"Fifth of May" Quesadilla

[chef k-dude]

After all, that is what "Cinco de Mayo" translates to English...and I'm not Mexican...or even Latino, however family lore tells it that my great grandmother was full-blood Cherokee...but I dont "appropriate" that either...I'm about as white as it gets!

I make my own chorizo...that stuff in the chubs at the Latino markets is disgusting, I dont know how anyone eats that stuff.

So here is my own ground pork chorizo, browned, with sauteed onions jalapenos and garlic and I toss in a little red salsa to act as a bit of a "binder".

I have these special sized specific low sided quesadilla pans. These are actually leftover flour tortillas from the Mexican place up the road (I may not appropriate, but that doesn't mean I dont love what is purveyed in America as "Mexican food"!). The best restaurant for the money in our little nowhere-ville here

This is a "dry-fry" but the natural moisture and fat remaining from the chiorizo provides a bit of "lube". You'll see that in the finished product.

Layer of cheese. The yellow you see there is the last of a bag of "fiesta" cheese that needed using up, otherwise I went with pepper jack on this one.

Healthy layer of the chorizo mixture

More cheese

Another tortilla

This is a special lid perfect for this I salvaged from a guys pressure cooker lid. When I had my metalworking business, this guy had me modify a stainless pressure cooker pot by cutting a circle in the lid and welding in a copper bowl upside down...he was making a still...yes, a good welder can weld copper to stainless...well. I WAS such a welder in my day.

Anyway, this lid is what I cut away and it works perfectly, gently pressing down on the quesadilla.

Flipped...how did he do that?

Meanwhile I whipped up a batch of Roosters Beak (Pico de Gallo)

All done

Quartered. My wife and I split these, two quarters to a plate.

Sour cream

Then buried in lettuce, pico, avocado hot sauce and some tortilla strips just for a nice picture. Wife likes her guac on it, I like mine to the side.

Not much else to say. Really good stuff.

 

[clifish]

After all, that is what "Cinco de Mayo" translates to English...and I'm not Mexican...or even Latino, however family lore tells it that my great grandmother was full-blood Cherokee...but I dont "appropriate" that either...I'm about as white as it gets!

I make my own chorizo...that stuff in the chubs at the Latino markets is disgusting, I dont know how anyone eats that stuff.

So here is my own ground pork chorizo, browned, with sauteed onions jalapenos and garlic and I toss in a little red salsa to act as a bit of a "binder".
View attachment 717833

I have these special sized specific low sided quesadilla pans. These are actually leftover flour tortillas from the Mexican place up the road (I may not appropriate, but that doesn't mean I dont love what is purveyed in America as "Mexican food"!). The best restaurant for the money in our little nowhere-ville here

This is a "dry-fry" but the natural moisture and fat remaining from the chiorizo provides a bit of "lube". You'll see that in the finished product.
View attachment 717840
Layer of cheese. The yellow you see there is the last of a bag of "fiesta" cheese that needed using up, otherwise I went with pepper jack on this one.
View attachment 717842
Healthy layer of the chorizo mixture
View attachment 717843
More cheese
View attachment 717844

Another tortilla
View attachment 717856
This is a special lid perfect for this I salvaged from a guys pressure cooker lid. When I had my metalworking business, this guy had me modify a stainless pressure cooker pot by cutting a circle in the lid and welding in a copper bowl upside down...he was making a still...yes, a good welder can weld copper to stainless...well. I WAS such a welder in my day.

Anyway, this lid is what I cut away and it works perfectly, gently pressing down on the quesadilla.
View attachment 717849
Flipped...how did he do that?
View attachment 717850

Meanwhile I whipped up a batch of Roosters Beak (Pico de Gallo)
View attachment 717851
All done
View attachment 717852
Quartered. My wife and I split these, two quarters to a plate.
View attachment 717853
Sour cream
View attachment 717854

Then buried in lettuce, pico, avocado hot sauce and some tortilla strips just for a nice picture. Wife likes her guac on it, I like mine to the side.
View attachment 717855

Not much else to say. Really good stuff.

looks really great, I would eat that every week. Could you share your recipe for the Roosters Beak and chorizo? I have only had store bought chorizo and will not taste that again...maybe I need to make my own.

thx

 

[Astralogics]

Nice work, another great cook!

I have only had store bought chorizo and will not taste that again...maybe I need to make my own.

Definitely try your own! Store bought chorizo taste weird to me too. Almost a like a weird plasticky flavor.

 

[chef k-dude]

Sure. Always willing to share recipes when people ask.

The pico is totally eyeballed. One of the few things I actually haven't created a recipe for.
What you see there is
-one medium tomato, diced a bit chunky then lightly squeezed in paper towels
-one medium jalapeno (I dont like bell peppers and the jalapenos Walmart sells are not spicy at all, but have the jalapeno flavor which I do like) stem end cut off, sliced lengthwise down the middle and seeds removed, then the halves slivered in to little half moons crosswise
-and about 1/3 of a medium sweet onion. I halve the onion after peeling, then thinly slice crosswise (again kind of half moon shapes), then cut back across those slices a few times leaving sort of slivers.
*I find simply dicing the pepper and onions makes it hard to get them in bites with your fork when eating the quesadilla. If you want to eat it like salsa like with chips, I would go to a fine dice but I never eat pico that way...even if on a taco I would rather it be larger pieces. It's all over the place out there with what people prefer. I like the pop of crunch and flavor from the larger.

Then it's all eyeball from there with the spices, etc.. Over the years I just automatically know for some reason!
Garlic granules (I found I dont care for raw garlic in pico for some reason)
Onion granules
Fresh ground black pepper
Ground cumin
just a couple dashes of ground cayenne (not enough to hurt!)
Pinch of kosher salt
pinch of MSG (I know that freaks some people out but it's gotten a bad rap, few people are actually allergic to the stuff and its great "umami". There are some people who will say they absolutely have reaction to the stuff. It doesn't bother us one bit)
Lime juice (I keep one of those Realime squirt things that looks like a lime, and refill it with fresh squeezed myself). I just squirt it by eye. Maybe a couple teaspoons?
Just a slight dash of EVOO from a bottle with a dispensing tip (like a bar's liquor bottle). I like the mouth feel a little bit of oil gives to it.

This was just enough for two sizable servings. You dont want any leftovers and dont make it too far ahead of the meal, its doesn't hold up well and starts leaching liquid quickly. It shouldn't be swimming in it's own juices. The lime juice should just coat it, not be soupy.

Here's the chorizo recipe I use. You need to do the math to scale it. I like this because the flavor is very much there, but not overwhelming and not too spicy, leaving room for spice elsewhere on the plate.

When you fist start to cook it, it will render a lot of juices (at least after bieng frozen). When I dump it in the skillet, its kind of a flat cake from bieng in the vac seal bag (I flatten stuff like that for better use of space in the freezers). I leave that intact while starting to cook so it makes it easy to cut in to 4ths, remove to a plate and drain the juices in to something (not the sink). After that, eventually the juices will render as it browns.

I love the Pampered Chef meat chopper thing

Chorizo Sausage recipe

3 pounds ground pork butt (adjust remaining ingredients according to lbs of pork used)

2 1/4 tablespoons chili powder

1 1/4 tablespoons paprika

1 tbl teaspoons granulated garlic

1 tbl teaspoons granulated onion

2 tsp Kosher salt

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp dried Mexican oregano (or Italian works too)

1 tsp coarse black pepper

¾ tsp. ground cumin

¼ rounded tsp. each ground cloves, allspice and cinnamon

½ tsp. MSG

4.8 liquid oz cider vinegar, cold


Combine the spices in a bowl or glass measuring cup with very cold cider vinegar.

Pour the spice and vinegar combination into the ground pork and mix thoroughly for at least 2 minutes. Use your hands for mixing to assure even distribution.

Allow to rest in fridge for at least 24 hours if possible before using.

These are just the ratios I probably pulled from a recip online and stuck with them. Of course, a little more or less of the spices wont hurt anything.

 

[DRKsmoking]

Looks great to me, I could go for a plate of that .. ( hold the guac , please )

David

 

[clifish]

Sure. Always willing to share recipes when people ask.

The pico is totally eyeballed. One of the few things I actually haven't created a recipe for.
What you see there is
-one medium tomato, diced a bit chunky then lightly squeezed in paper towels
-one medium jalapeno (I dont like bell peppers and the jalapenos Walmart sells are not spicy at all, but have the jalapeno flavor which I do like) stem end cut off, sliced lengthwise down the middle and seeds removed, then the halves slivered in to little half moons crosswise
-and about 1/3 of a medium sweet onion. I halve the onion after peeling, then thinly slice crosswise (again kind of half moon shapes), then cut back across those slices a few times leaving sort of slivers.
*I find simply dicing the pepper and onions makes it hard to get them in bites with your fork when eating the quesadilla. If you want to eat it like salsa like with chips, I would go to a fine dice but I never eat pico that way...even if on a taco I would rather it be larger pieces. It's all over the place out there with what people prefer. I like the pop of crunch and flavor from the larger.

Then it's all eyeball from there with the spices, etc.. Over the years I just automatically know for some reason!
Garlic granules (I found I dont care for raw garlic in pico for some reason)
Onion granules
Fresh ground black pepper
Ground cumin
just a couple dashes of ground cayenne (not enough to hurt!)
Pinch of kosher salt
pinch of MSG (I know that freaks some people out but it's gotten a bad rap, few people are actually allergic to the stuff and its great "umami". There are some people who will say they absolutely have reaction to the stuff. It doesn't bother us one bit)
Lime juice (I keep one of those Realime squirt things that looks like a lime, and refill it with fresh squeezed myself). I just squirt it by eye. Maybe a couple teaspoons?
Just a slight dash of EVOO from a bottle with a dispensing tip (like a bar's liquor bottle). I like the mouth feel a little bit of oil gives to it.

This was just enough for two sizable servings. You dont want any leftovers and dont make it too far ahead of the meal, its doesn't hold up well and starts leaching liquid quickly. It shouldn't be swimming in it's own juices. The lime juice should just coat it, not be soupy.

Here's the chorizo recipe I use. You need to do the math to scale it. I like this because the flavor is very much there, but not overwhelming and not too spicy, leaving room for spice elsewhere on the plate.

When you fist start to cook it, it will render a lot of juices (at least after bieng frozen). When I dump it in the skillet, its kind of a flat cake from bieng in the vac seal bag (I flatten stuff like that for better use of space in the freezers). I leave that intact while starting to cook so it makes it easy to cut in to 4ths, remove to a plate and drain the juices in to something (not the sink). After that, eventually the juices will render as it browns.

I love the Pampered Chef meat chopper thing
View attachment 717859

Chorizo Sausage recipe

3 pounds ground pork butt (adjust remaining ingredients according to lbs of pork used)

2 1/4 tablespoons chili powder

1 1/4 tablespoons paprika

1 tbl teaspoons granulated garlic

1 tbl teaspoons granulated onion

2 tsp Kosher salt

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp dried Mexican oregano (or Italian works too)

1 tsp coarse black pepper

¾ tsp. ground cumin

¼ rounded tsp. each ground cloves, allspice and cinnamon

½ tsp. MSG

4.8 liquid oz cider vinegar, cold


Combine the spices in a bowl or glass measuring cup with very cold cider vinegar.

Pour the spice and vinegar combination into the ground pork and mix thoroughly for at least 2 minutes. Use your hands for mixing to assure even distribution.

Allow to rest in fridge for at least 24 hours if possible before using.

These are just the ratios I probably pulled from a recip online and stuck with them. Of course, a little more or less of the spices wont hurt anything.

Thanks, always have msg around and also have the same meat chopper.

 

[maineac]

After all, that is what "Cinco de Mayo" translates to English...and I'm not Mexican...or even Latino, however family lore tells it that my great grandmother was full-blood Cherokee...but I dont "appropriate" that either...I'm about as white as it gets!

I make my own chorizo...that stuff in the chubs at the Latino markets is disgusting, I dont know how anyone eats that stuff.

So here is my own ground pork chorizo, browned, with sauteed onions jalapenos and garlic and I toss in a little red salsa to act as a bit of a "binder".
View attachment 717833

I have these special sized specific low sided quesadilla pans. These are actually leftover flour tortillas from the Mexican place up the road (I may not appropriate, but that doesn't mean I dont love what is purveyed in America as "Mexican food"!). The best restaurant for the money in our little nowhere-ville here

This is a "dry-fry" but the natural moisture and fat remaining from the chiorizo provides a bit of "lube". You'll see that in the finished product.
View attachment 717840
Layer of cheese. The yellow you see there is the last of a bag of "fiesta" cheese that needed using up, otherwise I went with pepper jack on this one.
View attachment 717842
Healthy layer of the chorizo mixture
View attachment 717843
More cheese
View attachment 717844

Another tortilla
View attachment 717856
This is a special lid perfect for this I salvaged from a guys pressure cooker lid. When I had my metalworking business, this guy had me modify a stainless pressure cooker pot by cutting a circle in the lid and welding in a copper bowl upside down...he was making a still...yes, a good welder can weld copper to stainless...well. I WAS such a welder in my day.

Anyway, this lid is what I cut away and it works perfectly, gently pressing down on the quesadilla.
View attachment 717849
Flipped...how did he do that?
View attachment 717850

Meanwhile I whipped up a batch of Roosters Beak (Pico de Gallo)
View attachment 717851
All done
View attachment 717852
Quartered. My wife and I split these, two quarters to a plate.
View attachment 717853
Sour cream
View attachment 717854

Then buried in lettuce, pico, avocado hot sauce and some tortilla strips just for a nice picture. Wife likes her guac on it, I like mine to the side.
View attachment 717855

Not much else to say. Really good stuff.

Great job, nice presentation. Will certainly be doing this. Are those 10" tortillas? Thanks for sharing the chorizo recipe.