You can make these with flatbread, naan, roti, traditional flour tortillas or any of the new “wraps.” Some of the latter come in various flavors and low carb versions as well as whole grain. I would not recommend injera unless you make it special, because in the usual form it is too soft and floppy.
Once you have selected the base for your quesadilla, obtain some Irish cheese and grate it. Irish are the indigenous people of the British Isles, so using Irish cheese in your quesadilla is a nice way to salute Europe and show solidarity.
Cut up an onion (Sufi chop) and a sweet bell chile in any color. Put a pan on the fire, add a bit of olive oil, when it is hot, add your chopped vegetables and let them cook but not all the way. Take some out and spread them onto your tortillas or whatever you are using, add your grated Irish cheese, fold over, wrap in alumininum foil and put inside the heated oven section of your fire source.
Now make maque choux: That is essentially what those bags of “Authentic Mexican” vegetable medleys of corn, black beans, sweet chiles, etc. are. This is a traditional Native American dish that is very easy to make. Just dump some in the pan with what is left of your onions etc, and add a bit of African cayenne, chopped habaneros, jalapenos, all or none, depending on how much flavor you wish your maque choux to have. Add a bit of garlic, some cumin seeds and a tiny whisper of cinnamon. Let it all cook for a while as the quesadillas bake.
Some like them to be soft, some like the bread a bit crispy, so take them out sooner for soft, as soon as cheese is melted, Put your maque choux on top, and dribble salsa around them.
If you want a very pretty look, alternate drops of red and green salsas to celebrate Mexico.
You can also top the maque choux with chopped tomatoes if you have good ones.
This is a good way to get in a serving of vegetables, and depending on your bread substance, a minimum of evil white carbs.
Serve with little bowls of chopped pungent chiles, chunks of avocado, chopped cilantro so diners can customize their quesadillas.
4 Comments
Do you have any photographs of this? It really sounds great and I’d love to see it. And eat it too.
I’m sorry, I don’t have any photos of it, and if you make it neither will you. It disappears rapidly.
One thing I forgot to mention. I was guilty of cheese stereotyping and thought it would be more like British Isle cheeses: Cheddar, Cheshire, etc. But The Irish cheese I got surprised me! The flavor was more like a milder flavored SWiss cheese!
I have never had quesadillas with Swiss Cheese, or even Mexican cheese, which I do not like. I have a very strong bias that with the exception of South Asian paneer, cheese, like wine, comes from Europe.
I would encourage others to be more open minded, however. Try cheese from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador. But beware of one called “anejo.” It is the Meso-American equivalent of the German limburger, in smell if not taste, so unless what you seek is a cheese of very marked and remarkable stinkiness, anejo is not for you.
Another diet friendly feature of this quesadilla is that it is baked and not fried, so there is no oil involved on the quesadilla itself. And the vegetables can be cooked using a very tiny amount of olive oil, even a spray, though I don’t know how good a quality of olive oil is in a spray, I have another bias there.
If they begin to stick, you can add a tiny bit of water instead of more oil, what I did was while chopping my tomato, which was very juicy, I just held the tomato still with one hand and let the vegetables in the pan have the juice.
The idea of making maque choux came to me from a neighbor who saw someone on the Food Network cutting kernels off corn to make it, and thinking of the bag of “Authentic Mexican” vegetables that had become present in the freezer, and hearing the neighbor explain the provenance of maque choux, I decided to make a version of it that is less pretentious than the Food Network but a step up from a can of the stuff sold as “Mexi-Corn.”
And the idea of using Irish cheese requires props to James from Left End of the Dial for toasting Cinco de Mayo with “Slainte” over on Man Eegee’s blog!
“while chopping my tomato, which was very juicy, I just held the tomato still with one hand and let the vegetables in the pan have the juice.”
If you mean that you cut the tomato while holding it in your hand — I’m not going to do that. I’d be sure to sever something important.
But, the rest of the information is interesting. I love cheese. Before the changes in my diet last summer I ate several pounds of cheese a week. And I’m pretty sure that all my between meal snacking and ’seconds’ included cheese. Because, since I don’t do that anymore, I don’t think we’re buying even one pound of cheese every week. Maybe it’s time to try something new.
LOL No I mean after it was chopped. I chopped it on a plate on purpose and liquid gathered there. I held the chopped tomoto with my hand and let the liquid only go into the vegetables.