Potato and Tortilla Casserole
Chilaquiles de PapaDonna Nordin, a dear friend and travel buddy, is executive chef and owner of Café Terra Cotta in Tucson and Scottsdale, Arizona. The menu features contemporary southwestern dishes and some innovative Mexican dishes, as well such as potato chilaquiles. At the restaurant, blue corn tortillas are used for this dish; but since they are pretty hard to come by, I use regular white corn tortillas.
Ingredients
Makes 6 to 8 servings
- 5 New Mexico or California dried red chiles
- 1½ teaspoons salt or to taste
- 4 medium potatoes about 1 pound, peeled and thinly sliced
- 12 corn tortillas each cut into 8 wedges
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles and put the chiles in a bowl.
- Pour boiling water over the chiles and let stand to soak 1 hour.
- Reserve 1 cup of the soaking liquid, and discard remaining liquid.
- Put the chiles in a blender with the cup of reserved liquid and ½ teaspoon of the salt.
- Blend until smooth.
- Press through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, pushing and scraping to extract the pulp.
- Discard the debris left in the strainer.
- (There will be about 1 cup purée.
- )
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Grease a 9- × 13-inch baking pan.
- Put the puréed chiles in a large bowl.
- Add all of the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
- Transfer the mixture to the baking pan and spread to even the top.
- Bake, uncovered, 45 to 50 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife.
- Cut into squares and serve.