Quesadillas

I took some time off from the cookbook (the quesadillas in there call for corn tortillas...and I'm not yet ready to subject myself to that again), and with the leftovers we had in the refrigerator, I made some quesadillas for myself and for my daughter. Kendra was out for the night, and when she got home she was starving so I made her one too. They were big on flavor and texture, my most successful quesadillas to date. Recipe follows:

Quesadilla #1:

Mexican rice (Goya brand)
shredded cheese (same mix of cheddar, quesadilla, asadero, and Monterey Jack)
pinch coarse kosher salt
1 flour tortilla

Quesadilla #2:

shredded chicken mixed with some of the enchilada sauce
shredded cheese
pinch coarse kosher salt
1 flour tortilla

My way: In a large skillet, I melted about 1 T. butter over medium heat. When the butter began to sizzle a bit, I added one small flour tortilla. I was using all the leftovers, and we had an abundance of flour tortillas in the fridge. If using a small tortilla these quesadillas are taco sized. Use a large flour tortilla to get that typical quesadilla size. The tortilla sizzled slightly in the butter, perfect! Don't let the pan get too hot, but make sure it's hot enough so the butter cooks the tortilla and doesn't just seep into it. Note: I was able to make about 3 small quesadillas using the 1T. butter.

While the tortilla sizzles, add your fillings down the middle, slightly towards one side. Fold one side over, and press it down with a spatula. When one side is nice and golden brown and crispy (about 3-5 minutes) flip it and crisp the other side (about 3-5 more minutes). Add the pinch of salt to the top side and move to some paper towels to soak up a bit of the butter. Let cool a bit, and serve with a dollop of sour cream and some salsa.

Experiment with fillings, these are easy and my daughter loved them. Fun to make, fun to eat. The contrasting textures of the crispy tortilla and the melted cheese are heavenly.

Edit: Quesadilla #3

roasted yellow pepper
fresh chorizo, removed from casing and cooked in skillet
shredded pepper Jack or any other cheese you like
adobo
1 tortilla

I tried this today, again with leftover stuff in the fridge...and it was a really nice mix of sweet, savory, and spicy. Cut a yellow pepper into quarters and lay skin-side down in a dry skillet on medium or med-high heat. When the skin begins to blacken, smash the pepper down with a spatula long enough to get the majority of the skin blackened. Flip it over to slightly roast the fleshy side. Remove from the pan.

Prepare the quesadilla as above, with the cooked chorizo, roasted pepper, and cheese, this time adding some adobo (the sauce from canned chipotle chiles). Finish with a wedge of lime and some cream. (Flavor 5/5, Heat level 3/5 depending on how much adobo you add and whether you use Jack or Pepper Jack)

Here's a picture of the mini quesadilla, snapped with my iPhone:

Recipe #2: Creamy Enchiladas with Chicken and Green Chile

I went into this recipe with very high hopes. Enchiladas are my dish of choice at just about any Mexican restaurant. Delicious meat or cheese wrapped up in a fresh corn tortilla, baked in that wonderful sauce with more melted cheese on top...paired with some good rice and beans, it is far and away my favorite.

Let's just say I didn't achieve the level of happiness while eating my own as I typically do while eating them at a restaurant. But hey, it's my first try, and they certainly weren't bad.

The book says you can make the sauce in advance, so this was what I decided to tackle first.

First step...roast the chile. This is done in a dry skillet over medium heat. Kendra bought a really big jalapeno, so where this step normally takes about 5 minutes to blacken most of the skin...this step took about 15. The best part about this step, the chile did a little dance in the pan. Try it, it's entertaining.

EDIT: I roast just about everything under the broiler now. The chiles roast more evenly and it seems to take less time.

Next step, once softened and blackened in spots, add the roasted chile to two 28 oz cans of whole, peeled (and drained) tomatoes in a blender, and puree until smooth. I also added one clove of garlic here even though the recipe didn't call for it. Also, despite adding the entire jalapeno (yet only half the seeds), the sauce was not spicy at all.

Once smooth, the tomato and chile puree was added to some onions, which were sauteing in a deep pot, and cooked at a strong simmer/boil on medium-high for about 15 minutes. Chicken stock was added at this point and the sauce cooked for another 15 minutes, removed from heat, and finished with a touch of heavy cream.

One hurdle cleared...so many left to go.

At this point Kendra left the house for a bit. I was left alone with Siena, who is just shy of 8 months old and my two older kids, Madison and Jack, who were playing MarioKart in the other room, and my unfinished enchiladas. The big kids were occupied, but Siena was angry. She has a habit of yelling at us when she's the slightest big ignored, and yell she did. What she should have done was laugh at my feeble attempt at making some corn tortillas...which leads us to the next step...

Corn tortillas. Three ingredients: masa harina, hot water, salt. I wish I had been able to see myself try this from a different perspective because it really was comical. I got the dough to a consistent I thought was right. I put the pieces of plastic on the tortilla press's plates so the dough wouldn't stick. I pressed a small ball of the dough. The first one looked pathetic, like the little corn tortilla all the other ones pick on. It was about 3 inches in diameter, and just a sad looking thing. But I cooked it as specified, on the ungreased griddle for about 1 minute per side. I figured since this one was so pathetic looking that I would eat it to see how it tasted. Actually the taste was not too bad, but the tortilla was too thick. FAIL. So for the next one I combined two of my dough balls, pressed the combined dough ball out...this time to about 6 inches in diameter. A few words of advice: make sure the dough doesn't touch the tortilla press plates AT ALL. This one was torn to shreds when I opened up the press because a small area was in contact with the press's upper plate. FAIL. Let's try again...maybe the dough was too dry? I again combined two small dough balls into a bigger one, this time added a few drops of water to it while i worked it a bit. This time I successfully pressed it to about 6 inches and was able to remove it from the tortilla press. I baked it on the griddle and again tasted it. Too thick and not cooked enough. FAIL. So in about 30 minutes, I have created zero usable tortillas. Kendra is due home soon, and I have no tortillas with which to make enchiladas. Even if the consistency had been right, the tortillas would have created what could have been called enchiladitas, because they would have been so tiny. I got in touch with Kendra and told her to pick up some tortillas at the store. Unfortunately they didn't have corn, so we used flour. Bummer. But at least we'd have something that resembled enchiladas for dinner.

Now it's 8PM, the kids are still playing MarioKart, and I haven't even cooked the chicken. In my haste, I prepared the chicken for the enchiladas in the microwave. I know, this sounds awful, but it works, especially if you plan to shred the chicken. I didn't have time to poach it, so in a pinch, i poked some holes in the chicken so it didn't explode, and microwaved the three breasts on high for about 7 minutes. If covered with plastic wrap, the chicken comes out surprisingly juicy and shreds easily with two forks. Hey, RB pushes non-pretentious cooking. Chicken in the microwave is as non-pretentious as it gets.

I coated a 13x9 with some of the enchilada sauce, added a bit more sauce to the chicken and rolled that up in the store-bought flour tortillas (wincing all the time because I was looking forward to the flavor of corn tortillas), placed them in the 13x9, covered with the remaining sauce and some cheese, and baked in a 350 oven for about 15 minutes.

RESULT: Essentially what we had for dinner were giant shredded chicken burritos topped with enchilada sauce and cheese. Tasty, but certainly not what I had bargained for. Oh well, there's always next time. On the side we had Goya brand Mexican rice (awesome) and some Old El Paso brand refried beans. We had enough to feed 10 people. Good to know for next time.

Although it took quite a bit of preparation, this was an easy dish minus the corn tortillas, which are going to take some practice. And paired with the rice and beans, a hearty meal indeed. This is one that the whole family can help prepare, and actually probably should. Working alone and being bossed around by my 8 month old, I was a bit overwhelmed.

I will try these again once I have a better grasp on how to make corn tortillas...ones that are big enough to be enchiladas, but not so big as what we had.

Ratings (as prepared by me, the greenhorn):

Flavor: 4/5 (Kendra: 5/5)

The enchilada sauce is very flavorful. I got a slight tang to mine, which I didn't really like. Not sure where that came from, maybe the acidity of the tomatoes?

Heat: 0/5 (Kendra: 0/5)

The lone roasted jalapeno chile we used only added a nice flavor. There was not even a hint of heat to the finished dish.

Difficulty: 4/5

If not for the corn tortillas, this would have been a 2/5. With some practice, hopefully some day I'll have some real enchiladas.

Kid Friendliness: Unsure, but probably 4/5

There's nothing scary for kids here. Keep the ingredients simple and they should be able to enjoy these enchiladas.

Recipe #1: Queso Fundido

Queso fundido...translation...melted cheese. How hard could this be? A lot harder than it sounds, that's for sure.

The recipe in Mexico: One Plate at a Time called for full-flavored mushrooms, red onions, chipotle chiles en adobo, and a good mexican melting cheese like asadero or Chihuahua. My modifications: baby bellas, yellow onions, and a packaged blend of cheeses including Monterey Jack, asadero, and quesadilla.

It's true that it's not very difficult to melt some cheese. Some cheese and some heat are all that are necessary. However, to get the cheese to the desired consistency and flavor...that was the challenge here.

It's a pretty simple recipe, cook the onions, mushrooms, and chiles in stages in a skillet, then place in a casserole dish (covered) to keep warm while heating tortillas in the oven. Then when the tortillas are just about ready, the cheese is added to the casserole and baked until the cheese is just melted. If you leave it in the oven for too long the cheese will become oily and stringy.

RESULT: The dish was pretty tasty, but the overall enjoyment of the queso fundido tacos would have been heightened had the mushrooms been finely chopped instead of thickly sliced. Additionally, I was lazy and used store-bought flour tortillas instead of handmade corn tortillas (since I haven't yet tried my hand at corn tortillas, I didn't want to subject my wife to potential failures on multiple platforms). I will definitely try this recipe again with some more modifications.

It's an easy dish to make in a pinch and very versatile with what ingredients can be added. When I make it again I'll serve it with some fresh guacamole or salsa to cool the hot, melted cheese a bit just before biting into the taco.

In terms of spiciness, I used three of the canned chiles and not much of the adobo sauce and my wife Kendra still thought it was way too spicy. Next time I will definitely use less chiles so as to not smoke her out.

Ratings (As prepared by me. I'm sure RB would get a 5 for flavor!):

Flavor: 3/5 (Kendra: 3/5)

There are not many things better, in my opinion, than melted cheese paired with warm tortillas. Some better technique, a different blend of cheeses, better overall texture of all combined ingredients, freshly made tortillas (flour or corn), and maybe some condiments (guacamole/salsa) will boost the flavor and enjoyment factor next time.

Heat: 2/5 (Kendra: 10/5)

Sorry dear, but your taste buds are pansies.

Difficulty: 1/5

It won't be getting any easier than this.

Miles needed to run to work off this meal: 10

In all seriousness, this dish is meant to be shared by many. Like anything else, moderation is key here. I limited myself to two tacos, a nice salad would be a good addition, as recommended by RB.

Kid Friendliness: 5/5

Reduce the spiciness and minimize the complexities, and the kids will have fun preparing their own tacos full of oozy, delicious cheese.

Life Changing Experiences

Obviously it would not compare to meeting my wife in 1999 or the births of my three children, but in terms of food, trying pork carnitas for the first time was truly a life changing experience.

It was a warm July evening in New York. My wife and I were at her annual family reunion. There is always great food at these reunions, but when her uncle, who is a chef, brought out the pork carnitas tacos with a tangy cilantro salsa...well, it was love at first bite.

Since then, I have made...or have tried to make...carnitas to equal the flavor I tasted that day. While I haven't quite succeeded in equaling the chef's creation, my carnitas have been darn tasty. Encouraging. Having inspired a coworker to make carnitas, her's were just as good as mine and possibly even better. More encouraging.

Perhaps just as important an experience as tasting pork carnitas for the first time was watching Rick Bayless work his magic on Top Chef Masters. Rick is extremely charismatic and his show, Mexico: One Plate at a Time, is captivating. The cookbook, which shares the same title as the show, doesn't just provide recipes but also insight into the culture behind the delicious food. I can't wait to get to one of his restaurants to experience the food he has spent so many years studying. But for now, I have his cookbook, and I am ready to dive in head first.

Since the Julie & Julia Project, I'm sure there have been many copycat blogs. My blog will be similar in scope, albeit lacking the intensity of completing 500+ complex French recipes in 365 days. But I will try (emphasis on the word TRY) to complete all the recipes in this cookbook. It might not be within the next year, I might even skip a few weeks here and there, and occassionally I might even throw in a recipe of my own, but eventually I'll TRY to get to all of them. I'll stick with the basics at first, and as I progress...IF I progress...I'll try to tackle some of the more complex recipes.

I hope at some point at least a few people will read and follow this blog. But if that doesn't happen, it's ok, this is just an outlet for me and a way to track my progress, successes, and failures. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

-Dan