Another recipe

I tried another recipe tonight. I give you pineapple black bean enchiladas*. I've been sold on the idea of pineapple in Mexican food thanks to the Hula Hut in Austin. (Hawaiin Tex-Mex? It sounds weird until you try the fajitas with pineapple in them. You'll be sold too!) So without further ado**:

Pineapple Black Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 x 20 oz can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained with juice reserved
• 1 x 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 x 4.5 oz can chopped green chiles
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 x 10 oz can enchilada sauce
• 8 tortillas (8-9 inch)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.
2. In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper; cook 4 to 5 minutes or until softened.
3. Stir in pineapple, beans, chiles, and salt. Cook and stir until thoroughly heated.
4. Remove skillet from heat. Stir in cilantro, and 2 cups of cheese.
5. Spoon and spread 1 tbsp enchilada sauce onto each tortilla. Spoon about 3/4 cup vegetable mixture over the sauce on each. Roll up tortilla and place seam-side-down in baking dish.
6. Repeat step 5 for all tortillas.
7. In a small bowl, mix reserved pineapple juice with remaining enchilada sauce. Pour mixture over the entire surface of enchiladas in dish.
8. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
9. Spray large sheet of foil with cooking spray. Place sprayed side down over baking dish and seal tightly.
10. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, removing foil during the last 5-10 minutes of baking, until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly.
11. Serve each enchilada with sour cream and chopped cilantro (if desired).

My notes:

• This was really tasty. The pineapple is what makes this dish special, for sure.
• I used about half the cheese that the recipe called for. I made sure to have plenty for the top; it tasted fine, though I imagine more cheese in the tortillas would just make it gooier, which is always nice, but not wholly necessary. (Especially since I was trying to keep it somewhat light. Though really, I just didn't want to buy more than one package.)
• Make sure you use a big skillet. Seriously, by the time everything was in there, it was FULL.
• For some reason, I didn't use all my vegetable mixture (maybe I wasn't liberal enough in filling the tortillas?). I plan to eat the leftovers of that either plain, on a salad, or with chips or something.
• I don't think 1 tsp of salt is nearly enough. But then again, I like salt...
• I made sure the foil was really tightly sealed around the edges. One of the problems with so many enchilada recipes is that the tortillas dry out. I was worried about that happening, but with the foil being tight, it didn't.
  

As I cooked this, Sister Porter admired it and noted at least twice how much she thought she and her daughters would love that recipe. She snuck a forkfull of the vegetable mixture from the skillet, and gave it a big thumbs up. Likewise, President Porter told me he thinks I should cook dinner for them sometime.



* Some of you (especially if we've been roommates) may wonder why I would ever make an enchilada recipe that is NOT the famed chicken enchiladas. Well, I mostly tried it because this is black bean week, and I couldn't resist the idea of the pineapple!

** Admittedly, I should have taken the picture before taking my serving out. Oh well. Also, I should have taken a picture of the vegetable mix in the skillet, because that was what looked the best!