Agata's Cooking Adventure: Turkey Potato Enchiladas in Cheesy Sauce

Let me tell you this: I love Mexican food! However, I am a proud owner of a sissy stomach (plus there are people under 3 in my home) so the Mexican dishes I cook are not very spicy thus probably not very authentic. But hey, you can't have it all ;o)

The filling for those enchiladas (as well as burritos that I make) was born a while ago and evolved into it's current form just recently when my daughter was born. I used to prepare and arrange all the ingredients separately. Let me tell you, it took me forever to make burritos! Glad I figured out this dump-everything-into-a-bowl-and-mix approach.

"But potatoes?! Really?!" you may ask. My husband loves potatoes. And whenever we ate at Taco Bell he was ordering Beef and Potato Burritos. (Not any more, they discontinued I think about 2 - 3 years ago.) So once I finally braved making Mexican food (long time ago), I decided to try to make something similar.

To make those enchiladas you will need:

1 lbs ground turkey or beef
1 medium yellow onion
taco seasoning
corn starch (optional)
4 medium-big potatoes
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp ground paprika
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 lbs cheese
1 cup sour cream, divided
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cup water or chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp chicken bouillon (optional)
dash of paprika
10 flour tortillas, soft taco size
bunch of fresh cilantro
salsa or taco sauce
sour cream to garnish (optional)

Start by frying meat. This is turkey. That's all I had.

Fry it till it's dry. And please, for the love of everything that is yummy, do not drain that meat!
Am I crazy? Maybe but let me tell you this. Long time ago when I was a little girl in Poland meat was just meat but since then meat industry has changed and now when you buy meat it's not only meat, it has whole bunch of water in it. So when you want to fry it, you need to get rid of that water by evaporating it. If you drain it, you lose flavor.

Water =bad, flavor =good.

Chop an onion.

Grab a jar of homemade taco seasoning. Yes, I'm reusing that jar. I'm cheap and thus "green" ;o)

Dump chopped onion into a pan and mix in with meat.

See? It's dry. No water and very little fat.

If your meat is dry like mine was, add 2 tablespoons canola oil.

Fry till meat and onion will start to brown.

Dig up a container with a corn starch if you have one. Yes, I'm reusing an old peanut butter jar. Again, cheap and "green" ;o)

When meat is ready sprinkle 2 tablespoons corn (or potato) starch on it.

Followed by 2 Tbsp of Homemade Taco Seasoning. As I mention before, I'm a sissy. You can use more of a seasoning if you can handle it.

Important! If you are using store bought Taco Seasoning skip corn starch. It's already in it.

Mix it in.

Add 1/2 cup of water and mix well. Set aside.

Next, peel, rinse and slice potatoes into quarter slices.

Dump them into a bowl.

Add oil, dry mustard, paprika and kosher salt.

Now stick your hand in that bowl and mix it all well.

Until all potato pieces are covered nicely and evenly with mixture of oil and spices.

Dump them onto a cookie sheet and spread into a one layer. Then put them into preheated to 350° F oven and bake for 15 minutes or so. Until they are soft on the inside and nicely brown on the outside.

Grate cheese. I usually use Monterey Jack for Mexican dishes but I had only about a quarter pound so I used it and added cheddar. Worked well too. Reserve 2 cups for the sauce and just dump the rest into a bowl.

Ok, potatoes are done. Let them cool a bit.

Remember the ground turkey? It's cool by now so go ahead and put it in a bowl with cheese. And on the pan (yes, I didn't wash it) melt 2 tablespoons butter or margarine and add 2 tablespoons flour.

Mix well scraping all the meaty leftovers as much as you can. That's the flavor!

Slowly add 1 1/2 cup of cold water or chicken broth mixing vigorously.

Bring to a boil mixing all the time. It will thicken up.

Grab chicken bouillon. I love that stuff!

And add 1 1/2 tsp of it to the sauce. If you are using chicken broth just skip it. Or add some for the flavor. Your choice. Don't let me tell you what to do ;o)