We all have a few favorite food combinations, meaning, two foods that go hand-in-hand together. A duo you can't emotionally separate because you can't enjoy one without the other. A few of my cheesy favorites: a cup of tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich, my mom's meatloaf with some macaroni and cheese, my favorite cheeseburger with a side of fries. Another personal favorite: a bowl of Wendy's-style chili with a few quick-to-make cheesy quesadilla wedges.
"Queso (KAY-soh)" is the Spanish word meaning "cheese", and, a quesadilla is a tortilla containing ooey-gooey melted cheese.
Quesadilla (keh-sah-DEE-yah): A round, flat, cooked-until-soft corn or flour tortilla (even though most folks associate them with flour tortillas exclusively), folded in half to form a half-moon with a savory filling sandwiched in the center. It is fried on a well-seasoned cast-iron comal (a flat, round griddle), using no or very little oil (although in American kitchens, mine included, a nonstick skillet or a grill pan commonly substituted. FYI: "Queso (KAY-soh)" is the Spanish word for "cheese", which, in turn, makes a quesadilla a container for ooey, gooey melted cheese.
Start-to-finish: Five minutes from stovetop-to-table:
For each corn-tortilla cheese quesadilla:
2 6"-round soft, fresh corn tortillas
6 generous tablespoons shredded yellow cheddar cheese
1-2 teaspoons vegetable oil, for preparing skillet
~Step 1. Place 1-2 teaspoons vegetable oil in an 8" nonstick skillet. Use a paper towel to distribute it evenly in bottom of the skillet and absorb excess. Do not turn the stove on. Place one tortilla in skillet and scatter the cheese across its surface, mounding it slightly towards the center. Place second corn tortilla on top of cheese.
~Step 2. Turn heat on to medium- medium-high. Once skillet heats up, 30-45 seconds, sauté quesadilla until sizzling and light golden on bottom, about 2 1/2-3 minutes. Using a wide spatula, carefully flip quesadilla over and continue to sauté until the second side is light golden, 2-2 1/2 minutes. Turn heat off. The moment the taco-quesadilla is cooked, slide it from the skillet onto a cutting board. Exercise some patience and let the cheese "set up" for about a minute -- this will prevent it from oozing out when you slice into it. Using a large chef's knife, cut into four wedges.
After slicing into ooey gooey quarters, serve immediately:
Try my Cheesy Ground-Beef Corn-Tortilla Taco-Quesadillas too:
Making Great Cheese Quesadillas with Corn Tortillas: Recipe yields instructions to make as many corn-tortilla cheese quesadillas as you want to.
Special Equipment List: 8" nonstick skillet; paper towels spatula; cutting board; chef's knife
Cook's Note: Undercover nacho tester. I suppose it could get boring, but, because every eatery I've ever been to makes this Tex-Mex pub-grub staple a bit different, I'd be willing to risk running into some occasional repetition and hard-earned heartburn. From nibbling on basic nachos consisting of deep-fried corn tortillas topped with melty cheese sauce, to digging-into nachos-grande, nachos-supreme, fully-loaded nachos or ultimate-nachos piled high with a plethora of enough savory stuff to qualify for full-meal status, yes, I think undercover nacho tester is a job for me. Try my ~ Na-Cho Mama's Fully-Loaded Sheet-Pan Nachos ~. A perfect ratio of cheese to toppings on every chip.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2021)
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