Half Moon Enchiladas

I wanted to do something with black beans, but not the usual burritos. So I came up with what Miriam aptly named Half Moon Enchiladas.

I started with sautéing a whole red onion sliced. Softened, then caramelized a little on low heat. Added four cloves garlic, minced and a whole jalapeño pepper without seeds or veins, minced.

Added two 15 oz. cans organic black beans, rinsed, and about two tablespoons cumin. Heated on high for maybe two or three minutes, then added about two cups diced organic tomatoes from a can. Heated through, added salt and pepper, then reduced to simmer for probably fifteen minutes. Chopped up a bunch of cilantro and added half to the sauce at the end. Adjusted salt and pepper.

Meanwhile turned the oven to 300 and put in three 10 in. flour tortillas. I grated leftover cheese, using up about 1/4 c. of a smoked cheese and ¼ c. of a sheep’s milk cheese. Also took out leftover cream cheese. Found a jar of prepared mild salsa in the fridge.

When the tortillas were warm but not stiff (maybe three minutes), I took them out. In a lasagna pan, I put one and folded in down the middle. Spooned three heaping cooking spoons of the bean mix in the middle, then folded in half. On top, I spooned about 1/4 c. of the prepared salsa, then layered on a third of the cheese and then topped with 4 pats of cream cheese—maybe a 1/4 in. think and a half inch square. Repeated this for a total of three tortillas.

Put in the over at 300 for about 8 minutes, then turned on the broiler and put in there for 2 min. Too long actually. 1.5 min. would have been better, but the cream cheese did brown nicely on top and the tortillas were crunchy on the edges. Removed and garnished with a dollop of sour cream and cilantro.

Served one each and a bowl of deliciously sweet (local) snap peas.