Anasazi Enchilada

This is so named because I used Anasazi beans for part of the filling. Although this looks pretty fancy, it was dead simple. Inside there is the filling, which was merely the beans mashed up a bit with some of the juice, some jazzed up hamburger meat, and a bit of the Cheddar cheese to hold it together.

On top is some leftover gravy to which I added cumin, mild red pepper powder (Santa Cruz brand has a nice round box of powder, or a glass jar of paste, of it at about $4.50, and it lasts forEVER!), Montreal Steak Seasoning, Mexican oregano, and a shake of onion powder. I put these same seasonings into the ground meat for the filling.

Since everything was freshly cooked, thus still hot, I just popped the plate (minus the sour cream, cilantro, and olives) into the microwave long enough to melt the cheese, rather than firing up the oven for the traditional baking. Then topped and served.

The roasted red peppers are from my frozen supply from a couple of months ago when red peppers were practically free in the grocery store. Bright green cilantro, scallions (the Mexican onions we favor are apparently out of season – boo!), a bit more cheese for color, black olives cut in half, and my requisite sour cream dollop(s), and it was a delight for the eye.

Next time you make hamburgers, make an extra one (or two) and stash it in the refrigerator for use in a day or two. Gives a nice head start on this dish, especially if you don’t have ground meat around all the time to start from scratch. When you start adding the seasonings, put in some flavorful fluid of some kind. If you don’t have anything appropriate, at least use water to make everything nice and moist. The seasonings will distribute themselves better throughout the meat, too.

If no Mexican food is on the menu for a few days, then just pop the cooked burger into a fold-over sandwich bag (not the expensive zipper kind), and toss it into the freezer in an obvious place where you will be able to find it again, and wait for the perfect opportunity to drag it out and do some magic. This is a good way to keep a last bit of ground meat usable, as it keeps so very much better when cooked than in the raw state. Having it already cooked makes it easy to use without having to thaw and cook a raw burger. You can pop it into just about any kind of soup, spaghetti sauce, chili, Sloppy Joe’s – the list is endless! ;->

The thin bag will keep it just fine for a few days in the freezer, but for longer storage, put the fold-over bag into a freezer bag. I put all kinds of things into these little cheap bags, and then into a freezer bag (i.e. the roasted red peppers) because it keeps the freezer bag clean so you can use it a bunch of times with no, or minimal, cleaning. Those freezer bags are getting very expensive, so this keeps you from having to refill your supply very often. Fewer is better for the environment, too, as they are petrol-based. Also, you can easily grab out one meal-sized bag of goodies from the freezer bag without having to thaw out the whole package.

Another nice topping is the jarred tomatillo finely-ground salsa. A little dab of it in the center of each sour cream dollop gives an extra treat for the eye, as well as the tummy.

There is probably a prepared taco/enchilada seasoning packet, but I don’t know what is in it. They seem massively overpriced to me when it is so easy to just shake in your own favored herbs and spices at the time. If you know of one that you like, look at the ingredients panel and give a whirl to mixing it yourself, or just Google for a recipe, and then alter it to suit your own taste.

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