Artichoke Enchiladas

A note about my recipes - if it's cooking, I don't really measure stuff accurately, I do it all by taste. I'll come up with a standardized system for words such as "dash" and "touch" but for now, just bear with me. Also, I really like to use fresh herbs, and when it comes to ground spices, the best thing you can do is buy it in bulk and get a spice grinder - that way the spices keep their flavor and they are way more potent and therefore delicious.

After my first trip to Mother's in Austin a couple weeks ago, I was inspired to try my own version of artichoke enchiladas. They turned out totally yummy! Here's the recipe:

you'll need
a small bit of butter (for flavor)

1/2 clove of garlic

1/2 white or yellow onion
1 can chopped artichokes
1 can tomatoes & green chiles
8 oz sour cream
1 bundle of spinach
8 flour tortillas (i would've preferred corn, but those fall apart...I'm still working on how to remedy that.
any kind of enchilada sauce you want - I used green
shredded mexican cheese

caldo de pollo
comino (cumin) - the hubs bought cumin seeds and i shook out about a tsp. and ground it up and split it between this and the beans (recipe following)
salt & pepper

Lightly oil a glass baking dish and set aside, pre-heat oven at 350.

Melt butter in a pan and add a little bit of olive oil.
Sauté onion until it turns clear-ish and add garlic.
Add artichokes and cook until they soften up a bit.
Add spinach and tomatoes/green chiles, along with a bit of the green enchilada sauce.
Add salt & pepper to taste, along with the comino and just a teeny bit of caldo.
Cook this for about 7-10 minutes, really let the flavors mingle - it gets a little soupy, so make sure and cook the liquid out of it.
While the mixture is cooking, take a spoonful of sour cream and spread it in a tortilla.
Scoop out some of the mixture and add some cheese, roll it up and place it in the baking dish.
When you're done maneuvering the enchiladas into your dish, take the remaining enchilada sauce and mix it with any remaining sour cream you have and pour this over the enchiladas.
Top with a bit of cheese, then pop into the oven for 20 minutes or until the sauce/cheese get bubbly.

Be sure to let 'em cool before you eat 'em.  I think these could be really good with a little chicken or even some shrimp, which I would just have chopped up and cooked in olive oil, salt and pepper and then thrown all the veggies in.

We had them with black beans, which I spiced up:
you'll need
1/2 clove garlic
1/4 white onion, chopped
2 cans of black beans - 1 can drained, one not

caldo de pollo

comino (from enchilada recipe)

salt & pepper

TINY shake of ancho chili powder (I really like the smoky depth this spice added to the beans!)

*note if you want to make these borracho beans, just add half a can of beer...and drink the rest ;)

Sauté the garlic and onion in a bit of olive oil until soft. Add a touch of caldo, the comino, salt and pepper, and the chili powder.  Add *beer at this point, beans, and bring to a boil, then let them simmer.  I would probably get these started first and then start working on your enchiladas to let them simmer until the enchiladas are ready.

I wish I had had a jalepeño, in which case I would have finely chopped a whole fresh one and sauteed it with the onions - beware, it makes your eyes burn doubly bad if you do this.  If I'm not wearing my contacts I have to go get my swim goggles.  No joke.  Also, the enchiladas would have been fabulous with some avocado.  My husband said everything had just the right amount of spice which was a HUGE accomplishment for me because I usually way freaking overspice everything!

If anyone out there tries this, let me know how it goes!