Shrimp and Goat Cheese Enchiladas

Cuisine: Mexican

Inspiration: I’ve said it many times, but B and I both love Mexican and Tex Mex food. If I go too long without a Mexican meal, I usually get an intense craving that won’t go away until I make a Mexican supper or go out to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Last week, I was really craving Mexican food again, particularly enchiladas. I was happy to find this fairly healthy recipe that, as a bonus, also included seafood, which is something that I always crave a lot during the warm weather.

What we Loved: The salsa verde sauce for these enchiladas has an amazing, roasted pepper flavor. It’s made with a base of roasted tomatillos, poblanos, and garlic, and it really tastes so rich and delicious. I also really liked the flavor of the goat cheese. I’ve never used goat cheese in enchiladas before, but I had some extra in the house so I gave it a shot. It’s my favorite cheese, so I wasn’t too worried, but I was interested to see how it would taste. I ended up loving it. Goat cheese has a great, creamy quality that blends perfectly with the shrimp and the salsa verde sauce. I really liked that these enchiladas were different than any enchiladas I’ve had, with relatively little cheese and a focus instead on the flavors of the salsa verde and the shrimp filling. These aren’t your standard ooey-gooey cheesy enchiladas, but they’re still fantastic.

Helpful Hints: The salsa verde sauce dried up a bit in the oven while the enchiladas were baking. Next time, I think I would bake the enchiladas without the sauce, and instead heat up the sauce in a sauce pan to pour over the enchiladas when they come out of the oven. Also, when I make enchiladas, I use corn tortillas, and I typically heat them in the microwave to make them pliable, rather than quickly frying them as is traditionally done. I do this to save fat and calories, but it has the downside of giving the tortillas a fairly mushy texture when they come out of the oven. I’m starting to question whether this calorie-saving step is worth it, because the enchiladas break open easily and are very difficult to get out of the pan. If you would like to avoid this and aren’t too concerned about a few extra calories, just heat a bit of canola oil in a saute pan, and quickly fry each tortilla (for maybe 5 seconds per side) before filling and rolling.

Similar Recipes: avocado enchiladas with smoky chipotle sauce, chicken chilaquiles

Shrimp and Goat Cheese Enchiladas
Source: Bon Appetit Magazine

I cut this recipe in half and made a few adjustments. Here’s the recipe as I made it.

Extra virgin olive oil
1 lb tomatillos, husked and rinsed
2 large poblano chiles, halved lengthwise, cored, and seeded
2 unpeeled garlic cloves
1 cup packed, coarsely chopped cilantro, plus additional for garnish
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 lb jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tails removed (I would use 1 lb next time, but I was running short)
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
8 corn tortillas
4-6 oz goat cheese

1. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place the tomatillos, poblano chiles (cut-side down), and garlic cloves on the sheet. Broil until the tomatillos and chiles begin to soften and blacken, approximately 15 minutes. Let cool.

2. Add the tomatillos to a food processor. Peel the garlic, and add it to the food processor. Peel the charred parts off of the chiles, and coarsley chop. Add 1/4 of the chiles to the food processor, and reserve the rest. Add the cilantro and green onions to the food processor. Process until the mixture is pureed. Season with salt and pepper, and transfer the mixture to a shallow bowl.

3. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a saute pan. Saute the onions until softened, approximately 2-4 minutes. Add the shrimp, oregano, cumin, and the remaining chopped chiles to the pan, and saute until the shrimp  are just opaque but not completely cooked through, approximately 2-3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the bottom of a baking dish with just enough of the salsa to coat.

5. Microwave the tortillas between paper towels until just pliable, approximately 1 minute. Working with one tortilla at a time, dip the tortilla into the bowl containing the salsa, turning to coat both sides. Transfer to a plate, and add some of the shrimp filling and a sprinkle of goat cheese. Roll up the tortilla, and place seam-side down in the baking dish. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

6. Pour the remaining salsa over the tortillas, and bake for 20 minutes.

7. Serve garnished with goat cheese and cilantro.