Tomatillo Time!

I adore tomatillos! Grilled or roasted, in salsa or enchiladas. I can't get enough of them. Tonight I made cheese enchiladas with a tomatillo sauce, all from Everyday Food.

I visited a gem in Pilsen to get my ingredients, La Casa del Pueblo. We first heard about this ethnic market from Rick Bayless. It is one of his go-to destinations in Pilsen. They even have a taqueria next door. The market is a dive, but offers amazing produce, prices and authentic ethnic foods. If it's good enough for Rick Bayless, it's good enough for me!

I've never bought queso fresco before, and was thrilled to find it here. They have a great selection of tortillas, all made in Chicago. Their produce is so inexpensive. Normally I pay about a dollar or so for one bunch of fresh cilantro, but La Casa has it for only 49 cents! They also have large tomatillos.  

La Casa is also a wonderful place to buy great spices, on the cheap. I scored a pound of cinnamon for the price of a small jar at a regular grocery store. I also discovered saffron for half the price we paid to make Scallopini a few weeks ago ($10 cheaper!). 

One of the other advantages of La Casa is the music. It is quite festive. Definitely not something you would ever hear at Jewel or Dominick's! To bad the aisles aren't big enough for dancing...

I first started making the Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce. Instead of boiling the tomatillos, I roasted them in the broiler to get a better flavor. Grilling would also add a great taste, but our grill is not working at the moment. I think it may still be defrosting from our insane winter! 

I also added about 5 tablespoons of light sour cream to the sauce. It reminds me of the Deluxe Tomatillo Sauce at Chuy's in Texas (one of my favorite places in the whole wide world). The sour cream also helped to thicken the sauce. I love the cilantro mixed in. It not only adds great flavor, but also makes the sauce a pretty light green color, along with the green tomatillos. 

I began assembling the Cheese Enchiladas. Though I followed the recipe instructions to dip the tortillas in the sauce before filling, we would not recommend this. It made the tortillas too soggy. Next time I would simply add sauce on top so they don't fall apart.

For the cheese, I filled each enchilada with half queso fresco and half Mexican cheese blend from the grocery store. The queso fresco really added a nice, creamy flavor. I'm a big fan of that stuff now!

I also filled each enchilada with white diced onions. 

I had lots of sauce left over, which is great. Next time I will add another jalapeno pepper and garlic clove to give it a bigger kick. I could drink this sauce straight up it's so good.

Bon Appetit!