Deena's Avocado Enchiladas

This past weekend, in celebration of Deena Kastor's Olympic Trials victory, I decided to make her recipe for Avocado Enchiladas, which I found online. Apparently she references the recipe during the documentary, The Spirit of the Marathon, which I blogged about previously. The recipe was awesome. I served it with refried beans and Mexican rice. A great meal for vegetarians, too! It was, however, a time intensive recipe. So probably best saved for the weekend.

Ingredients:
Sauce:
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs sugar
4 Tbs cumin
3Tbs oregano
1 can beer
1 twenty-eight ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth or water

Filling:
8 ripe avocados, peeled and seeded
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
Juice of one lime
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
3/4 teaspoon salt
20 corn tortillas
1/3 cup grapeseed or canola oil
1 pound Monterey Jack Cheese, grated

Instructions: Here is the recipe many of you asked for. I made one of my favorite recipes while shooting the documentary Spirit of the Marathon. Heat 1 tsp oil in sauce pan. Add onion and saute for 5 minutes or until soft. Add garlic, sugar, cumin and oregano saute 2 more minutes. Add beer, tomatoes broth let simmer for 20 minutes. Can be made two days in advance cool, cover and refrigerate until used for enchiladas.

Chop avocado and toss with cilantro, red onion, jalapeno, lime juice and salt.Heat oven to 400 degrees. In saucepan, heat oil (grapeseed and canola oil tolerate high heat and do not become toxic at high temperatures) over medium flame for about 5 minutes. Once oil is hot, fry tortillas one at a time for one minute each side, or until lightly brown and blistered. Remove and blot on brown grocery bag or paper towel (if you skip frying the tortilla, the enchiladas will not hold form).

Spread 1/2 cup red sauce on bottom of casserole dish. Dip fried tortillas in pot of remaining red sauce, spoon 3 heaping tablespoon of avocado filling in each tortilla. Roll up and arrange rolled tortillas side by side in casserole dish. Pour remaining sauce over tortillas sprinkle with cheese.

Cover and bake for 25 minutes take foil off and bake for another five minutes. Serve two enchiladas on a plate with rice, black beans and a side salad.