Easy Cheese-y

Would you believe I’ve never had a quesadilla until recently? I’m not really sure why; and to think that I’m such a lover of cheese. (I used to snack on cheese sticks or wedges when I was younger.) Quesadillas (from queso, the Spanish word for cheese) are a kind of Mexican street food that was reinterpreted and popularized in Mexican restaurants in the US.

Pinoys seem to enjoy Mexican food as well, or at least the American-style interpretations of it—from restaurants like Tia Maria, to Mexicali, to Otra Cosa, Miggy’s, Tacomio and, yes, even that uber commercialized fast food joint Taco Bell, among others.

I think I’ve tried most of the more popular food offerings of these places—tacos, of course, as well as burritos, tostadas, flautas, fajitas. But I can’t seem to recall why I never paid attention to the quesadillas.

A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly had the urge to cook something Mexican and, for some reason, quesadillas came to mind. Seemed easy enough. According to several sources, the type of quesadilla I made is known as sincronizada, a quesadilla made with a flour tortilla and filled with two ingredients. It wasn’t bad. Not bad at all, especially with the salsa fresca I also made.

Of course, this was definitely not exactly like the authentic Mexican quesadilla because I didn’t use Mexican cheese (a kind of string cheese from Oaxaca), nor did I use corn tortillas which, from what I’ve read, is the type of tortilla that is more commonly used for this. But I hope what I made comes close to the real thing.

Quesadillas

large flour tortillas
grated sharp cheese (Monterey Jack, pepper Jack, cheddar)
sliced or crumbled chorizo, cooked
sliced mushroom
olive oil

1) Heat a griddle or non stick pan. Drizzle with olive oil.
2) Place one tortilla on the griddle and warm it. Turn it over.
3) Spread grated cheese on half the tortilla. (You can fill it with cheese only or add the chorizo and/or mushrooms for variety.)
4) Flip the empty half over to cover the filling. Cook until the underside is slightly crispy. Then turn it over to cook the other side.
5) Repeat with other tortillas. Serve with salsa fresca.


Salsa Fresca

2 large ripe tomatoes
2 small green bell peppers
½ medium onion
juice of one lime
cilantro, chopped
salt
pepper

1) Cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds. Chop the tomatoes, small dice.
2) Remove the seeds from the bell pepper and chop into small dice as well.
3) Chop onion into small dice.
4) Combine all three with lime juice and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.