Enchilada: adjective, covered with chili. En- as in enrobe. Chili as in chili peppers. -Ada is a participle form which also turns a verb into an adjective. Used as a noun meaning that which is enrobed in chilis. No nattering about "correct" tortillas, please. If it's enrobed in chilis, it's enchilada no matter what else it is. Mine are California style, with wheat tortillas. I had a glut of them. Really good ones for commercially made.

Oh my! One for the Journal of Irreproducible Results (though that was about chemistry...).

So, I had a container left of the chili (stew) I made last week to use up a bunch of chilis I'd roasted. I think jalapeños, Anaheims and cubanelles. A few dozen. I can't remember if any of the poblanos or serranoes went in. It also had onions, Romanesco (needed using), garlic, merlot, Mexican oregano, coriander, cumin/seeds, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, S&P, all stewed with a slab of chuck. It was just shy of fire breathing. Not the kind that burns your mouth, but the intense fruitiness of the peppers first, then a bloom of mellow but strong heat at the back of the mouth.

The meat, being on pepper time, needed more cook to get tender, so I steam roasted it with four whole carrots, a bunch of beets, cut into wedges and some chicken egg sized potatoes--then ignored it while other stuff happened. I also had a container of the Cowboy Maria beans (part of the other stuff) I'd nattered over (the extras which didn't fit in the multicooker to take to the party). Oh, and a block of decent cheddar which had suffered a bit in the freezer disaster and would be best used up in something cooked. And a half lb. of smoked mozz which was constantly jumping out of the fridge because it had a lump. A cheese lump, but think French bell-ringer.

So, I made the enrobing for the tortillas out of the chili (stew) with some of the beans added to the chili to thin it as well as tone it down a little, whirred up with the immersion blender, plus ground cardamom, a bunch of more cumin and some more coriander. Then rolled the coated enchilada sized wheat flour tortillas around some drained beans, pieces of chuck, a few hunks each of carrot, beet and potato (I didn't have any leftover rice, which I usually toast and season to go in enchiladas). a dribble of the chili, and some of each of the cheeses, then baked them en casserole with the rest of the enchilada sauce on top, and the rest of the cheddar (all the smoked went inside).

I admit it! Hot out of the oven and bubbling, I couldn't resist a taste and ate half of one right from the dish. :) It was SO good!!! Um.... Except the potatoes. I thought they'd be kind of starchy and sub for the rice, but they taste very potato-y. Good potato-y, but it doesn't go really well. Call it a break for the tongue. :) I don't know if it'll ever be seen again, but by telling y'all about it, I'm hoping to make sense and memories of what happened there.