"redietz" > wrote in message
...
> On Feb 1, 11:45 am, "Gunner" > wrote:
>> Arri, Preceptions can be limiting. The dish does not have to be drowned
>> in
>> a chile sauce.
> Um, yeah it does.
Um, no. No, it does not. It's a shame you misread, however I correctly
stated the dish does not
need to be drowned in chile sauce. Don't read into it or push a hidden
agenda as the RFC Feasty boys seem to do.
"Enchilada" means "en-chilied."
"in chile" actually and I agree that is a common and accepted term and so
I assume you also know enchilada comes from the verb enchilar; to add chile
pepper to, or season with chile, so as I said you can add the chile to the
filling and it be an enchilada. Besides why would you want to drown
something as delicate in flavor as crab is with a gravy boat load of chile
sauce or salsa. I do not believe a sauce should overpower the dish,
perhaps equal to but never more than unless that is the star in which case
why use crab. A Caribe style Enchilado maybe a bit different.
> It doesn't means
> "things rolled up in a tortilla and baked." (What we usually think of
> as enchiladas are properly called "tortillas enchiladas." Other things
> can be enchilied as well.
Once again, I think I made the point there can be other enchilada dishes,
even with our differences in spelling, did I not? I certainly never said
Enchiladas had to be rolled up and baked as you so infer. However, since
you added "tortillas enchiladas". Is that more Mexican PC? I had a
version in Bisbee, Az where they layered the tortillas as in a lasagna;
corn, not flour, no meat, just onion, cheese and chile sauce, truly
"tortillas in chile" but it was essentially the same dish as I had rolled up
in the Hill country of Texas, they called it a number 4 lunch special,
Cheese Enchiladas.
> You're quite right, however, that the chile sauce doesn't need to be a
> straight red or green sauce, you can do a lot with a Poblano cream
> sauce for example.
I agree. Perhaps we will see more varieties of chile being used here in
the States outside of the SW, instead of the mindset Jalapenos.
I will not address that whole subject of a White sauce not being a White
sauce ( Arri, I believe) because the color changed by adding black pepper or
chiles. I assume you agree white is as much a type sauce as it is a color?
Kili recommended a Morney, good choice, one I would look forward to.
> The Suiza sauce is still a chile sauce, even if
> it's Swiss cheese based.
We disagree. Let me say here, it was not my intent to deviate from the
poster's request by discussing Enchilada Suiza, nor to spit hairs, certainly
not to be more "Authentico" that I believe you are professing here, but a
Salsa Verde is sometimes not just chile sauce or salsa. I think Rolly
Brooks says it best on his site:
http://rollybrook.com/a_few_words.htm
about authentic Mexican, "it probably has no meaning". Just know there is
also salsa de tomatillo, yes with a background of chile but a much
different flavor than the usually Jalapeņo or Serrano green chile sauce
Americans seem to envision when thinking Mexican foods. Tomatillo is the
sauce I have come to understand was in the original Enchalida Suiza. The
version as told to me took place in the Sanborn Brother's restaurant at
Casa de los Azulejos, Mexico City, cira 1940 when a long time regular
asked the cook to make him a mild dish for lunch. The results was a
chicken/chile enchilada in a tomatillo sauce with a creama topping which was
supposed to represent the snow on the Alps. Some attribute the cream with
reducing any capsicum heat in the sauce, some say it had to have Swiss
cheese in it. A version in Lucy Long's " Culinary Tourism" is somewhat
lacking of chile and indicates a Gringo pleasing influence ( a good read
BTW) . Others recipes specifically state a tomatillo sauce. Bayless,
Kennedy and Quintana I see have different versions of this dish as I would
expect good chefs to have, not being hung up on a false authentico facade.
It seem that it is the Neophyte that tend to argues sematics without knowing
a rational. Some recipes I see assume the Salsa Verde to be a chile sauce
and some since it is Suiza, it must be made with Swiss cheese in it, as a
tribute to the Mennonites who brought Cheese making to Mexico in the early
20th century. A bit more than I would believe, in that in 18 or so years a
Mennonite Swiss style cheese would spread that far or that there was any
relationship of the Northern Prussian/Russian descendent Mennonites to the
Southern Swiss Alpine region.
Here is another version, a bit more romantic for those inclined :
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...DG3MBSC0H1.DTL
Now we will never know what was in the original dish as the cook that made
it that fateful day in Mexico City was reputed to never have told as the
story goes or did she? Like the Blue Nun story, Sister Maria Jesus Agreda,
there are many versions, too much myth, too little proof. Just like the one
you just gave, sounds logical but try to prove it with fact, certainly you
cannot nor can I. A best guess is all you get, my friend. But on the off
chance you can reference your version of using Swiss cheese and chile sauce
by give a factual timeline,when and where you had this dish, a citable
reference or just some of the basic interrogatives, I would certainly
appreciate knowing them. Perhaps on it was a Holiday or vacation, a cruise
line tour, a culinary tour perhaps, w/ friends or hearsay from friends of
friends, maybe on-line, a cooking club or class, etc. Any real leads you
can give would be greatly appreciated.
Yet, since no one know what the DH likes, where he had it or what flavors
are in this enchilada besides it is has a white sauce and crab, s/he needs
to "go fish". I would assume the person making such a dish would use a
fish or seafood stock sauce and no cheese if they adhere to the premise of
no cheese on seafood. Since we can only speculate on what DH likes, maybe
crab Flautas (Flutes) or Crab Quesadillas appetizers would be a better
choice. Or as Jay advocates using a Pipian Verde sauce on the enchiladas but
that is a bit foreign tasting for most American palates.