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Everybody likes grilled cheese sandwiches, right? Quesadillas are the Mexican equivalent of our grilled cheese
sandwich. In fact, you can make a pretty tasty quesadilla from just onions, cheese, and a tortilla.
How to do it:
Ingredients are pretty much whatever you like to eat, plus a tortilla. Chop up all ingredients before hand, and
have them close at hand, 'cause when the skillet's ready to go, there's no time to play around. Warm up a large
skillet to medium heat. Cover the bottom in oil, not deep, just covered. Toss a tortilla in there. Cover 1/2 the
tortilla with the foods you have prepared and fold the other half of the tortilla over on top of that. Cook until
golden brown, flip over, and brown the other side as well. Toss them onto a plate warming in the oven until all
are ready.
Suggestions for filling:
I have used left over turkey, chicken, steak, bacon (all meats pre-cooked), always cheese* of some sort, cilantro
and onions, all chopped up coarse to fine, plus black beans or refried beans. I also splash a little Lizano salsa
on top of the mix before I flip the halves together. You can use all kinds of stuff, but for me, the key ingredients
are cheese, onions, cilantro, and salsa. In fact, those 4 things make a killer quesadilla by themselves. Other
possibilities are peppers, fish, spinach, shrimp, mushrooms, pork, guacamole, crab meat, corn, tomatoes, squash,
crawfish, and sweet potatoes.
*Cheese?!? This is the hardest thing for me to avoid with my low salt, low fat, low cholesterol diet. But how can
you make quesadillas w/o cheese? In light of this, I have nixed the refried beans :-( which I love but now avoid
like the plague.
When done, cut the quesadilla into quarters, and serve with a little sour cream, pico de gallo, a wedge of lime,
and more salsa on the side. If you haven't thrown beans into the quesadilla, black beans and rice are an excellent
complement.
Apple quesadillas:
Nothing simpler for a tasty dessert! Peel, core, and chop up several apples. I use a handy-dandy, mini, electric
food chopper because it seems to soften up the small apple chunks. After melting butter (or a low fat, low sodium
substitute) in your skillet, toss a tortilla in there, cover half of it with the chopped up apple pieces, sprinkle
with sugar and cinnamon, maybe throw in some chopped up pecans or black walnuts (or whatever sounds tasty), flip
the unfilled half over on top of the filling, and cook until golden brown. Be sure and mash it down with your spatula
a little bit too. Flip the whole thing over and brown the other side as well. !Muy deliciosa!
When serving quesadillas, you need a dish large enough to contain your condiments; pico de gallo, guacamole, etc.,
and still have enough room for side dishes, like rice and beans. Our kinda square dinner plates can hold enough
of all the above to sink a battleship!
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