RECIPE · The Corn Dough Quesadilla Tutorial! Yummy quesadillas stuffed with two different fillings

Because, funny enough, a quesadilla doesn't necessarily imply cheese! They come in different shapes and have different fillings. They can be simply a pre-prepared tortilla folded in two, or you can make them from scratch using corn dough. These are usually way tastier and a lot of fun to cook.

Here's what you need:

For the Dough

• 250 gm Maseca Corn Flour (available here or here)
• Warm water
• Pinch of salt
• 30 gr lard (optional)

Grab a bowl and add the Maseca and salt. Add the lard (optional) and start mixing with your hands. Add the warm water very slowly, as you work the mixture into a soft dough. Keep adding the fluid until you get a smooth and moist dough. You'll know when it's ready because it'll stop sticking to your hands. The consistency should be very similar to Play-Doh. If the dough is too mushy, add some more Maseca until you achieve the right consistency. Cover with a damp cloth while you cook the fillings.

For Cooking the Quesadillas and the Fillings 

• Vegetable oil
• 1/4 of a small onion
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• Pinch of dried epazote (available here)
• 1 can of flor de calabaza -AKA zucchini flower or squash blossoms- (available here)
• 1 Medium Potato (peeled, boiled and mashed lightly)
• 100 gr Spanish chorizo

Mix the mashed potatoes with the chorizo and shallow fry until golden. 

Mix the Zucchini Flower with the diced tomatoes, epazote and onion. Shallow fry until it stops looking soggy.

Once both fillings are ready, it's time to 'sculpt' the quesadillas. This can be done entirely by hand and it's like playing with clay really. A)Tear a piece of dough and make it into a golf ball.  B) Then squeeze it between your hands  until you get a thickish circle about the size of a CD. It's OK if it turns out a bit smaller or if it's not perfectly round. C) Place about a spoonful of filling near the edge. Don't put too much or it will leak!  D) Close the quesadilla by pressing the edges gently together with your fingertips or with a fork (it looks a lot like a Cornish pasty actually!)  E)Shallow fry until golden on both sides.

A) B)

C) D)

E)

Makes about 10, sufficient for two people.

For serving

• 150 ml soured cream
• 1 cup shredded lettuce
• 3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• Green or Guajillo salsa (optional)

Put a spoonful of soured cream on each, cover with  shredded lettuce and sprinke with parmesan cheese. For extra oomph, add Salsa Verde La Costeña (hot) or Salsa Guajillo Sabores Aztecas (nice and mild), both available here.

If you like it cheesy, you can add a little grated mozzarella along with the cooked fillings. It'll melt and mix nicely with the other ingredients while you shallow fry the quesadilla.


Even more quesadilla know-how!

Here's a very enlightening wikiarticle on the different types of quesadillas and the difference between genuine Mexican ones and the Americanised versions.

RECIPE · The Magic of the Plain Quesadilla

With Mexican food, sometimes less is more.

People outside México are often led to believe that food is always overelaborate, showy and real gooey. That's not always the case and quesadillas are an example of that. A true quesadilla is nothing but a corn tortilla folded in half, filled with oaxacan cheese and warmed up on a hot pan until the cheese melts. Quick, cheap and really easy to make.

You might need some extra oomph though, so you can add a lick of refried beans, dip it in guacamole, salsa verde or salsa pico de gallo, or even just have some jalapeño chilies on the side to nibble on between bites (that's SUCH a Mexican thing to do).

So in order to prepare a plain quesadilla making do with stuff available in most supermarkets in the UK you need:

• Old El Paso Corn Tortillas 
• Grated mozarella such as Sainsbury's Basics Grated Mozzarella

We've found that this cheese is the most similar to Oaxacan cheese (cheddar tends to be a bit too strong even in its mildest variety). Also, pictured are some Mexican Discovery Green Jalapeños.

Then all you need to do is to heat up a pan (no need to add oil), warm up the tortilla and add the grated cheese. Fold it in half and keep cooking until the cheese has melted. Eat immediately!

Again, this isn't proper Mexican as such. Ideally the tortillas would be 100% corn (Old El Paso Corn Tortillas are only 27% corn flour and the rest is wheat flour).

OK, so where on Earth to get proper tortillas and salsas you ask?

That proves a bit more difficult than simply popping down to your local Sainsbury's but it's not impossible. Cool Chile sells packs of a dozen corn tortillas here, and we just found out about Rico Mexican Kitchen who have an impressive array of salsas right here. If you live in London, go to Wholefoods Market and ask for Sabores Aztecas Green Salsa for the most amazing tomatillo salsa imported directly from México.