when a stick blender ain't a good idea. enchilada sauce strikes back!

so...a tip for those of you who think you can use a stick blender instead of a normal one all the time. yeah...just so you know, this doesn't always hold true, as i unpleasantly found out tonight.

i decided that the rest of our leftover chicken would make great enchiladas. this involved making the sauce from scratch. which, in and of itself, would have worked out just fine, had i just sucked it up and used the normal blender. but nooooo, i used the stick blender. because i love my stick blender. it blends things so well, so easily, with so little mess. what's not to love?!?!

*i'll* tell you what's not to love about it. when you need to blend a bunch of spicy peppers in hot broth. THAT'S when! listen, when i say it's a bad idea, i mean it's a baaaaaaad idea.

ok, here's what happened:

after the dried peppers had simmered for about 20 minutes, i put them into a pyrex quart measuring glass, added the cooking liquid, the onion, roasted pepper seeds, and garlic. turned on the previously unreservedly-loved stick blender, and proceeded to unleash unholy, sweet hell not only unto myself, but also unto about a 5 foot radius around it. (maybe even more than 5 ft. i'll have to get back to you on that.)

first, it started to splash. it was hot. it was RED. it got all over my shirt. (my poor shirt. i is so sorry...) then, it got into my EYE, and that's when things went from a slightly bad / stupid idea to a what-the-#$%&-were-you-thinking-are-you-a-complete-idiot-?!?!?! situation. my eye felt like...well it felt like it was on FIRE. i propped the stick blender as best as i could with it still in the measuring cup (yes, this is why things went majorly south), ran over to the sink, and started to rinse out my eye. (my poor eye. i is so sorry... get it..."i" is so sorry. hahaha. ok, forget it.) maybe about 10 seconds later, i heard a loud thud.

by then i had managed to wash my eye out enough to be able to look over to the source of the noise. the stick blender had FALLEN OVER out of the measuring glass on the counter and landed on the floor. and...well it looked like something had been murdered in our kitchen. which is what i felt like doing to the sauce when i saw what it had done. how dare it?! the sauce - i mentioned it was red, right? - had arc-ed onto the cabinets, the floor, the walls, the counter, the floorboards. it was EVERYWHERE. and it was RED. i mentioned it was red, right? no? well it was. it was red. very very red. with evil, spicy hot seeds. and it was EVERYWHERE.

i cleaned it up as best as i could, but dudes, my eye was killing me, so it *looked* to me like i did a good job. (well i found out it wasn't so good, but more on that in a second.) and then i went to take a much-needed shower, since i looked like sissy spacek at the end of prom. (ok, maybe i'm exaggerating. but only a little. 'cuz i wasn't wearing a prom dress. j/k)

a little while later, i emerged, only to be greeted by a completely incensed kevin (he had been in another room on a phone call while the whole thing went down). i don't remember *exactly* what he said over the course of the next half hour when 1) he realized the sheer magnitude of the mess; 2) as he (graciously) cleaned (kevin, i love youuuuuu); and 3) after he was done, but they were along the lines of: "what the fudge [not sure if he said fudge or the *other* f word] happened in here?"...."what do you mean you 'cleaned it up.' it's ALL OVER THE PLACE!"..."i've been on my HANDS AND KNEES cleaning up YOUR MESS!!!!"

jeez. didn't he realize that i had gotten some of that unholy fire in my eye? i was half blind! in pain! covered in sauce! i thought under the circumstances, i had done a great job cleaning up. guess not. *sigh*

anyhow, moral of the story is...the stick blender is a wonderful tool, but not always the right choice. ok, so i haven't been able to come up with a single other time to not use it, but a word to the wise: definitely do NOT use it on hot peppers in hot broth.

other than that, the enchiladas were great. the sauce could have used a little more salt, but i'll know that for next time. recipe is below. enjoy! and back awaaaay from that stick blender! ;)


Chicken Enchiladas with Red Sauce
Red chili sauce
3 oz dried New Mexican red chilies, stemmed, with seeds reserved
1 large onion, cut in half
3 large garlic cloves
6 cups water
1 cup chicken stock

Enchiladas
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
6 oz grated, extra-sharp Cheddar, coarsely grated
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (i personally hate cilantro, so i just leave it out. yuuu-uck.)
6 6- to 7-inch corn tortillas
Red chili sauce

Red chili sauce:
Dry roast garlic and then pepper seeds until fragrant (don't breathe in the fumes, otherwise you'll start behaving like a victim of whooping cough). Place chilies and onion in a medium saucepan with water and simmer for 20 minutes, or until peppers are tender.

Transfer into a standard blender the chilies, onion, garlic, and pepper seeds with the chicken stock and 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Puree until smooth. Force puree through a fine-mesh sieve, discard solids. Discard rest of cooking liquid from saucepan and place puree in it. Simmer on low (don't let it boil) for about 30 minutes. Add salt to taste. Sauce freezes well, but can be kept chilled in the fridge for about 2 weeks.

Enchiladas:
Preheat oven to 350 deg. Heat a skillet on high heat until hot. Cook tortillas, 1 at a time, a couple seconds a side, so they become soft. On one end of each tortilla, put about 1/4 cup chicken, 3 tbsp cheese, 2 tbsp onion, and 1 tsp cilantro. Roll up the tortillas and place them, seam side down in an 8" square baking dish. Pour about 1 1/2 cups of the chili sauce over the enchiladas, then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly. Sprinkle the enchiladas with the rest of the chopped cilantro and serve. Makes 2 servings.