Recommend a Good Enchiladas Suizas Recipe?

[ePressureCooker]

Can anyone here recommend a good enchiladas suizas recipe, as authentic as possible? I made a recipe from Saveur a few months ago for the parents, and while my father said they were good, they weren't authentic. (That recipe had tomatillos in it, I looked at it beforehand and thought it looked like a regular green enchilada recipe with cream added, but you never know, so I went ahead and tried it.) My father would know: his family lived in Mexico City during part of the 1950s, and he actually ate the original enchiladas suizas at Sanborns repeatedly, so I have a high bar to meet here. Can anyone make recommendations?

[mukki]

Not sure if this is the same recipe, though it looks like it is, but Richardo Munoz made an *excellent* version during a trip I took with him to Mexico City in February:

http://dangermencooking.blogspot.com/2009/08/enchiladas-suizas.html

Edited May 22, 2013 by mukki (log)

[ePressureCooker]

Not sure if this is the same recipe, though it looks like it is, but Richardo Munoz made an *excellent* version during a trip I took with him to Mexico City in February:

http://dangermencooking.blogspot.com/2009/08/enchiladas-suizas.html

That isn't the recipe I used, and it looks good, but my father swears up and down that the original from Sanborns during the 1950s did not contain tomatillos. He said it was more like a bechamel sauce. If I can't find a closer recipe, I may just make a bechamel and put some roasted garlic etc. in it and see what he thinks.

[Darienne]

I make a very non-traditional Enchilada Suiza and I always use a Bechamel sauce on top of all.

[rancho_gordo]

It's not something I would normally order but to me there is a tomatillo sauce involved.

[rancho_gordo]

In Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's Enciclopedico de Gastronomia Mexicana, he describes the dish as having a green sauce and coming from Sanborn's. He also notes it's loaded with cream and cheese.

[Dave the Cook]

In Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's Enciclopedico de Gastronomia Mexicana, he describes the dish as having a green sauce and coming from Sanborn's. He also notes it's loaded with cream and cheese.

Isn't cream (perhaps in the form of bechamel) and cheese the whole point of the "suizas" thing -- as in Switzerland?

[nickrey]

Wikipedia thinks so and this seems to fit with your father's recollection although I found the original article and the recipe quoted does mention tomatillos. Edited May 23, 2013 by nickrey (log)

[ePressureCooker]

It's not something I would normally order but to me there is a tomatillo sauce involved.

Well, he liked it enough to order it repeatedly as a teenager, and he was happy enough when I told him I was making them for him the first time, so I was trying to make him even happier with something closer to the original. Note, bechamel was not his word, it was mine, based on my quizzing of him, he said white sauce, cream, cheese, and I extrapolated (perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly). I asked whether there could have been "green" from chiles instead of tomatillos, and he was less positive on that score, but he didn't think there were a lot, certainly not enough to give the enchiladas a "green" tone.

[rancho_gordo]

Mexican food seems mostly about balancing rich things (fried pork, heavy sauces) with acidic things (like limes, xoconostle). Enchiladas suizas without the "edge" of the green sauce would be more like Tex-Mex, which doesn't seem so acidic. I'm not saying it was smothered in green sauce but I bet the original had some.

[ePressureCooker]

Mexican food seems mostly about balancing rich things (fried pork, heavy sauces) with acidic things (like limes, xoconostle). Enchiladas suizas without the "edge" of the green sauce would be more like Tex-Mex, which doesn't seem so acidic. I'm not saying it was smothered in green sauce but I bet the original had some.

You could be right. It was, after all, a long time ago, and he's remembering stuff he ate as a teenager. And he ate it at Sanborn's, in Mexico City, so I'm reasonably sure it wasn't Tex-Mex, but real Mex. (Or at least fusion Mex)

And if I try the recipe that was given, it has ingredients that the other recipe didn't have, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc., that would probably affect the ultimate taste a reasonable amount, and detract from the tomatillos.

Edited May 23, 2013 by ePressureCooker (log)

[ChefTC]

I work at a well known Mexican restaurant in Seattle that strives to serve authentic mexican food. Or suiza is just a blend of roasted tomatillos, cilantro, cream, garlic, serranos, and water. Add salt to taste, and that's it.

Cream is basically just a soured heavy cream, so using straight heavy cream would probably just reduce the acidity of the sauce slightly

[Jaymes]

I've had green enchiladas, and enchiladas "suizas" across northern Mexico - Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, etc., that contain only green chiles. You can roll or fold them if you like, but you're more likely to find them stacked, with a traditional fried egg on top, for "Sonoran-style"; or a dollop of sour cream or Mexican crema on top for Enchiladas Suizas - "Swiss style."

Here's a recipe given to me by a norteña - woman from northern Mexico - many years ago.

I'm not saying it's the same one that your father is looking for, but it is good, and it is green, and it is Mexican, and there are no tomatillos.

Sonoran-Style Stacked Green Chile Enchiladas

Prepare your green chile sauce first:
For sauce:
12 large green chiles, like poblano, Anaheim, Hatch, etc. (If you like it spicier, you can combine chiles, etc. You'll probably want to experiment a bit with the chiles to find varieties you prefer)
2 medium tomatoes (you want to wind up with about 1 cup of chopped)
1 medium white onion
2 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

Roast chiles over gas burners, or on outdoor grill, or on a comal or heavy skillet, or under broiler until blistered. Put into plastic or paper bags, or into folded dishtowels or whatever method you like, and allow steam to permeate. This makes the chiles easy to peel. Remove peel, core, seeds, and visible veins. Chop into half-inch pieces. Place into saucepan.

Add chopped tomatoes, onions, salt, and the two cloves of mashed garlic to the saucepan. If you have a comal, or otherwise want to roast the vegetables first, before you chop them, obviously that will enhance the flavor, but if you don't, then just chop veggies and add them to the pot.

Add enough water just barely to cover, and simmer about ten minutes, until all veggies are tender, and flavors are combined, and enough water has evaporated to make a nice soupy, but not watery, consistency.

For enchiladas:
1 doz corn tortillas
2 C grated cheese (or crumbled, if you have queso fresco ranchero; if you do not have access to good Mexican cheeses, then use half good-quality mild cheddar and half jack)
3 C green chile sauce

Allow two or three tortillas per person. Fry tortillas quickly in hot fat just to soften, then dip into hot green chile sauce. You are going to assemble these on the individual serving plates. I usually have my plates stacked in a warm oven. One at a time, place a prepared hot, sauced tortilla on warm plate, sprinkle with cheeses, another sauced tortilla, more cheese, top with sauced tortilla. Pour over as much green chile sauce as you like for desired wetness. Serve immediately.

You can top it with a fried egg in the traditional Sonoran style, or with a dollop of Mexican crema, or sour cream for Enchiladas Suizas - so called because a large number of Swiss emigrated to Mexico in the mid-1880's, and introduced dairy ingredients into their versions of traditional Mexican dishes.

Edited June 13, 2013 by Jaymes (log)

[danielito]

If you're looking for an enchildas suizas recipe that duplicates Sanborns you might want to obtain the book of Sanborns recipes, sold in their stores, entitled "Con sabor a Sanborns". It is in Spanish, but easy to translate even if your Spanish skills are sketchy. And their recipe does include tomates verdes (tomatillos).

I agree with mukkii, Chef Muñoz makes an excellent enchilada suiza, I had some on the same trip to D.F.

[Secret_Ingredient]

From my words:

 

http://dangermencooking.blogspot.com/2009/08/enchiladas-suizas.html

 

Addendum.

On 31 October 2013, I see that this recipe became a topic of discussion at the eGullet forum. The original poster asked about the sauce used at Sanborn's in Mexico City. I immediately want to point out that Mexican Cuisine is far more regional and local than United States Cuisine and as such the sauce which was queried about may be local to Sanborn's in Mexico City and not any other Sanborn's in Mexico.

As the original poster asked about a salsa verde, without tomatillos, I may have a solution. Only her father's taste buds would know for certain.

The first secret ingredient is solved by the inclusion of information I have previously not put online. Please forgive. 

Crema de Rancho
Cream separating from the milking, left overnight to rise to the top and skimmed off is set aside to ferment. The longer the fermentation the higher the percentage of lactic acid development. Salt is then added and if the crema is not sour enough, it is again set aside to allow the lactic acid to increase. According to my research, it should not get as sharp (piquant) as crema agria or in English, sour cream. Crema de Rancho is sold under the following names:

Crema de Rancho
crema espasa [thick cream]
crema de la buena
crema especial
crema de primera
crema de al mejor

The second secret ingredient is likely to be hoja santa and I won't show all the variant spellings for this herb or ingredient. The plant, widely used in Mexico, is botanically named: Piper Auritum. I have posted about this plant at Danger! Men Cooking! as I have only recently been able to obtain it commercially.

 

While I have not eaten Enchiladas Suizas in Mexico City, at the Sanborn's the original poster at eGullet queried about, I am pretty sure this may be what she is after, although good luck finding some fresh from the cow warm milk to ferment. Looking at the Sanborn's menu, I see that the few listed ingredients do have crema and salsa verde, so my best guess for the lady looking to reproduce their recipe is to cook the hoja santa and blend it to a puree, whence, add the sour cream and use it as Sanborn's salsa verde. I'm uncertain as to whether the enchiladas suizas have a garnish of Swiss Cheese, I guess they are using a Mexican cheese.