Gooey, delicious cheese enchiladas get topped with curtido from Fair Share Farm
By Cat Neville
I had the opportunity to do a shoot in El Salvador a few years ago and was introduced to pupusas, the country’s national dish. It’s a pocket of tender cornmeal stuffed with cheese and a host of other ingredients like beans and chicken … and they are traditionally served with curtido, a spiced cabbage relish.
Turns out, Fair Share Farm, one of the wonderful artisan makers on our Marketplace, makes its own version of the relish using produce grown right on the farm, so when they sent me some of their products to play around with, I was instantly drawn to the curtido. Cabbage, carrot and onion are fermented with garlic, sea salt and spices, making this relish a complex, crunchy, spicy addition to anything, but it’s particularly good alongside hot, gooey, cheesy dishes like these enchiladas.
Fair Share Farm operates a participatory CSA on its farm, which is located right outside of Kansas City, Missouri. (You can learn more about Tom Ruggieri and Rebecca Graff’s sustainable family farm in Nicole Newman’s in-depth Q&A here.) Much of the produce grown on the farm is fermented in an on-site kitchen — in addition to curtido, the pair make a spicy fermented hot sauce, which I incorporated into the enchiladas, garlic cucumber chunks, sauerkraut, kimchi and more.
Browse all of the farm’s healthy, crunchy ferments on their page in our Marketplace and be sure to pick up the Craft Ferment Bundle, which features both of the ferments I incorporate into my melty, delicious — and simple — enchiladas!
Bean and Cheese Enchiladas with Curtido
1 white onion, diced
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 can black beans, rinsed
2 cups + 1/2 cup shredded Chihuahua cheese, divided
2 Tbsp Fair Share Farm fermented hot sauce
8 to 10 corn tortillas
1 can enchilada sauce (red or green)
Fair Share Farm Curtido, to serve
| Preparation | Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat until just beginning to caramelize. Spoon cooked onion into a large bowl and stir in black beans, 2 cups shredded Chihuahua cheese and 2 tablespoons (or more or less depending on your taste). Mix to thoroughly combine and taste — adjust seasoning if desired.
Spread about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 9-by-12-inch casserole and spoon in a bit of the enchilada sauce. Fill corn tortillas with about 4 tabelspoons bean-and-cheese mixture, enough so it’s full, but not so much that you can’t roll the tortilla. Roll the tortilla around the filling, placing it seam-side down in the casserole dish. Repeat until the dish is full — the enchiladas should be packed in there pretty tightly so they cook evenly and retain their shape. Top with the rest of the enchilada sauce, spreading it to cover evenly, and then sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.
Cover casserole dish with foil and place in oven for about 20 minutes, then remove foil and allow to bake another 10 to 15 minutes, until bubbly and golden.
Serve enchiladas topped with a good amount of spicy, crunchy, funky fermented curtido from Fair Share Farms!
Note: If you wish, you can add diced peppers, chopped cilantro, shredded cooked chicken, diced tomato, or crumbled chorizo to the bean-and-cheese mix and you can also top the enchiladas with crema, cilantro, chopped tomatoes, minced onion … The simplicity of the bean-and-cheese combination allows the ferments to take center stage, but if you want to dress up your enchiladas, by all means, do!