A country, 32 ways to eat enchiladas

Fried tortillas, sufficiently soaked, expanded in flavor by the power granted by fat and salsa. It is curious that they are called just that, enchiladas, because sometimes we Mexicans don’t get spiced up. They arrive to us lying down, crouched. If we are lucky, we see their edges because they are generally covered with ingredients that add color to the dish and temper the spiciness. Enchiladas are a complete category, a file cabinet of simple, humble, and beloved recipes. The proof? Each region has a special section where their own are tattooed. The math fails us in the combinations: there are as many of them as fillings, as salsas, as constructions on the plate. Some are airy, others have the filling on the outside, some are served dry, while others are baked to be gratinated and cut like pie. Sour, lucid, sweet, or arid, enchiladas fill the air with the aroma of frying in snack bars, street stalls, and restaurants with silver cutlery. Perhaps it is not well known. This dish is not conventional; it has a pre-Hispanic origin. They were present at the tables of Moctezuma and Cuitláhuac. Little is known about the original recipe, but according to Alberto Peralta de Legarreta, a researcher at the Faculty of Tourism and Gastronomy at Anáhuac University Mexico, the tortilla was barely cooked on the comal, soaked directly in salsa. Even the dough could have pieces of chili. They have been documented since the early European invasion by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, who speaks of enchiladas, although he does not call them as such 'enchiladas', he tells me.With the mestizaje came oil and lard, and along with this pork fat, a more flavorful version of enchiladas. The broths and sauced tortillas soon became a quintessential street food that over time seduced the senses of the nobility. It is one of the first antojitos as we know them today on the streets. Back then, the lard could be seasoned with chili or not, and the enchiladas were served with a bit of aged cheese. Sometimes they were filled with a type of chorizo called morcón, or were simply, as they are known, airy. Besides on the streets, enchiladas began to be consumed in a sort of fondas or Chinese restaurants of the 19th century, where Mexican food was served, not Asian. It is likely that they started to commercialize them by imitating the street ones, but improving the ingredients and cooking methods, notes Peralta.In the 20th century, with French cuisine setting the fashions and trends of world gastronomy, enchiladas did not remain inert. This is how some European cheeses and dressings like cream were incorporated into the recipes. The result was Swiss enchiladas ¬¬which, although they are not spicy, do make you want to keep eating until the dish is clean. Swiss enchiladas had a seasoning that could not be copied on the streets, meaning they had better cheese, which was melted, and they stopped being dry, and were served inside a deep plate.Currently, states safeguard their culinary traditions with variants that differ from other enchiladas in terms of salsas, techniques, fillings, and how they are served. In some states, they are not a main dish but rather a side dish of a platter that showcases the local culinary richness as a synopsis, such as the tampiqueñas enchiladas.What is certain is that there are irreplaceable elements that separate them from the semantic field of tacos. The divine laws of national gastronomy dictate it: the corn or flour tortilla must be folded in half or rolled, and dipped in salsa, before or after frying, baking, or cooking. They can then be served simply seasoned or completed with generous ladles of salsa of every color spectrum. The seasoning of cream, cheese, and onion, which we believe is ancestral, does not appear in 19th-century cookbooks. This means that it is very likely from the first decades of the 20th century, completes Peralta.Each state of the Republic has its enchiladas, and all claim to be better than the others. Each one is a dialogue between knowledge, ingredients, and identity. For example, those from Sonora are an ode to XXL food: they are made with large and thick tortillas that are placed on a bed of lettuce, cheese, and shredded onion. In Sinaloa, there are those from the ground, which are rubbed with chili, cumin, and oregano salsa and filled with chorizo. In Veracruz, they are covered with beans and filled with egg, resulting in enfrijoladas, while in other regions of the state, they are prepared with tepejilote seeds. The ones from Colima carry a sweet mole and are filled with pork. The potosinas are a classic for enchilada lovers: the dough is colored with ancho chili and filled raw before being fried like quesadillas.  In Oaxaca, they are covered with mole, resulting in another tremendously expanded term, enmoladas. In Pachuca, they are filled with cheese and chicken, and the salsa is a marinade based on poblano chili. The mineras are soaked in guajillo salsa before being passed through pork lard. They are filled with aged cheese and served with a stew of potatoes and carrots, as well as pickled strips. Similar, but not identical, the placeras from Michoacán are served outside the portals. The salsa, in addition to guajillo, contains ancho chili, and they are served with pieces of chicken.In Guerrero, those made with ancho chili mole filled with chorizo are called heated enchiladas; to give them some freshness, they are served on a bed of lettuce and topped with a mixture of cheese, oregano, and strips. The chiapanecas are soaked in milk, egg, and a salsa made from mulato and ancho chili. In Tabasco, they are filled with picadillo and not fried, but smeared in mole. Mexico City can hold its head high, claiming to have launched the prototype of what we now conceive as enchiladas, which are the green or red ones, served in abundant salsa and the most prestigious seasoning: cream, fresh cheese, and onion, concludes Alberto Peralta. The list is complemented by the creations of each cenaduría, the tricolor ones during patriotic times, the ones filled with the trendy protein: pastor, birria, suadero. The vegetarian ones, the vegan ones with hibiscus flower, those with that special mole that is only prepared in that town.The recipes vary, but each one is a story written with ingredients about our identity. Enchiladas are the perfect balance of what we are and have been: the people of chili and corn, arranged in equal parts.