Enchilada Suiza - a Mexican Lasanga

This may be a Rachael Ray recipe, but don't hold that against it. She is by no means my favourite chef on the food network, and she sure as hell doesn't usually make the most original or most healthy dishes, but she does bring cooking to the initiated in an approachable manner and that's all good in my books. I don't know how she manages to cook with all her bling on but I guess that's not really one to worry about.   Quite a while back, when her showed was well-timed with my lunch break, she made what she called a 'taco-sanga' on her show. The recipe at the time lacked a lot from my perspective but I liked the idea and mentally filed it in my 'to-try' folder in the back of my brain.  Then Wil brought up the idea of a taco bake as we were wandering through the supermarket the other day and I thought it would be the perfect meal for a rainy Sunday evening, and a great Monday lunch. Cos having a great lunch really does make Monday that much easier.

Originally I was going to make this more of a lasagna with Mexican flavour, but then I decided I actually wouldn't mind a real lasagna sometime soon, so the mini lasagna sheets made their way back onto our shelves and some tortillas made their way into my shopping basket.  I had to make a few changes to this recipe - regular corn in place of hominy (easy to find in California maybe, not so much in our local supermarket) and the avocados these days are less reliable than usual so sadly our dish was avocado-less tonight.  I also decided to make ours a beef dish since we are having chicken in a Thai dish later in the week. Oh, and I only had one fat little jalapeño so I had to throw in a chipotle to approximate the heat, but we like it spicy so in future I'd throw in another for good measure.  I also had to switch out Swiss for some Cheddar so I guess I shouldn't really be calling this dish Enchilada Suiza, but I don't know how to say Cheddar in Spanish so Suiza it is. Maybe I should have called it Enchilada Canadiensa?^

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 pounds ground chicken or turkey breast*
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
Salt and pepper
One can hominy (15 ounces), rinsed*
1 red onion, chopped
2 jalapeño or serrano chili peppers, chopped
3 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
12 large or 14 small tomatillos, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/3 cup cilantro or flat leaf parsley leaves (a generous handful)
2 avocados*
Grated peel and juice of 2 limes
1 tablespoon honey
One package flour tortillas (11 ounces)
1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1/2 pound Swiss cheese, shredded
1 cup crème fraîche or sour cream

* we used beef, regular corn and all the avocados were either solid as rocks or so mushy that skins almost caved in at the touch so we missed them out this time.

Pre-heat the broiler or the oven to 400°F. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon EVOO, one turn of the pan, over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, crumbling the meat, and the cumin and coriander; season with salt and pepper. Cook until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in the hominy and cook for about 3 minutes more.

In a large saucepan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon EVOO, one turn of the pan. Add the onion, chili peppers and garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Using a food processor, process the tomatillos and cilantro until almost smooth, then stir into the onion mixture and simmer for 5 minutes. Rinse out the food processor bowl. Add the avocados, lime peel and lime juice; puree, then season with salt. Stir the avocado mixture into the tomatillo sauce. Stir in the honey.

In a dry skillet, or over an open flame, cook the tortillas until charred. In a bowl, combine the Monterey Jack and Swiss cheeses. In a 9-inch by-13-inch baking dish, layer some sauce, tortillas, meat, cheese, tortillas and so on, ending with a layer of cheese. Broil until browned and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Pass the crème fraîche at the table.

Overall this was a pretty tasty dish, though I would like to try it again with the avocados included, and maybe a couple more jalapenos as it wasn't really that spicy, even with a drizzle of hot sauce on top. It was a nice alternative to our usual Mexican staples, but not something I'll be making every week. I did enjoy using a new ingredient tonight though - I've never cooked with or eaten tomatillos before; I may do so again. I saw some other recipes for similar style dishes that included beans and I think if we made this again we'd include beans, they are the magical fruit after all.

^ the first thing I ever learned to say in Spanish, way back in 1994, was "Soy Canadiense" or "I'm Canadian" (when said by a male). Back then I never thought this would come in handy, but looks like it just might one day :)