Why the green Mexican enchiladas are call Swiss enchiladas?

We are about to celebrate the Mexican Independence day! 

And I am happy to share a little bit of history behind one of my favorite Mexican recipes, The famous SWISS ENCHILADAS, AKA as green chicken enchiladas!

... I hope you enjoy this Historical post and HAPPY MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

I remember back in the day, when I asked my mom, what is for dinner today?? And she replied: "Enchiladas Suizas" 
(Swiss Enchiladas) and instantly I was sent to Switzerland in my imaginary 
plane, and skip in the Alpes as Heidi...and all of a sudden I came back from my trip...and asked: "Why they call them enchiladas Suizas, mom?"  and she replied there is a story behind, but mostly is because they look like the Snowy Swiss Alpes, green and white.


And she told me the story...In middle of the XIX century in the castle of  the Emperor Don Maximiliano de Hasburgo in Mexico City, they used to cooked only European recipes for him and his family and the cooks have to adapt the ingredients that the recipes were calling to the ingredients they could find in the Mexican Mercados, so this way many delicious recipes were created.  When the Emperio fall down , the  principal cook, pick up all the recipes and runway to his hometown in the North  and stay there for a while, but  when the Revolution hit the North part of Mexico, he had to go back to Mexico City, and started a restaurant using a lot of Maximiliano's European recipes with a Mexican flair.  The wife of the cook used to name all the dishes and when she made this delicious recipe, she name it " Enchiladas Suizas".  Because it remind her of the Swiss Alpes!!

This dish become a signature dish in their first restaurant "Cafe Imperio" located in the most "avant garde"zone of that era in Mexico City, and like everything had to be "chic" the name "Enchiladas Suizas" was  very appropriate.

That restaurant closed, but the costumers from Cafe Imperio started asking for that dish in their favorite new cafe, "The Jockey Club" , that later on became the famous Mexican restaurant, Sanborn's de los Azulejos, that still serve this delicious chic Mexican  recipe.

Here is my mom's recipe, I hope you like it!!






PRINT RECIPE HERE


INGREDIENTS 

* 25 Corn tortillas

* 10 Tomatillos (peeled and washed) 

* 2 serrano peppers ( or 1 or 3 depending how hot you like them) 

* Small cilantro bunch (washed) 

* Shredded chicken breast

* 4 Tbs of sour cream

* Shredded mozzarella cheese

* 1 garlic

* Oil

* Salt and pepper

PROCEDURE

Preheat oven at 350ºF

1.-  Cook the tomatillos and the serrano peppers with 2 cups of water until they are soft. 

2.-  Blend the tomatillos, peppers, cilantro, garlic, salt,and pepper with the water where you cooked the tomatillos until smooth and combine. 

3.-  Over medium heat, pour the salsa in a deep pot, bring it to a boil, tempere the sour cream in a little bit of salsa, and add it to the salsa, and mix for a little bit and turn off the heat. 

4.-  Warm up your tortillas in the microwave for 2 minutes. 

5.-  Heat some oil in a pan, I like to pass the tortillas one by one in the oil, flipping it from side to side for 30 seconds. Put the tortillas on paper towels to take the excess oil. 

6.- Pass the tortillas in the salsa and put some chicken in the middle and roll them, and arrange them in an oven safe dish.  Repeat the same with the other tortillas.  Pour all the remaining salsa over the enchiladas and top it with the cheese. 

Gratin for 10 -15 minutes

ENJOY!!!