Enchiladas de Chile Ajo + Back to the Market

For the past seven weeks I've been tending to a very small person.  There has been no cooking, certainly no baking, very little fresh air and, quite often, no showering.  She eats, sleeps and cries and my life is dictated by her every whim. Becoming a mother is without a doubt the most rewarding job I've ever undertaken, but also the hardest.  So yesterday I decided to take a little break and make a homemade meal, intricate enough to get my mind off of dirty diapers for a few hours.  I asked Dave what he wanted and he pointed to the cover of the latest issue of Saveur, "I want that."  Enchiladas de Chile Ajo, is the dish (link to the recipe here).  So off to the market I went, magazine in hand, to tackle this authentic Mexican dish.  This recipe has a lot of steps, but they are all well worth the outcome.  You have to soak dried guajillo chiles, then make them into a paste that will become the base of the most flavorful, sweet and spicy enchilada sauce you've ever tasted.  You char vegetables and peppers for said sauce, followed by a messy transfer to the blender to puree.  Then there is another puree.  There is fresh lime juice for acid, a crumbled piece of toasted white bread to thicken and a bit of sweet brown sugar.  Finally, you have to fry corn tortillas in oil, one-by-one, before soaking them in that vibrantly red sauce and filling them with shredded chicken, Cotija cheese and diced raw onion.  Delicious, comforting, filling and just the meal to get me ready to pull another all-nighter with my sweet little girl. 

PS:  Bogart Loves will be back at Kingfield farmer's market next Sunday, August 12th.  We are so excited to get back to the market and can't wait to see everyone.

PPS:  Esther Jane Merryfield was born on June 14, weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz.  She will be making quite a few appearances at the market so please stop by to meet her.

The photo that started it all.

Charred tomatoes, garlic, onion and serrano chiles.

Perfect with a strong margarita. 

Essie asleep.  A rare and lovely thing these days.