April 2020 – Cooking in Mexico

Cleaning out the fridge used to mean a soup day. Recently, it has become a quesadilla day. As long as the two basic elements of quesadillas are present — tortillas and cheese — you have free reign to add any leftovers taking up fridge space. What to do with the little piece of roast chicken that is hardly enough to make a sandwich? Or the piece of fresh panela cheese that needs to be used up because fresh cheese just does’t stay fresh for long?

Our fridge was harboring small dishes of leftover chicken and rice with mushrooms; quinoa with spinach; Russ’es deconstructed golumpki casserole of cabbage, mushrooms, bulgar, and ground beef held together with tomato sauce; and a small dish of pinto beans. Sure, I could stick little dishes and packages in the freezer, but they tend to languish there for too long.

We had the foresight to stock up on whole wheat tortillas last month when we did the biggest ($$$) grocery shopping of our marital history. The headlines were already on the horizon. We knew it was time to fill the pantry and freezer, and lie low. And by good fortune, we had a surprising variety of cheese on hand. Tillamook sharp cheddar, goat cheese, fresh panela, Oaxaca string cheese, gruyere and gorgonzola, the latter two gifts from a friend when she cleaned out her Mascota kitchen to return to Chicago. Never in our marital history have we had such a cheese abundance.

I got all the leftovers lined up, took stock of which cheese would pair best with which leftover, and started heating the griddle.

Quinoa with spinach was paired with Oaxaca string cheese, the chicken, mushrooms and rice with cheddar; gruyere topped the golumpki casserole leftovers; and panela was matched with the roast chicken bits and sauteed mushrooms.

Fifteen minutes later, we were eating quesadillas topped with a little bit of leftover salsa for lunch. With a side of salad or soup, ideally leftover soup, this would be substantial enough for dinner. If you make too many, they keep well in the fridge for several days, but then leftovers become a concern again.

Apple quesadillas, one with goat cheese, the other with gorgonzola, made a wonderful dessert. Almost any fresh fruit can be used. Mango with brie is exceptional. Someday I would like to try a ripe pear with camembert.

Other fillings I’m thinking about are bacon, avocado and tomato, a riff on BLT. Cook the bacon first, of course. And potato with cheddar. Russ would want me to add saurerkraut to that one. The possibilities are endless.

After Easter, we had leftover lamb and roasted vegetables. Why not? They made excellent quesadillas with manchego cheese.

Russ likes to say, “I bet no one else is eating this”. Nope, most likely no one else was eating golumpki casserole and gruyere quesadillas. At least not today.

CLEAN OUT THE FRIDGE QUESADILLAS

Whole wheat, white, or corn tortillas; 2 tortillas per quesadilla
Cheese, thinly sliced or grated, about 1/2 cup per quesadilla
Tasty leftovers from the fridge
Salsa, optional
1 apple, thinly sliced, to make 2 dessert quesadillas

Spread as many tortillas as will fit on your griddle, or in a large skillet, in one layer. Top with cheese, leftovers, then cheese again. (The two layers of melted cheese serve as the “glue” holding everything together.) Top with a second tortilla for each quesadilla. Cook over medium heat until the underside has browned. Cook about 5 more minutes until the cheese is melty and the new underside has brown speckles. Remove from griddle and cut into quarters. Serve with salsa if you wish.

Notes ~

Whole wheat tortillas are much more flavorful than white tortillas, and fortunately Pepe’s, our local grocery store in Mascota, stocks them. They freeze well, and thaw quickly.

Quesadillas, literally “little cheesey things”, originated in central and northern Mexico, and were traditionally made with corn tortillas. Flour tortillas are more commonly used in northern Mexico. If you think my fillings are outlandish, there is even a pizzadilla, made with pizza toppings.

You probaby have enough time on your hands these days to make truffles, those round, wonderful, little balls of chocolate that are easier to make than you would think. Canadian friends sent me a recipe years ago. It fell by the wayside, but they were kind enough to send it again, probably to encourage me to return to Cooking in Mexico.

The original recipe, Cacao Wow, is from the Vallarta Tribune, an English language newspaper in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and created by Shakti Baum, the former executive chef at Xinalatal Yoga Retreat, and now with a cooking school in the Houston area. It includes chipotle chile, cacao beans, and cinnamon. I upped the Mexican flavors by adding ground coffee beans, vanilla, and ancho chile powder. All six of these ingredients are from the New World, as well as the cane sugar.

Cinnamon sticks were freshly ground in the coffee grinder, as were the cocao beans and home-roasted, organic coffee beans. Bittersweet chocolate is called for, which I don’t have on hand. Somehow that was overlooked when stocking up for the coronavirus quarantine. But I did have organic Mexican cocoa powder, cocao butter and coconut oil, the three ingredients that make emergency chocolate. I realize that few pantries are stocked with cocao butter, but mine is, so if you try this recipe, I hope you have bittersweet chocolate, but the truffles are just as delicious made with emergency chocolate.

New World Truffles

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate (OR emergency chocolate: 3/4 cup/156 grams coconut oil melted with 6 ounces/170 grams cocao butter, plus 3/4 cup/ 75 grams cocoa powder, and sweetened to taste)
1/4 cup/60 ml rice milk or other milk
2-4 tablespoons/30-60 ml chipotle liquid from canned chipotle chiles
1-2 teaspoons/3-6 grams ancho chili powder (or to taste)

Truffle Coating

1/4 cup/25 grams very finely ground coffee
1/4 cup/25 grams ground cocao beans, roasted or raw
2 tablespoons/52 grams unrefined cane sugar
1 tablespoon/8 grams ground cinnamon

Melt bittersweet chocolate (or emergency chocolate) over a double boiler. Add rice milk or milk of choice.
Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until stiff, but still soft enough to spoon out.
Blend coating ingredients.
Working with one tablespoonful at a time, roll quickly between your hands, then roll in the coating mixture.
Store in the fridge, though best at room temperature for eating.

Truffle Coating

1/4 cup/25 grams ground coffee
1/4 cup/25 grams ground cocao beans, roasted or raw
2 tablespoons/52 grams unrefined cane sugar
1 tablespoon/8 grams ground cinnamon

Melt chocolate (or emergency chocolate) over a double boiler. Add rice milk or milk of choice.
Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until stiff, but still soft enough to spoon out.
Blend coating ingredients.
Working with one tablespoonful at a time, roll quickly between your hands, then roll in the coating mixture.
Store in the fridge, though best at room temperature for eating.

Notes ~

Many are unaware of the dark side of chocolate, that much of the chocolate from west Africa is harvested using child slavery. Hershey’s, Nestle and Mars can’t say their products are slave-free. Chocolates and cocoa that are labeled free trade and/or organic are good indications that they are not harvested with child slave labor. Here’s a list of ethically harvested chocolate. Chocolate and cocoa from Central and South America, as well as from Mexico, do not use child slavery.

Cinnamon, too, has a secret, though not a dark one. The ground cinnamon generally purchased in the U.S. and Canada is not true cinnamon. True cinnamon is Ceylon cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum. Sticks of this cinnamon are softer, and can be broken up easily to put in a spice grinder. See photo above. Common cinnamon, the usual type in the little spice bottles, is Cassia Cinnamon, Cinnamomum cassia, also called Cinnamomum aromaticum. It is cheaper and considered a lower quality. Sticks of this cinnamon are almost impossible to break up to put in a grinder without resorting to a hammer, and then probably too hard to be ground. The common cinnamon of Mexico is true cinnamon, aromatic and flavorful, a difference that grows on you. Look on your spice bottle to see if it gives the botanical name of the plant as Cinnamomum verum. If not, it is most likely not true cinnamon. Simply Organic ground cinnamon, available at natural food stores, is true cinnamon.