Ancho Chile Mushroom Enchiladas

If you have access to ancho chiles (we find ours at the local Mexican market), you have to have to have to try this dish. I got my inspiration from the ancho chile enchiladas at Z Tejas, one of my favorite restaurants. They are so delicious and pretty easy to make. You can make the sauce ahead of time too, and freeze any extra for future uses. I make these enchiladas about once a week (and don't get sick of them), they make for excellent leftovers. Anth takes the leftovers to school the following days (where his fellow classmates drool over them).

serves about 5 or 6
Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 2 dried ancho chiles
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1-2 T. mole sauce (optional)
  
• 4 teaspoons fresh lime juice

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 12 ounces fresh wild mushrooms (such as oyster and/or stemmed and sliced shiitake and portobello)
• 5 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (you could also use queso fresco)
  
• 6 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded, chopped
• 1 small avocado, pitted, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

• 8-12 6-inch-diameter corn tortillas

Preparation:

Bring 2 cups water to boil in small saucepan. Remove saucepan from heat, add chilies and soak 30 minutes. Drain chilies, reserving 6 tablespoons soaking liquid. Cut stems off chilies. Cut chilies open. Scrape out seeds and discard. Combine chilies, 6 tablespoons reserved soaking liquid and garlic in blender and puree until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine whipping cream, sour cream, & chili puree in heavy large skillet. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer 3 minutes. Whisk in lime juice and mole sauce (optional). Season with salt. (Sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Melt butter in another heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms and sauté until onion is translucent and mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Add cheese, cilantro, tomatoes and 3 tablespoons of the cream sauce. Simmer until just heated through, about 4 minutes. Stir in avocado. Season filling with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Dip tortillas individually into warm sauce & transfer to baking dish. Spoon generous 1/3 cup filling down center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas, enclosing filling completely. Arrange seam side down in baking dish. Cover enchiladas with foil.

Bake enchiladas until heated through, about 10 minutes. Transfer to plates. Spoon some sauce atop each. Serve, passing any remaining sauce separately.

Notes: The corn tortillas crumble really easily. Since we eat them with a fork anyway and don't really care about presentation, it's not a problem. But, if you are worried about presentation, it might help to fry the tortillas briefly in some hot oil before dipping them in the sauce and filling them. It should help keep them from crumbling. I have tried microwaving them for 30 seconds, and although it helps they still seem to crumble. Another solution would be to use flour tortillas. They rarely crumble and taste heavenly too.