Warm up with Aaron Sanchez’s winter enchiladas

Video: Spice up your holiday spread

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   >>> back to basics, we're making winter enchiladas, and we're making two mexican dishes that will be a real hit at your holiday party. nice to see you, good morning. how are you?

   >> i'm doing great.

   >> you're busy, you've got the restaurant, you got chops on the food network . how do you find time for everything?

   >> it's all about balance. but the one thing that makes me happy is cooking. the winter time is something i get really excited about and enchiladas are something i cook all the time.

   >> winter enchiladas, why is that different than one you would cook any other time of the year?

   >> this time we're mixing it up with butter nut squash and here on the pan, a little bit of a butter and a little bit of flower.

   >> talk to me about the spices you like.

   >> this is like the winter and fall spices, which i think are great. we have brown sugar , onion powder, a little bit of clove as well. and all of these go right in here and what we have to do is blossom these out. i know you like to mess around in the kitchen a little bit.

   >> just a little bit.

   >> and the idea here is to just sort of let the spices come out. we're going to add a little bit of beef broth . and the last thing is, you're going to switch over to the creme de mexicana.

   >> what is creme of mexicana?

   >> it's a conndiment that doesn't have the -- it's a traditional mexican sauce, that can be made either with beef or pork, heavily seasoned and this is not in a casing so it's loose and we're cooking it down rendering some of that --

   >> you've got some butter nut squash that's cooked.

   >> i just kind of pureed it and mashed it up. i'm adding that to this mixture of the butter in the squash. you want an even ratio of the butter not squash and the chirios. and we're going to make some enchiladas which is real simple . these are corn ftortillas and you take a little bit of this mixture and then you start folding in some of the filling, the chiriso --

   >> what's that on the bottom of the dish.

   >> that's the sauce. i'm going to roll one more out and then i want you to top it with cheese.

   >> what kind of cheese is this?

   >> you have to get away from the processed cheeses, look for whole and real. try to go to your supermarket and ask for this. get away from the preground cheeses. once this goes into the oven --

   >> it's going to go for how long?

   >> it's going to go for about five minutes until it melts.

   >> you can make this ahead of time and actually heat these for a party.

   >> these are all about the party things that are easily accessible. over here we have a queso. you can either serve it with tortillas. and we're using good cheese, it's all about that pull away chewiness, goodness. this is a great holiday dish as well. try to use the authentic flavors. use the good stuff, that's what it's all about.

   >> good luck with the show, good luck with the restaurant. happy holidays to you.

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