Recipe #6: quesadillas? or enfrijoladas?

 When I was a young adult in the 1980s and 90s, there was a El Salvadoran gem of a restaurant in Guelph, Ontario called Latinos. It was one of my favourite restaurants of all time. I always had the same things and they never disappointed: an appetizer called Nachos Deliciosos, and a main dish called Enfrijoladas. We’ll talk about the delicious nachos appetizer another time. 

Today is all about the enfrijoladas.

At Latinos, the dish came with two folded corn tortillas filled with their brilliant black beans and cheese, fried on both sides, and served with sour cream, salsa, and hot sauce, with a side of their special rice pilaf and a little salad.

Sadly, Latinos is gone. And after a period of despair and grief came the time to try to figure out how to move on with my life. Which meant trying to recreate their bean and cheese enfrijoladas on my own.

When I searched for a recipe for enfrijoladas on the internet, I never came up with a satisfying recipe that seemed right. Most of the recipes I found were Mexican, not El Salavdoran. And they were described as a kind of enchilada smothered in sauce and beans. Maybe they’re delicious too, but I wanted my Latinos dish back!

So I played around with corn tortillas, my basic black beans, cheese, oil, and a frying pan, and I eventually came up with something that tastes like my memory of Latinos! Here it is:

Ingredients:

Note the leftover basic black beans from Recipe #4.

Note also I am using pre-made packaged frozen corn tortillas. I occasionally still make tortillas from scratch, and maybe I’ll share that in a future post. I can now get excellent pre-made corn tortillas locally, so it saves a lot of time and energy. I buy bags of them and freeze them, then thaw a few tortillas by wrapping them in a cloth napkin and microwaving them for 30-60 seconds, just to get them warm and pliable.

Directions:

Heat 3-4 glugs of a neutral flavoured oil in a large fry pan. I’m using canola oil and a non-stick pan. I have noticed better flavour intensity when I use a cast iron or seasoned carbon steel pan, but then you have to be ready for a bit more clean up and re-seasoning of the pan. Today is a take-it-easy kind of day.

When the oil is shimmery hot, carefully place your corn tortillas and spoon some leftover or fresh basic black beans on each. 

The tortilla on the left is destined to be a quesadilla, note the full coverage with beans. On the right, an enfrijolada, only half covered.

Next add some grated cheese. I’m using a nice old sharp cheddar.

I don’t mind a little overflow. It crisps up nicely and adds to the flavour and texture of the final dish.

Next, add a second tortilla to the quesadilla, or fold the tortilla for the enfrijolada:

And fry on the first side until it’s nice and golden brown. Then carefully flip:

That quesadilla isn’t golden brown crusted enough for my liking, it will need a reflip. But the enfrijolada is perfect.

When everything is cooked through with melted cheese and hot beans on the inside, and golden brown crusted on the outside, they’re done.

I’m serving mine with (store bought) red salsa and thick, creamy sour cream, just like Latinos. There’s also a lazy person’s Caesar salad on the side (romaine lettuce mixed with Renée’s Mighty Caesar dressing), and my daily vitamin D supplement.

It’s not Latino’s, but it’s not bad!