Quesadillas and Feeding Hungry Kids

This is a quick snack to make when kids are home from school- hungry and cranky. It is easy enough to make and has very kid friendly ingredients like cheese. I used home made corn and flour tortillas, recipe for which is also given below.

Before I start with the recipe, let me apologise for the picture accompanying this post. It is sad to say the least and does not do justice to quesadillas. But like I always say for all my uninspiring pictures... don't judge a book by its cover. This tastes GOOD!!! And is wholesome and filling...

The best part of this recipe is also that you have a free rein on what you want to use as the filling.The only constant is Cheese. Most things go well as a filling - onions, olives, capsicums, cooked chicken, spinach, refried beans, mushrooms... the list goes on.

Now for the recipe

Ingredients:

For the torillas:

2/3 cups Maize flour (not cornflour)

1/3 cup All Purpose Flour

Salt to taste

For the filling:

1 cup Cheese

your choice of fillings ( sliced onions, chopped olives, sliced mushrooms, refried beans, spinach, sliced capsicum etc etc)

Method:

For the Tortillas:

Make a stiff dough using a little water a teaspoon at a time.

Roll out into tortilla (like a chapati) Watch this for instructions on how to roll out a tortilla.

Cook for a few minutes on a flat griddle till brown spots appear.

For the quesadillas:

Place the tortilla flat.

On one half put a couple of tablespoons of cheese.

Over that out the filling of your choice.

Fold over into a semi circle.

Place on the griddle again and cook both sides till cheese melts a little bit.

Cut into pieces and serve hot along with some salsa and guacamole.

ENJOY!!!!!!

Enchiladas

This is another thing we learnt at the Mexican cooking class mentioned here. It was delicious, perfect tasting and definitely a keeper. The kids loved it, we loved, friends who ate it loved it... you get the message...

Enchiladas are corn/flour tortillas with a filling and a spicy sauce poured on top. Now when it is said so generally, you can imagine the variety that can come up in terms of fillings. It can be meat, vegetarian, beans, cheese, vegetables etc etc either individually or in combinations....

Simple to make it calls for easy ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

20 grams Butter

1 small Onion diced

2 cloves Garlic chopped

1 cup cooked Spinach ( squeezed)

100 grams Ricotta Cheese or Paneer

50 grams Cheddar Cheese

4 Corn Tortillas (recipe below)

For the Enchilada sauce:

1 teaspoon Oil

2 tablespoons Onions finely diced

1 tablespoon finely chopped Garlic

1 teaspoon Red Chilli paste

150 grams Blanched tomato puree

How to make the red chilli paste:

Soak about 5 fresh or dry red chillies (minus the stem) in 2 tablespoons of vinegar for 24 hours and grind to a paste.

How to make the corn tortillas:

1 cup Cornmeal flour

2 cups all purpose Flour

Salt to taste

Mix the two flours and salt well. Add in water a little at a time till a stiff dough forms. Roll out like chapatis and cook for a minute on each side on a hot griddle.

METHOD:

For the sauce:

Heat the oil.

Saute onion and garlic for a few minutes

Add the chilli paste and mix for a minute. Add a few tablespoons of water every now and then to avoid it getting dry.

Add salt to taste.

Now add the tomato puree and cook for 5 more minutes

For the enchiladas:

Melt butter in the saucepan.

Add onion and garlic and cook till translucent.

Stir in spinach and cook for a couple of minutes longer

Take off the heat and add in the ricotta cheese or paneer.

Assembly:

Heat the corn tortilla for a few seconds on the pan. This makes it pliable.

Place about 3 tablepoons of spinach filling on each tortilla.

Roll up and place seam side down in a baking dish.

Pour enchilada sauce over and sprinkle with cheddar cheese.

Bake/ grill till cheese is all melty.

Chilli Rellenos and A Cooking Class

Eating food from different cultures is now so common all over the world. It is so easy nowadays to procure ingredients to cook anything. Just check out the shelves of any grocery store in the larger cities.

They say that the Indian palate is so used to its own tastes that it is very hard to introduce new tastes. That I am not so sure is true. You find people trying out all types of food. But the thing is that it is always comforting to eat that which is already familiar to the palate.

Though from two ends of the world, isn't it strange to see the striking resemblance between the two cuisines in both the ingredients used and the methods of cooking. I guess the main reason Mexican food has an edge over the other cuisines of the world (in India) is because it is close in taste to Indian food. The use of tomatoes, kidney beans (rajma), onions, chilli, cumin, coriander (cilantro)... they are all the common factors in both cuisines. The tortiallas are very similar to our chapatis.. I think the only difference is in the use of cheese in Mexican food.

Mexican is one of my favorite cuisines and I can eat Mexican for all meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner and all other meals in between. Though I was almost 22 years old before I tasted Mexican food for the very first time, I took to it like a duck to water. Delicious is the only word that comes to mind.

Very recently, I went for a cooking class on Mexican food. It was quite a nice experience.. They taught us a few things which I came home and promptly replicated. Turned out well.

One of my all time favorites is the Chilli Rellano. Sounds foreign? Well it is simply our yummy Mirchi bajji with a different stuffing..

Ingredients:

6 Long chillis ( Bajji Mirchi)

100 grams cottage cheese

100 grams cooking cheese (or cheddar)

1/2 teaspoon Oregano

salt and pepper to taste.

100 grams toasted Bread crumbs

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Oil to deep fry

Method:

Make a slit along the length of the chilli

Take out the seeds and the long white string inside.

Make a mixture of the stuffing.

Stuff the green chilli with the cottage cheese mixture.

Heat oil to a medium ( not smoking).

Make a paste with the flour and a little water. Put the bread crumbs on another flat plate.

Dip the stuffed chillis into the flour paste and then into the bread crumbs.

Deep fry till golden brown.

Serve hot with salsa and sour cream.

ENJOY!!!!!