Red Enchiladas (veggie & meat versions)

I started eating Mexican food when I moved to Vancouver and have become a big fan of it since then. Perhaps the real turning point was spending a month in Yosemite, where ingredients for Mexican food were by far the best thing to be bought in the local supermarket. In any case, I find this recipe as good as much vegetarian Mexican food from restaurants.

This is an amended version of a Linda McCartney recipe. The original recipe is good but labour intensive, and utterly wrong on some of the quantities. The enchiladas are fairly easy, healthy & delicious. I find the dish is nicer with fresh tomatoes than tinned ones.

For the enchilada sauce:
1/2 pint or 1 1/4 cups of tinned diced tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes
1/2 of a very large red onion
1 or 2 mild green chillis
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh / frozen coriander or parsley
150ml (1/4 pint) of tomato puree
150-250 ml (1/4 to 1/3 pint) of water
1/2 tsp each ground cumin & dried oregano

For the tortillas & filling:
6 large wholewheat tortillas
approx 400g of vegetarian or meat mince
80-150g of organic cheddar
1/2 very large red onion
1/4 pint or 1/2 cup chopped black olives
a handful of mushrooms (optional)

Accompaniment:
Fresh salsa (can be made as per enchilada sauce but omit last 3 ingredients)
Sour cream
Guacamole (can easily be made at home using a ripe avocado, a bit of lemon juice & a dash of fresh or dried chilli)
Shredded lettuce

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C. Take out a very large baking or lasagna dish.

- Finely chop the onion and chillis for the sauce. Then mix all the sauce ingredients together in a large bowl. The sauce is now ready; hooray!

- Finely chop the onion and mushrooms for the filling. Then chop the olives and next grate the cheddar; keep these to one side.

- Read the instructions on your veggie mince. If the mince requires cooking and/or hydration then do so. If, however, the instructions say that the mince merely requires heating up (eg. 'add during the last 1-2 minutes of cooking') then use it directly from the packet. I prefer to use low-effort mince. If using actual meat mince, then pre-cook it in a frying pan.

- Spread about 6 tbsps of sauce over the base of the dish. You are now ready to start building enchiladas! Basically, add 1/6 of the onion, mince & mushrooms, plus about 1 1/2 tbsps of sauce to each tortilla, wrap it up and put it in the dish. Repeat until you've used all the tortillas and filling.

- Ideally, your wrapped tortillas want to be lying next to each other in the dish. Now spoon the remaining sauce over the top and then sprinkle the grated cheese and olives over it.

- Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. When it is done the tortillas should be browned at the edges and the cheese will be melted. Serve at once, with the accompaniments.

Banana & pecan cake

I used to make this recipe in my 2nd year of undergrad. At the time, I was sharing a house with 9 other people, including 5 Christians who disliked and disapproved of me. Nonetheless, every time the banana loaves were made they were entirely consumed before cooling - that's how good the recipe is.
Although I'm normally inclined towards using wholemeal flour mixed with white and brown sugar substituted for white when baking, I am disinclined to alter this recipe. Substitute if you will, but don't sacrifice the soft, moist texture of the banana loaf in the process.

120g of organic butter at room temperature
225g or 1 cup of sugar
3 eggs, seperated
3 bananas, peeled and mashed
150g or 1/2 cup of organic milk
225g or 2 cups of flour
2tsp baking powder
175g or 1 cup of sultanas
90g shelled pecan halves

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Then grease and line (unless nonstick) 2 small or medium loaf tins.

- Chop butter into lumps. Then cream together the butter and sugar with a spoon.

- Beat the egg yolks and mashed banana into the butter / sugar mix. Add the milk and mix well. Then add the flour (through a sieve; it adds air), baking powder abd sultanas. Beat until smooth.

- Put the egg whites into a large bowl and beat with a balloon whisk until the egg whites become stiff. Then quickly fold the egg whites into the cake batter.

- Pour the cake batter equally into the 2 loaf tins. Then arrange the pecans on top - there should be enough to more or less cover the surface.

- Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until well browned but not burnt on top. Then cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire cooling rack.

Since the recipe produces 2 loafs, I recommend keeping one yourself and giving the other to a friend. Freshly-baked banana loaf never offends.