Raul, pictured above with his outstanding enchiladas and below with fellow firefighters Alex Rodriguez and Ken Persinger, says he and the guys at Station 12 in El Paso have become close like family.
“Just getting off a 24-hour, 19-call shift. Tired, but the best job in the world!” says Raul Montoya, a firefighter and paramedic in El Paso, Texas. “I’m swinging out here in the North East at Station 12. We start at 11:45 a.m. and end at 11:45 a.m. the next day, running with three guys on the pumper, and two guys on the rescue. We eat together, sleep together and work together.”
The firefighters take turns in the kitchen, one person cooking lunch, dinner and breakfast. “I make soups, tacos, beans, red rice, and that’s just the Mexican food. It’s my grilling outside that’s off the chain!”
Raul’s fellow firefighters often make a special dinner request. “I can throw down some mean red cheese enchiladas. I make them with love.”
He makes a run to the market before his shift for all the enchilada ingredients. “I look for tomatillos with nice green husks and my favorite white melting cheese, Muenster. I buy a big block and grate it by hand.”
The recipe—corn tortillas dipped in a homemade sauce, cooked quickly in oil and filled with Muenster and onions—is his mom Lina’s. Thankfully, his five sisters were not the only ones to learn to fix them her special way. “My dad Frank is a big-time macho man,” Raul laughs. “One day my mom was fed up with all the macho stuff, and she taught her three sons to cook, clean and sew.”
Raul’s mom taught him her method using a special pan, which has a well in the middle for the hot oil for soft-frying the tortillas, surrounded by a flat surface to keep the enchiladas warm once they are filled and rolled. Raul improvises with the fire station’s kitchen equipment, loading up a big cookie sheet with the finished enchiladas to keep them warm. They are not baked—the heat of the tortillas fresh out of the oil is enough to melt the cheese.
“But I only use onions in half the enchiladas. We have some picky eaters! The firefighters walk by and pick up two or three enchiladas at a time. I make enough
Raul says being at the ready day and night to rescue people and blast fires means some creative juggling in the kitchen. “Two shifts ago I got a rescue call and left my steak right on my plate. If I get a call when I cook, I try to keep things warm or waiting,” says Raul. “But if I am not back and they’re starving, the guys will use the enchilada sauce, cheese and tortillas to make stacked enchiladas, instead of rolling them. That’s the lazy way!”
On Raul’s days off, he logs extra hours in the ER at an El Paso hospital and loves to relax at cookouts with his mom and dad and siblings. “They always ask me to grill,” he says. Click here to find the Montoya family’s favorite Grilled Chicken and Onions in our Penzeys Summer catalog…and scroll down to try Raul’s outstanding enchiladas and beans.
These family-recipe enchiladas are Raul’s most requested dish at the fire station, for dinner AND for breakfast.
Preheat oven to 375°. Peel the husks off the tomatillos, rinse them, and then halve them (or quarter if really large). Drizzle a large baking pan with the corn oil and place the tomatillos cut side down with the garlic and onions. Roast them “until they’re good and done,” as Raul says, which is about 30 minutes. While the tomatillos are cooking place the CHILI PEPPERS in a stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes until they’ve plumped up (they’ll never look like fresh peppers but they do absorb some liquid).
Drain the chili peppers. Once cool enough to handle, pull the peppers open and discard the stems and all the seeds you can. Mix the peppers with the roasted tomatillos, onion, garlic, MEXICAN OREGANO, BLACK PEPPER and any juice from the baking pan. If there is no liquid in the pan, add a bit of water as needed while pureeing in a blender until smooth. It will probably take three batches to blend everything. Pour some of the sauce into a wide, shallow bowl. Place another bowl with grated cheese next to the sauce bowl. As Raul says, “I make sure to keep both bowls (bowl of sauce, and bowl of cheese) next to each other to keep the mess in check.”
Heat a small amount of oil, about 1 TB., in a large skillet over medium heat. The tortilla is first bathed in the sauce, first dipped in the sauce, shaken off so it isn't dripping, and then goes straight to the pan with hot oil to let it soften a bit. Add more oil as necessary. Be careful, the hot oil can spatter if too much sauce hits it. Use a spatula to place the tortilla in the pan and to flip it. Tongs tend to rip the torilla. Flip the tortilla once (5 seconds per side) then remove from the pan, sprinkle with cheese and onion (if using), and roll. The trick is to wait long enough to roll the tortillas so that they aren’t burning hot, but soon enough that they are still easy to roll and will stay rolled. Keeping your fingers sauce-free while rolling the tortillas helps as well. Set each enchilada aside, seam side down on a tilted or angled pan to drain the grease, then with a spatula pick it up and put it on a large metal rimmed cookie sheet. Raul drizzles some more sauce on the finished enchiladas, and also sprinkles some cheese on top. These enchiladas are not baked. The heat from the tortillas fresh off the pan with oil melts the cheese.
***When the pan is full of enchiladas Raul places it in a low oven just to keep warm, if needed. He says most of his fellow firefighters line up and eat them as he’s cooking them, two or three at a time.
Prep. time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes for sauce, 10 minutes for tortillas
Serves: 6-8
Nutritional Information: Servings 8;
Serving Size 3 enchiladas (422g); Calories 690; Calories from fat 250; Total fat 28g; Cholesterol 55mg; Sodium 390mg; Carbohydrate 84g; Dietary Fiber 14g.
Want to eat like a firefighter? Whip up some of Raul's Beans!
Soak the beans in water overnight. Before cooking discard the bean and skin pieces that have floated to the top, rinse and place in a pot of fresh water. Cook
over medium heat for 2-3 hours until tender. While the beans are cooking, chop the bacon into 1-inch pieces and fry over medium heat with the chopped onion until mostly brown (not too crispy). Drain and place on paper toweling. When the beans are tender, but not mushy, drain and return to a clean pot with the bacon/onion mix, cut up hot dogs/wienies, tomato sauce/enchilada sauce, GARLIC, salt and PEPPER. From this point, on low they can cook all day. Raul says, "Sometimes I smash them in a paste for the morning to serve with Enchiladas Montadas."
Prep. time: 8 hours soaking
Cooking time: 3 hours
Serves: 16
Nutritional Information: Servings 16;
Serving Size 3/4 cup (180g); Calories 440; Calories from fat 190; Total fat 21g; Cholesterol 35mg; Sodium 1220mg; Carbohydrate 39g; Dietary Fiber 15g.
