Homemade Quesadillas with Early Girl Salsa

The tomatoes are here! I was so excited to see these Early Girl Tomatoes in my box. My first thought was to make a pasta sauce; but, I just made that last week. I wanted to try something else with these beauties so I decided to make salsa.

I wanted to try something a little different then your basic salsa and I found a recipe in the Dona Tomas cookbook that used roasted tomatoes and dried chiles. It sounded good and I had all the ingredients in my kitchen so I decided to try it out. First, I roasted the tomatoes with some sliced white onion and a few cloves of garlic. After 20 minutes, I took out the onion and garlic and let the tomatoes roast for another hour.

I then roasted a chipotle and a guajillo pepper.

Soaked the peppers in hot water for 30 minutes.

Then, everything goes in the blender with some water and cider vinegar. And, then you have this luscious salsa.

I had some time on my hands and a craving for homemade tortillas so I began to make some corn tortillas. A couple years ago I decided I needed to learn how to make corn tortillas. I tried several different methods without getting a very good tortilla.

Then one day I bought some MaSeca brand dry masa (dry masa for tortillas) as I was unpacking it I noticed that there were instructions on the masa bag that explained how to make tortillas. The MaSeca instructions were perfect. All you do is add water and salt to the masa seca mix the ingredients until you have a ball of dough. Divide the dough into balls to form the tortillas. Then, you have to flatten the dough balls into tortillas. I use a tortilla press with a cut up plastic bag on it (so the dough doesn't stick). You could probably rig up something to flatten the tortillas; but, tortillas presses are generally inexpensive and do the job perfectly.

Then, you heat a comal (also an inexpensive item) or non-stick pan, add a tortilla, cook 50 seconds on one side and then 50 seconds on the other side. And, you have a perfect, delicious tortilla. This time I decided to add some shredded sharp cheddar to the tortilla, melt the cheese, and flip the tortilla in half to form a half moon shape.

I put some of the quesadillas on a plate with chopped avocado and salsa. You can also just dip the quesadillas in the salsa. I think of this as the Mexican version of grilled cheese and tomato soup. Que delicioso!

Salsa De La Casa

adapted from Dona Tomas: Discovering Authentic Mexican Cooking by Thomas Schnetz & Dona Savitsky

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Early girl or beefsteak tomatoes

3 to 4 cloves garlic

1/4 white onion, sliced

1 dried chipotle chile

1 dried guajillo chile

1/4 cup of cold water

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Kosher salt

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a cooking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the tomatoes, garlic, and onion on the baking sheet. Roast for about 20 minutes, until the edges of the garlic and onion are brown and they become soft. Remove from the oven and transfer the garlic and onion to a bowl. Return the tomatoes to the oven and continue to roast for about 1 hour until the skin blackens. Transfer the tomatoes to the bowl with the garlic and onion.

2. Place a dry skillet over medium heat. Add the chiles and roast for 1 to 3 minutes, pressing them into the pan and turning occasionally with tongs to prevent burning, until the skins are evenly charred and the chiles puff up.

3. While the chiles are hot remove the skin and seeds. Submerge in a bowl of hot water for 30 minutes. Drain the chiles, place in a blender with the 1/4 cup water and vinegar and puree until smooth. Add tomatoes, garlic, and onion. Puree until smooth and season with salt to taste.

Homemade Quesadillas

Ingredients:

MaSeca masa mix

Water

Salt

Shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 avocado, chopped

1. Make the tortillas according to instructions on MaSeca bag or use store bought tortillas. Heat a tortillas on a non-stick pan.

2. When tortilla is hot add a small handful of shredded cheese. When the cheese melts fold over tortilla. Briefly heat on both sides to make sure the cheese is completely melted and the tortilla is warm.

3. Garnish with salsa and avocado.