Enchiladas Potosinas

Mixing the different flours

I went to the Relief Society activity tonight.  It was interesting because we learned to make enchiladas potosinas.  I was really confused when we first started making it because it involves making a dough.  I could not figure out how what we were making was an enchilada.  I had to ask the name of the dish a million times because I was so confused.  Finally I had to ask, is this like an empanada?  I was told yes, but it is called enchilada potosina.  Whew!  Sometimes learning new cultural things can be really confusing!
So this is how you make it.  I don't actually have the recipe, so I'm going based on memory.  Also, the measurements weren't really exact when we were making it, either.

Added chilies

Dough: pound of maseca (the corn flour used to make corn tortillas), about 2 cups of flour, salt, chilies (a puree made with chilies, garlic, and onion), and water.  The chilies are added to make the dough an orange color.  The water is added to make the dough into the proper dough texture which is soft so you can flatten it, but not sticky.
Once the dough is done, you roll out some small balls of dough.  Use a tortilla press to flatten them.  If you don't have a tortilla press, you can use a plate, I learned.  When you have small rounds of dough, you add the filling.  The filling we had was potatoes and chorizo (in this case a pork meat, though I was told they also have chorizo from turkey).  We didn't actually make the filling, so I'm not sure what else was in it.

Completed dough

Fold the dough over and pinch the sides.  Then fry.  Top with a salsa of your choice.  We had a green salsa.  Not sure what that was called.  It was pretty spicy!
Oh, at first I was just watching and taking pictures, but they told me I had to try it so I could remember how to do it.  So I was filling and folding the dough for quite a while.  It was fun though.
When it came time to eat, everyone was worried that it would be too hot for me.  The first one I ate was fine.  The second was probably too much.  My lips were burning after that one.  I don't remember my lips ever burning after eating spicy food before.  It was quite a sensation.  The women told me that I am Mexican because I ate the enchiladas potosinas with my hands.  What can I say, I adapt really well!

Pressing the dough with a plate

After learning how to make this new dish, we waited for a while in the church.  There was a missionary farewell tonight, so we had to wait for the Stake President to arrive.  Then we had a little meeting.  It was interesting because it was different than how it is done in the U.S.  The missionary is going to Puebla.  The Stake President spoke, then the Bishop, the mother of the missionary, and finally the missionary himself.  Then all the women/girls were invited to line up and give him one last hug (since Elders cannot hug women after they've been set apart).  Then he was set apart.  His flight is tomorrow morning and everyone is gathering to see him off.  I'm not going, though.
I probably shouldn't have stayed out so late, but I couldn't have left if I had wanted to.  The parking lot of the church is so small that everyone just piles in.  As it was I had to maneuver around a car that was parked right in front of me in the lot.
Oh, I guess they are going to be renovating the church building over the next 6 months or so.  Right now the church is split.  There are two halves to the building with an open courtyard like hall.  Apparently they are going to enclose that.  I'm actually a little sad about that because it made the building so unique for me.  Oh well.  In the long run, I'm sure it will be better.

Round piece of dough!

Fill and fold.  They used this towel to help fold
the dough over.  I'm not sure exactly why . . .

The filling

Frying the enchiladas

Finished!

The church

Full church building.  From this angle you can't tell the building
is split.

The split in the building, goes all the way back

Semi-full parking lot.  It filled up more completely later in the
evening.