Thursday, February 4, 2010

Mexican Fiesta!

Mexican food has to be one of my most favorite cuisines and what I love about it is that's easy to make and because of the demographic in our area, we have a plethora of ingredients readily available! I absolutely love Asian food, but for the life of me, I cannot make anything that tastes any where close to what it tastes like in restaurants! Mexican food - now that's something I can make!


Now I'm not sure if corn fritters are necessarily "Mexican", but corn and cilantro are used heavily in Mexican, especially Tex-Mex, dishes, so I figured that it was an acceptable addition to our fiesta!

The filling for the fritters is absolutely delicious (and I used frozen corn since it's not available fresh right now locally) and very easy to make! If you like mint, than you will most likely enjoy the mint-pepper topping. I will say that it does add a freshness and even a bit of a "kick", but since I do not like mint, I wouldn't make it again next time.

I went to the farm stand will all intention of making Butternut Squash, Leek and Feta quesadillas, but then I saw portobello mushrooms and well, that went out the window! So instead I decided to make Portobello mushrooms and leeks in a swiss cheese-bechamel sauce quesadilla!

4 portobello caps - gills removed and sliced
3 cloves of garlic - minced
1 chipotle pepper - minced (adds a lot of smokiness and heat, so if you don't like spicy foods, omit)
1 leek - cleaned thoroughly and sliced
1 tbs butter
1 tbs flour (I just guessed)
1/2 cup skim milk (again, guessed)
1/3 - 1/2 cup chopped swiss cheese
1/2 cup white wine or sherry
S&P and white pepper
4 corn tortillas (I used white corn)
In a medium saute pan, add some evoo to the pan and heat (medium), add garlic and leeks and saute for about one minute, add mushrooms and S&P. Saute until somewhat softened and then add wine and chipotle pepper. Reduce heat to low and simmer.
In another medium saute pan, add the butter and melt. Once melted, add the flour and stir until light brown and smells "nutty". Slowly add in the milk and whisk until bubbly, then reduce the heat to low, add salt and white pepper. Once thickened, add the swiss cheese and stir until melted.
Assemble the quesadillas by spreading some of the bechamel/swiss cheese mixture onto one tortilla, top with mushroom mixture and then add more of the bechamel/swiss cheese mixture to another tortilla and top. Place in a heated pan with a little bit of Pam or evoo until golden brown on both sides.



And finally, we made Meyer Lemon Margaritas! Yum! Very light and zesty. Only change I made was that I made a simple syrup and added about 1 oz. to the cocktail shaker.

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