Guatemalan Cuisine: La Enchilada

If tostadas had a kingdom, La Enchilada would be the queen of the tostadas. Good, you say, I’m glad to know, but can you tell me what the hell is a tostada or enchilada. Well, I’m glad you asked.

Tostadas is the common name for toasted tortillas. There are many ways to arrive from a tortilla to a tostada. The most common approach is you fry your tortilla until it is toasted. Other approach is the tortilla loses all of its moisture while being near the heat of the comal. The last method and the least often used is you let your tortillas lose their moisture by just being in very dry environment. So now that you have your tostada or the base you turn it into a Guatemalan tostadas by adding other ingredients like Guacamol (avocado sauce), salsa de tomate (tomato sauce), frijoles colados (liquified black beans), and then you sprinkle dried Guatemala cheese (sort of parmesan cheese) and fresh parsley flakes.

Now to make an Enchilada, you start with a tostada as a base, you add a romaine lettuce leaf, a mixture of pickled beets and vegetables, the mixture that goes inside chiles rellenos (in other words, minced green beans, carrots, and meat), tomato sauce, chili sauce, sprinkle dried Guatemalan cheese (it’s like panela cheese), and you top the whole thing with slice onions and hard-boiled-egg slice (not included in the picture above). I believe Jerry has a picture of Enchiladas with the slice of egg on top.

The word Enchilada means something that has been soaked with hot sauce or has been made spicy hot. Well, that’s where Mexican enchiladas take their name from. But not Guatemalan Enchiladas which are, regardless of the name, not spicy hot, unless you add chili sauce.

Bon appetite!

P.S. I think, right about now, we should start hiding the scale (again!).

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