| 1 | Chop onion and garlic; place them in a frying pan with the ground meats. |
| 2 | Saute them without adding fat. |
| 3 | When meat is brown, add the chopped green pepper and most of the cilantro leaves and cook for another minute or two (until green pepper is cooked bright green). |
| 4 | Drain well, then add (about) several tablespoons of the enchilada sauce and cook for a few minutes longer. |
| 5 | Set aside. |
| 6 | Make the sauce: into a saucepan, pour the remaining enchilada sauce (from the can). |
| 7 | Add the can of tomato sauce. |
| 8 | Add the wine or sherry, cumin, salt, red pepper, and cook for 10-30 minutes (depending on how compulsive you are). |
| 9 | The flavor should be smooth (not gritty) and spicy. |
| 10 | Collect together everything that you will need for assembling the enchiladas. |
| 11 | Grate the cheese onto wax paper. |
| 12 | Have the olives handy (you"ll be cutting them in half). |
| 13 | Lightly oil the baking dish. |
| 14 | The frying pan from which you drained the meat mixture still has some of its grease left in it. |
| 15 | Take 4 tortillas from their package, separate them from each other, then one-by-one, slide them over the frying pan surface on each side, to moisten them slightly with the grease. |
| 16 | That done, stack them in the frying pan and heat them until they are soft and pliable. |
| 17 | The final assembly requires a bit of manual dexterity and speed: take the tortillas, and place them (bumpy side out) in the oven dish, curved into a "u" shape, each right next to its neighbor. |
| 18 | (at this point, start heating your next 4 tortillas in the frying pan. |
| 19 | I usually wind up preparing 10 tortillas in all). |
| 20 | Place a small handful of cheese into the u of each tortilla, followed by an appropriate amount of meat mixture, and finally several olive halves. |
| 21 | Then curl one end of the tortilla around to tuck into the opposite end, and carefully rotate it to conceal the seam. |
| 22 | Each tortilla should be filled firmly (not too loosely) but not overflowing the ends. |
| 23 | Once all the filling is used up and the enchiladas are now filled tortillas, pour the sauce over the top, helping it run into all the crevices. |
| 24 | Sprinkle lightly with remaining cilantro leaves. |
| 25 | 10 cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20-30 minutes, just until the tortillas are soft and the sauce is slightly bubbly. |
| 26 | Let sit for 5 minutes, then serve, topped with a dollop of sour cream. |
| 27 | If you fail to drain the meat well enough, the enchiladas will be greasy. |
| 28 | If over-baked, it tastes all right, but the tortillas lose their texture. |
| 29 | In general, however, the recipe is quite forgiving in its proportions. |
| 30 | Feel free to adjust the seasoning to your own tolerance for hot spice. |
| 31 | I like to assemble this recipe at least 3 hours before baking to give the flavors a chance to blend. |
| 32 | Left refrigerated for a day, the seasoning is even less aggressive. |
| 33 | Served with a salad (and some mexican beer), it"s a complete meal. |
| 34 | Notes: * enchiladas with meat, black olives and cheese -- for many years, i"ve been involved in latin american "solidarity work" here in the san francisco area, and as a result, i have learned some of its culinary pleasures. |
| 35 | This recipe originated from the back of a can of enchilada sauce in mexico, but was refined by a special chilean refugee friend who won a scholarship to the california culinary academy (in san francisco) and now cooks ever-so-lusciously. |
| 36 | Yield: serves 6-: difficulty: moderate. |
| 37 | : time: 1 hour preparation, 30 minutes baking. |
| 38 | : precision: approximate measurement ok, but time the baking carefully. |
