seafood and fish on the menu, except for the eggplant. The menu was just a list posted on the wall, something along the lines of: shrimp, whitefish, dogfish, etc. So we got some fish, some eggplant (good to have a veg in there) and these fritters called tortitas de camarones. I didn’t expect everything to come fried, including the eggplant. Silly me. But lucky me. They were eggplant French fries and they were delicious. Everything was good…even the tortitas which were made with popcorn shrimp—they were tiny, and, as Spain does, they were whole. They throw them into the fritter batter with legs, eyes, antennas and all. So it took me a few bites before I inspected closer and saw antennas sticking out, and little pairs of black eyes. I know, it sounds gross, but if you don’t look at it, they go down quiet nicely. The eggplant fries were so good, we went back the next day for a plate of them before going to my señora’s house for lunch.

For dinner that night, I took Dan to one of my old haunts, Lechuga in the Plaza Merced. Lechuga is not typical Málaga food, which is a nice break from the grease. We split a salad that was full of endive, cheese, yogurty-stuff, dates, and some sweet-red berry sauce. I remembered the salads from this place: they’re huge and have a nice range of ingredients on the already impressive salad menu. Most Spanish salads include mayonnaise and/or potatoes in some form, and when I think salad, I think greens, and so does Lechuga. Now if you go to Málaga, you might not want to go somewhere for a baked potato, but if you’re there for an extended time and missing them, you must go for patatas asadas at Las Papas stand by the Picasso museum. It comes with a variety of toppings, most of them atypical, but some ofthem good. I go for butter, cheese and corn.

Now the last touch in Málaga: the hot chocolate at Café del Viajero. This is actually not Spanish chocolate, which is thicker than American. This is the same consistency as regular ole American stuff, but they have all different infusions with the hot chocolate, like mint, orange, licorice, cinnamon, rum, and the list goes on. And it’s a whole pot of it, not just a cup-full. Love this place. I can never decide between cinnamon or mint or orange, so in two days in the middle of summer in southern Spain, I made two trips for hot chocolate.

In Sevilla, I was introduced to a couple new things. I had been before, but as part of school group trips, or with family, so choices were sometimes limited or already decided. The first thing: they serve short, stubby, crunchy breadsticks with everything. Dan and his brother affectionately refer to them as ‘dog biscuits.’ Second thing: there’s something similar to, but better than gazpacho and it’s called salmorejo. I don’t love gazpacho, I guess I’m getting used to it, but isn’t it just pureed tomatoes served cold? Well, salmorejo is cold too, but I guess this kinda stuff is necessary in Sevilla summers (none of the buildings there are taller than two or three stories, and with the sun burning down all day, it’s a great sight to see people walking down the streets in single file, hugging the sides of the building for any sort of shade). But salmorejo is thicker than gazpacho, made also with bread, so I find it more of a soup than just pulverized tomatoes, and it always comes served with jamón, because don’t forget, we’re in Spain. I also had my first ajo blanco (garlic and almond soup, also served cold), with a few grapes dropped on and it was quite tasty. This was at a place called Bar Europa which was more than your average bar, and frankly it reminded me of a place you could find in San Sebastian. It was still tapas style because the portions were small, but it wasn’t a plate of a mayonnaise-drenched salad or deep-fried something. It was like fancy tapas. We started talking to the bartender and apparently the owner was from Barcelona, and they were really friendly there. That’s another thing that’s different between north and south: I’m still waiting to strike up a conversation with a friendly bartender, waiter, shopkeeper here. I’d say at Bar Europa it was some of the best eating in Sevilla for a reasonable price. After the soups, we got more. A little snack turned into a big snack, and we had some meat and some fish. Everything was presented with fitting complements, like the grapes, or walnuts and sauce, and rather fashionably served(admittedly, I don’t think ‘fashion’ when I think of Sevilla, and I was later proved correct after seeing some of the clothing choices of the locals). We had in addition to salmorejo and ajo blanco: Quesadilla “los Balanchares” gratinada sobre manzana Granny Smith (Grilled Balanchares cheese served over Granny Smith Apple slices), Lomo de novillo Argentino con patel de patata y hongos (Argentinian beef with a potato and mushroom pastry), Cabeza de lomo mechada (fatty pork loin), and Lomo de Lubina sobre pure de batata (grilled sea bass served on sweet potato puree).

Unfortunately, I didn’t take my camera out to all the meals in Sevilla, which is a shame because we went to one place that was quasi-Mexican (I’ll let them say that, but unless you’re in Texas or Mexico, you don’t get very close to good, true, Mexican food). We had something there that was a Roquefort cake, and it was like a layered cake with Roquefort and some sort of sauce and was strangely sweet and savory at the same time. I do have a picture of one place we just stopped in quickly because they had these “tablas de queso” or plates of melted cheese on bread and you could get different toppings, so I had to go for the pesto. Cheese, pesto and bread, no question. I wouldn’t have expected this from Sevilla in a regular bar, but Andalucía was surprising in that manner. I could get my good ole deep fried everything, along with some cold soups and a cold drink (tinto de verano, or red wine with Fanta limon was my choice), alongside more refined and upscale food, or something that was just a bit out of the ordinary.

Vanilla Bean and Crème de Violette Cheesecake

I realize, cheesecake is nothing new to me, and you've seen a few pictures of my variations, but I'm going to have to come out and say it, you're about to see a lot more with this one. It's just sooo good looking, I can't help it. I took pictures from every angle, in all lighting, just to figure out which would come out best, and honestly I love them all. I'm like a proud parent of my little 9 inch, Vanilla Bean and Crème de Violette Cheesecake.
That top layer of Crème de Violette gave a brilliant, light blue color, and reminded me of Easter pastels or baby booties. And my favorite thing about using vanilla beans is seeing the little tiny seeds, a sign of authenticity. Not to say I don't swoon at the smell of a good vanilla extract. The combination of a thin layer of shiny blue and bean-specked cheese, against a buttery golden crust was a sight.
Enough about how it looks. How does it taste? I'm not gonna lie, it was good. Real good. So good Dan thinks it might've knocked my first, classic, reigning winner, plain Cheesecake out of the top position. So that's to say that the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake is up there. I think another key to getting a perfectly smooth textured cheesecake is taking it out about 5-10 minutes underdone. It will harden a bit in the fridge, but be just on the verge of melting if you take it out at the right time.
I only had one vanilla bean available (I've since taken care of that and ordered a whole pound, thanks to Traveler's Lunchbox), so I would've liked to see more seeds, but with a vanilla bean and extract the flavor was right on. I knew I wanted to do a vanilla cheesecake, and the top layer's always something fun you can play around with, and this time, I decided on crème de violette. So I strongly suggest you try a vanilla bean cheesecake, and think about some fun flavors you could add as the top layer, like rose essence.


Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

crust

125 g butter

200 g maria cookies

cheesecake

600 g cream cheese

75 g butter

1 vanilla bean

2-3 Tbsp vanilla extract

150 g sugar

4 eggs

crème de violette layer

250 g quark

Lots of creme de violette (2-3 Tbsp)

Powdered sugar

First preheat your oven to 170 C, then crush up the maria cookies and melt the butter and mix well together. Then press into the bottom and sides of a springform pan and put in the oven for about 10 minutes until the cookies turn a little darker.
Now make sure your cream cheese is room temperature (it's easy just to leave it out for a few hours before cooking). Take the butter and melt in a pan over low heat. While it's melting, split the vanilla bean in half, scrape out the seeds into the butter and throw in the bean and continue to cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Now stir the cream cheese around in a bowl until fluffy-ish, and pour in the butter, taking out the vanilla bean, and mix together. Add the sugar and stir well, then add vanilla extract to taste. Finally, stir in the eggs until everything is well mixed and you have a wonderful vanilla flavor and pour into the springform pan. At 180C, cook for 30-35 minutes, until the edges are set but it's still pretty wobbly in the middle.
Finally, you mix the top layer. Now I normally use crème fraiche or sour cream, but lacking that I went for quark (I'm not really sure what it is…a fresh cheese or something, consistency of yogurt) and it turned out great--I would use it again. So I mixed the quark with lots of Crème de Violette and powdered sugar until it was sweet and had an amazing baby blue color (as noted before). Then cook for 10-15 minutes (I can't even remember how long I did for, just keep an eye on it till it's bubbling and the edges are darkening). The only difference I noticed with the quark was that it came out a little firmer than the rest of the cheesecake, which is fine because the rest was silky and smooth...

Ay ay ay. Enchiladas

Grrr…technical difficulties. If it's not with blogger (which I've learned to let the little things go) then it's my whole computer. Actually my computer's running fine, but the cord is out of order temporarily, so it's taken longer than normal to get the use of a comptuer long enough for my next post. But here I am and I can tell you about enchildadas now.

As much as I love Tex-Mex, I'm not the biggest fan of the typical enchilada you see at lots of restaurants. You know the kind, filled with yellow cheese and covered with a thick red sauce, like ranchero or something. I much prefer enchiladas suizas, which are made with a green sauce and sour cream.

Upon one of my outtings to a latin foods store in Barcelona, I discovered some tomatillo sauce in a can, which consisted only of tomatillo…great, because you can't find the real ones here, but this was almost as good, with nothing else added, just pure, mushed up tomatillos. Perfect for that cover recipe on Bon Appetit from June.

I changed just a few things: first of all, I don’t want my enchiladas stacked. They're enchiladas, not lasagna, they should be rolled. Second, I like plain ole cheese enchiladas, so I took out the chicken. Oh, and there are no poblano chiles here, unfortunately, so we did without. And finally, to the filling, I added some mushrooms. I think they turned out really well, but I could've done with a little extra spice or flavor, maybe that's what the poblanos were for. I would play around with it next time and see what I could come up with.

Cheese and Mushroom Enchiladas with Salsa Verde
adapted from Bon Appetit

salsa verde
3 pounds tomatillos (or about 3 15 oz. cans)
2 jalapeños, chopped
5 small garlic cloves, peeled
1 ½ tsp ground cumin
1 ½ bunches fresh cilantro
¾ cup Italian parsley
vegetable oil
salt

Mix tomatillos and jalapeños in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Now in a food processor, or with a hand-held blender, mix with garlic and cumin. Now add cilantro and parsley and blend a bit more. Heat a bit of oil in a skillet over medium and simmer the salsa until thickened and reduced, about 10 minutes. Finally, add the salt.

enchiladas
vegetable oil
12 corn tortillas
¾ cup sour cream
6 oz cheese (Mexican is best, like Chihuahua, but I used Emmenthal)
15-20 button mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
fresh cilantro for garnishing

Heat up oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add garlic to pan. Once it’s softened after a few minutes, add the mushrooms to the pan and cook until soft but not mushy. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Preheat oven to 375°F. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tortilla to skillet; cook until slightly softened, about 15 seconds per side, turning with tongs. Transfer tortilla to paper towels to drain. Repeat with remaining tortillas, adding oil to skillet as needed. Now you’re reading to assemble the enchiladas. Get a large casserole dish, and one by one, take a tortilla and fill it with a bit of cheese and some mushrooms, then roll the edges over and place edges-down in the dish. Remember to save some cheese to put on the enchiladas. When you've finished with all the tortillas, pour the salsa verde on, then sprinkle the cheese, and finally, pour the sour cream all over the top(the measurement is just a guide, put however much you see fit, in my case it was lots). Bake until the salsa is bubbling and it's browned on the top, maybe 35 minutes but could be sooner. Now throw on some cilantro and eat 'em, not that they come out of the dish perfectly, mine kinda didn't hold their rolled shape, but they still tasted just as good.

BeforeAfter