Easy Peasy Beef Enchilada

Enchilada is made from tortilla dipped in spicy tomato sauce and stuffed with your choice of meat. A popular Mexican dish, the term enchilada means dipped in chili.

Because of the popularity, there are so many versions of enchiladas nowadays, depending on the preference of the cook.

Well, my version is a non-traditional enchilada, because it is not spicy. My husband is not into spicy food, so I omitted the chilis.

But nevertheless, this dish turned out to be a cheesy, flavorful and wonderful version. This might be a pinoy version of enchilada, since I added a bit sugar into it.

Here are the recipes for the beef filling and tomato sauce. You can make (approximately) 3-4 enchiladas.

Beef filling
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium size onion, chopped
250g. ground beef
salt
pepper
half a teaspoon of dried basil

1. Saute garlic and onion, add the meat. When the meat is no longer pink, season with salt, pepper and herb. When the liquid has evaporated, turn off the fire and set aside.

Tomato Sauce
3 cloves of garlic
1 medium size onion
1 can of dice tomato
1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
salt
pepper
about a teaspoon of sugar to remove the acidity of the tomatoes (or more if you want it sweeter)
chili flakes / chili powder (this is a must! but i omitted it)

1. Saute garlic and onion. Add the tomatoes. Season with dried herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer until the mixture reduced in half. Add the sugar.

To assemble you will need the following:
a pack of corn tortilla, but I used flour tortilla.
beef filling
tomato sauce
quickmelt cheese, grated
parmesan cheese, optional.

The picture below is the process on how to prepare the enchiladas.

We loved them much!!! 

Beef Bulalo (Beef Shank Soup)

Beef Bulalo is definitely Filipinos' favorite comfort food. Beef shanks were boiled in onion and peppercorns until fork tender. It will usually take 2.5hours to boil the shanks. The long cooking hours will take all the juices from the bones and thus will make the broth very tasty. 

A classic Pinoy dish, but I am not sure if bulalo originated from pinoy kitchen. I'll make a research on that...and i'll post an update..promise!

So wifeys, have you tried cooking bulalo? If you want to hear ooohs and aaahs, here's a foolproof dish that you can try.

Here's my take on the classic bulalo.

Recipe:

1 1/2 kgs of beef shanks

2 medium size onions, quartered

peppercorns

salt, adjust according to taste

Fish Sauce (patis) - adjust according to taste

about 3 liters of water

2 medium sized potatoes, cut into wedges

1/4 cabbage

pechay (bokchoi?)

Procedure:

1. Boil beef shanks with onion and peppercorns. Season with salt and fish sauce. Boil until fork tender.

2. Add potatoes and boil for another 10 minutes. Taste the broth and adjust the taste according to your preference.

3. Add the cabbage and pechay. Turn the fire off. 

4. Serve hot.

If i am going to rate the difficulty of this dish, it's 3 out of 10. Super easy...try it now!