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"Great kit makes cooking a pleasure."
quesadillas with guacamole
starterA quesadilla is basically a Mexican-style stuffed pancake, like a toasted sandwich, made with two tortillas sandwiched together with a cheese-based filling. They are warmed through and served with guacamole and sour cream. They are one of my favourite things to eat Jools and I tend to have them every Saturday because we love them!
To make the guacamole I use 2 or 3 ripe avocados, 2 or 3 ripe deseeded tomatoes and a couple of deseeded red chillies, and I throw all this into a food processor with a handful of peeled and chopped spring onions and a good handful of fresh coriander. Once this has been chopped up nice and fine, I add a couple more chopped tomatoes, a good pinch of salt and half of another avocado, chopped, to give it a nice chunky texture. Transfer everything into a bowl and season carefully with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice. If you decide to buy ready-made guacamole, which is a bit lazy but probably very realistic, you can put it into a bowl and chirp it up a bit with a squeeze of lemon juice, a little extra salt and a bit of chilli to give it a kick.
To fill the quesadillas you will need a couple of big handfuls of grated Cheddar and/or red Leicester cheese, some finely sliced spring onions, a couple of handfuls of chopped fresh coriander, and a red pepper and some red or green chillies all deseeded and finely chopped. Mix all this up in a bowl and then sprinkle half a handful between two layers of tortilla. You can make up 4, 10 or even 20 quesadillas and keep them in the fridge until you need them if you want.
Some people like to fry them in oil, but this makes them greasy and is not all that healthy. You can grill them, but I like to put them in a dry non-stick frying pan on a medium heat, so that after about a minute and a half on each side you are left with a really crispy outside and an oozy, stringy filling. Serve the quesadillas cut into quarters, with the guacamole, sour cream and a beer.
PS You can also posh them up a bit using grilled chicken or seafood, leftover pork, shellfish, or a selection of grilled vegetables.
from Jamie's Dinners
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Lightly wipe the inside of baking foil with oil and place first tortilla on it (corn ones are my favourite). Don't tear off the foil from the roll, just pull out more of the same piece as you assemble it. Add ingedients to taste as below. Gently press down 2nd tortilla on top. Grease next section of foil. Fold over and overlap a few inches. Then roll each corner of foil in until it hits tortilla. This keeps it nice and secure. Use big spatula to slap on the BBQ. Hot but not on a direct flame. Once insides are heated/melted and just slighty cooked, rip off the foil and quickly toast each side on hot part of BBQ to get them *just* black in places and definitely crispy all over. This makes them KILLER. Squidgy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Yummalicious. This is the point at which you learn that overfilling will cause leaks onto the coals. Any hint of sogginess as Jamie says is a no no. Cut with a pizza slicer and watch them FLY off the plate. Can adapt no problem for the grill.
Essential ingredients for me:
Spring onions, small rings.
Coriander, whole leaves I love so you get that coriander hit, no tough stalks in there though. Or shred them up a bit if you like. Save some to sprinkle on top to serve so it looks sexy. 50/50 medium cheddar (mature is too much) and mozarella, grated.
Dollop of tomato salsa that is a little bit runny. Spread it around. GOOD salsa in the jars is a great cheat here - especially the hot stuff - no need to chop chillis separately then. AND avoids painful privates/eyes later after a few beers when you forget you chopped them...anyway back to the recipe.
Squeeze lime juice over to taste. Really makes a fresh zing taste come through.
Mushroom sliced thin. Not too much.
OPTIONALS:
Prawns. Don't need expensive big ones. Cheap tiddlers are great here.
Or shredded chicken.
Peppers chopped small.
Ready made guacamole as an emergency dip.
or whatever you have leftover in the fridge. Be inventive. Maybe not strawberry jam or marmite.
Wedges of lime to serve look yum. Means everyone is prepared for the inevitable tequila shots too.
JAMIE - try this variation and tell me it's not good!
ENJOY.
Normally flour tortillas are used for quesadillas. I just use store bought tortillas, I donīt find time to make them myselft (but will be buying a tortilla press next time we go to visit la familia!)
I just heat the tortilla in a pan, add cheese (and beans/chicken/ham/mushrooms/whatever I fancy) and fold the tortilla over. When you have one tortilla on top of the other itīs called a "gringa". Cook on medium heat and turn over once. When the cheese has melted I open the tortilla and pour some salsa over the melted cheese (In Mexico you may add finely chopped onion and coriander as well)
I find that making your own is the best way, I love making Nachos and it doesn't taste the same if you buy them in the shop.
It's not that bad making them yourself, and in the end it was worth it.
My teenage daughter also like this and we all know how hard it is to please teens.
trust me ...
Having lived in California for over 16 years you learn from the neighbors all sorts of ways to make guacamole.
Markus
That recipe must be wondeful. I can't find sour cream in the stores, is there a way I can make it, say with yoghurt and lemon juice? I tried once but it was very runny. Thanks!