Always Back to Mexico

My first travel love... you know, that crush you always think about, kind of like the first time kind of love, was Mexico. It was my first uninhibited travel, out of the confines of a study abroad program, and when I was mentally really able to appreciate it. And so, my food always brings me back here.

Leftover ground lamb from my korean dumplings left me wondering if I should just freeze it (which I did for some of it in the form of patties for quick burgers at some later date), but I was craving real Mexican again. At first, I was going to make empanadas, but the dough recipes all required butter, flour, and resting of dough, and things that seemed foreign to Mexican food. So I decided to do a basic Quesadilla with Salsa Verde, no, not the cheddar cheesy mess stuffed inside a flour tortilla. No, these are the fresh corn tortillas stuffed with anything from squash blossoms, to guacamole, to chicken, to queso oaxaca (kind of like mozzarella), to mushrooms, to beef served up with freshly made sauces and then heated on a griddle.

My favorite in Mexico was the queso oaxaca with mushroom with extra salsa verde, which was the spicy sauce. The red sauce was usually more of a chipotle flavor, milder, but still delicious. Salsa Verde is extremely simple. I broiled 1 poblano pepper and 3 husked tomatillos in my toaster oven until the skins were blackened and the insides mushy. Then I tossed that, plus 1/4 cup roughly chopped purple onion, 1 small green chile roughly chopped, and the juice of one small lime into a food chopper. Pulverize until done. Yup. That's it. A little cracked pepper and all is well. I didn't use salt because I knew the cheese I was using was naturally salty. This makes about three servings (I like a lot of salsa), which I used on these quesadillas and on my morning egg whites. This is a nutritional giant rating A and coming in at a mere 23 calories per generous portion, .4g fat, 0 cholesterol, 2mg sodium, 1.1g dietary fiber, 2.7g sugars, .8g protein, 5% vitamin A, 74% vitamin C!!!, 1% calcium, and 2% iron.

The filling was a bit more creative as I was trying not to waste the ground lamb. I took about 1/4 cup of slivered red onion and sauteed it with 1/8 pound of ground lamb and about 1/4 cup of queso fresca (this is the same stuff as paneer -- fresh compressed rennet free cheese sold in small blocks at most Latin groceries) in small cubes. Then when the lamb was almost cooked, I threw in about half a cup of the salsa verde and let the whole thing cook down a bit.

Then I whipped up a couple corn tortillas (see my Fish Tacos recipe and yes, these are not that pretty, but this was a quick meal, not an attempt for aesthetic perfection), stuck some filling in, and folded the tortillas in half and let the corn tortillas get slightly golden on each side on medium heat in my cast iron pan. This would be semi-authentic as lamb has a similar gamey taste as goat to me, and in many many many parts of Mexico, goat meat is the meat of choice as goats are more portable and affordable than cows.

Oh yea, nutritional information. The quesadillas sans salsa verde rates B because the cheese and lamb add a lot of fat. But this recipe makes two filling quesadillas at 279 calories, 10g fat (4.6g saturated), 66mg cholesterol, 133mg sodium, 2.6g dietary fiber, 1.5g sugars, 21.8g protein, 3% vitamin A, 4% vitamin C, 12% calcium, and 12% iron. Just tack on 23 calories and loads of vitamin C for the total count, which puts this as just over 300 calories for a small meal.