Search This Blog

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Salvadoran Chilaquiles






We have our own version of chilaquiles in El Salvador, though I still find Mexican chilaquiles (especially the ones my sister Virginia makes)to be very delicious. I made the Salvadoran version the other day. They are heavier because our tortillas are thicker, but are still very tasty and really easy and quick to make.
Ingredients:

Freshly made Salvadoran tortillas
Stringy cheese (whatever kind you are able to find) I used pepper jack the first time because it was all I had, but Salvadoran "quesillo" would be better though it's hard to get here.
Two or three eggs.
Some tomatoes and onion, a garlic clove and a bay leaf to make a sauce.

First make the sauce. Put everything in the blender with a little water, blend, then cook, simmering slowly and stirring occasionally until it is done, about 20 minutes. If you'd like, add a little sauce.
Next, cut each tortilla in half and then slice through each half to make a pocket (see photo). Stuff each pocket with the cheese. Heat a good amount of canola, safflower, or sunflower oil in a large, deep frying pan. While you heat the oil, use a hand mixer to beat the eggs in a bowl until very thick and put to the side. Now that the oil should be hot, coat each tortilla half one at a time with some beaten egg, then place in the frying pan and fry on each side, then remove and place in the pan which contains the sauce. Try and fit as many as you can in the sauce pot and then turn it on to a low temperature and simmer slowly. The purpose of this is to further cook each tortilla half and let it soak up a little bit of sauce. If you have too many chilaquiles and not enough sauce, you can save them, already fried, and later on make more sauce and cook or use the sauce left over from your first batch of chilaquiles.