posing in front of Versaille with the Daily Pilot

Today my mom and I took the RER C out to Versaille for a day of touring the opulent palace and gardens that go on forever–and we walked most of that forever! 

The last time I visited Versailles, which was in February (2004), I have to say, I was not that impressed. Thing is, big, fancy summer homes are not my thing–unless, I guess, I get to vacation in them…

This time, though, the fountains were on in the gardens and it was a pretty spectacular sight. I’m still not that into the inside of the palace, but my mom and I spent about three hours walking around the gardens, to the far corners, seeing Marie Antoinette’s area, which was actually quite beautiful. 

We did make sure to take our picture with the Daily Pilot (our local paper), in hopes that we might get it published, as they print photos of Daily Pilot readers from around the world. 

After a long day at Versaille we had our hearts set on a Mexican food place, La Perla, that I had seen recommended and that we had walked past a few days ago. Let’s just say, $50 later, it was the most expensive Mexican food we have ever had, and definitely not the best…

I know, I know, who goes for Mexican food in Paris anyway?! I guess I had gotten cocky after having great Mexican food at Miguel’s in  Chiang Mai  and at Boojum in Belfast.

The other night I bragged on facebook about my delicious homemade veggie enchilladas. Since I made them up, here’s my attempt at a recipe:

Erin’s Veggie Enchilladas

The impetus for this recipe was the desire to use up some things I had in the fridge, mainly:
left over homemade salsa
fresh (from Mexico) corn tortillas that, due to their lack of preservatives, don’t keep well
left over zucchini vegetable salad
a batch of homegrown green beans
Probably, if I were starting from scratch, I would use a different sauce than the pureed homemade salsa, but it actually worked out quite nice. So, here you go:

El Pato Sauce

Homemade Salsa:
3 medium tomatoes (fresh from the garden or vine-ripened is better than store-ripened)
1 bunch of cilantro
1 red onion
1 can (7.75oz) of El Pato Jalapeno Sauce or similar
1 16 oz can of tomato sauce (or simply more chopped tomatoes)

Chop tomatoes. Chop onion. Cut up cilantro. Mix it all together. Add El Pato sauce slowly, to taste. If you need to make it more mild, add tomato sauce. Salsa is better after it sits (refrigerated) for a bit.

Zucchini Corn Salad:
1 Zucchini, sliced in thin strips
1-2 cups corn (frozen is fine, fresh is fresher)
1 red pepper, chopped to desired size
handful of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
A few basil leaves
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Slice the zucchini, put it in a bowl with some sea salt, cover it with a moist paper towel, and let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two (or less, if you don’t have the time).  Take it out, rinse it, and dry it off.  Add chopped red pepper, defrosted corn, halved tomatoes and chopped basil. Add oil and vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

Finally, the enchilladas:
As I said, I had all the above already sitting in the fridge, which made this a quick and easy recipe.

Heat oven to about 350.

Puree salsa in a blender. It will still have texture, but be more soupy. Put it in a flat bowl. Heat frying pan. Put in corn tortillas. You can put them in oil to soften them, but I prefer to just sprinkle a bit of water on them, which softens. The point is that you want them to roll easily.

Once tortilla is warmed, take it out of pan, put it in pureed salsa mixture to coat both sides. Fill with zucchini salad mixture and roll, placing in a baking dish, seam side down. You might also want to put some grated cheese in with the veggies.

Repeat this for as many tortillas as you have. Ideally, they will fit snugly in your baking dish. Pour remaining salsa puree over the nestled tortillas. Cover with grated cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or long enough for cheese to melt.

Serve as is or topped with sour cream, cilantro, slided avocado and sliced tomato. Yum.