First actual recipe post. Many thanks to Designs by Gollum for hosting this Foodie Friday thing. Really neat idea. Blog Carnivals are cool. Lots of really neat ideas over there. Check it out.
So.... At Hand Cooking. Today's random assortment of kitchen denizens:
4 ounces of milk.
2 eggs
A bottle of taco sauce
Whole Wheat Tortillas
Taco Spice
Mexican cheese
Sour cream
Looking at these, I could only come to one conclusion. Quesadillas.
I'm gonna apologize right now... I don't own a digital camera, and the pictures were taken from a phone by a friend. That being said, I don't have as many 'in progress' photos as I probably should.... but I'll fix that at some point.
Anyway, on to making those delicious cheesy wonders.
The Experiment:
1. Grab your ingredients, and also grab a skillet and a round, shallow dish with high sides. This dish must be big enough to hold your quesadilla laying flat. As does the skillet. You may also want to grab a whisk and measuring cup.
2. Put the skillet on and melt about 1 tablespoon of butter into the pan. Keep the heat low. By the time you are ready to throw things into the pan, the butter will have spread out, and the pan will be just right in heat. Keep an eye on it though. Nothing worse than accidentally nudging a hot skillet.
3. Put the cheese into a bowl. For every handful of cheese, put a big pinch of taco spice and mix them thoroughly.
4. Break the two eggs into a bowl. Pour the milk over the eggs, and mix them thoroughly. A drop of taco sauce into this mixture is optional, and gives the quesadillas as a whole a slightly heavier, but also slightly spicier taste.
5. Pour the egg-milk mixture into the shallow dish. Dip a tortilla into the mix, covering it entirely.
6. Lay the tortilla into the now hot skillet. Sprinkle cheese to taste (I made my quesadillas really thick, but that's not everyone's cup of tea) on one half of the tortilla. Fold tortilla half that is un-cheesed over the cheesed side. Then hands off for about a minute.
7. Using a spatula or other implement of flipness, turn the not quite quesadilla over. Let that sit for another solid minute.
8. Flip twice more, or until both sides are browned in the center and somewhat crispy looking near the edges. Also, there should be a ballooning effect that makes the whole thing look something like a warty toad when seen from the side.
9. Move quesadilla to paper plate or towel to drain excess buttery outside goodness off.
10. Eat immediately. Cheese does not retain heat nearly long enough to be complacent about it. Serving with more taco sauce and a bit of sour cream rounds out the taste of the quesadilla.
Results:
Total time: About 5 minutes a quesadilla once all ingredients were on standby.
The real hero here was the egg/milk mixture which I tried on a whim after reading about using milk to make eggs easier to work with. Whole wheat tortillas, which have none of the lightness associated with their corn made cousin, are generally a little on the tough, vaguely jerky side of the flat bread world. The milk/egg mixture made them behave like their corn based cousin, and took some of that awful full force whole wheat flavor that is so unwelcome in tortillas right out of them. It also lengthened the time it took to cook each side, and kept the cheese from passing that delicious melty point to just stringy and gross, like burnt mac&cheese.
The only thing that I'm distressed about is that I simply had zero meat of any kind. Some chicken would have been excellent. Ah well, such is life with only cooking with what's immediate.
I'm open to any suggestions related to quesadillas. Ideas that people have for their prep, or experiences you've had making them. They are a wonderful at hand food, as they are so simple to make.
Spatulaa!
Noah
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