Recipe: Cheddar Apple Onion Jam Quesadilla
(Quick happy birthday to secret_smile19, who is apparently turning one year older! Pretend this is a present!)
Ready to hear something crazy? If I had to give up either chocolate or cheese for forever, I'd definitely give up chocolate. That isn't to say that I'd be happy about it-- but cheese. It's melty and gooey and cheesy, after all. Speaking of melty, gooey, cheesy, and terrible transitions, who wants to hear about quesadillas?
I have sort of a long history with quesadillas. It's been my go-to dish at Mexican restaurants since I was little, and I still remember being taught how to make terrible quesadillas by my wearied mother as a tiny thing. I'd just put some shredded cheese between tortillas and microwave it, and it never turned out right. Nowadays, I've figured out how to do quesadillas, and I sort of have them too often now. Sometimes it's monterey jack, black beans, onion, lime juice, and jalapeno. Sometimes, when I'm super lazy, it's just a couple slices of Muenster in the middle of a tortilla, with sweet lime pickles on the side.
This time, it's sharp cheddar, apple, and onion jam.
Ingredients
I already recommended this recipe for caramelized onion jam before, but I'm gonna go ahead and recommend it again. It's sweet, it's acidic, it's oniony, and it's completely delicious. I've been using it on grilled cheese, on these quesadillas, on crackers, on a spoon... it's so worth making. (This particular batch turned out weirdly light in color, so please ignore how strange it looks.)
Tortilla-wise, I'm using what I have on hand. It happens to be a flour tortilla, but I don't see why you couldn't use corn. It would taste a little different, but you probably already knew that part. I imagine it would still taste plenty delicious.
If I were being respectable, I would have shredded this sharp cheddar by hand. Having opted, instead, for laziness, I'm using pre-shredded.
And now, apple selection! I'm going with a gala apple, but that's largely because I always go with gala. I imagine this would taste pretty nice with a granny smith. I wouldn't go for a super sweet/not very acidic apple, though.
And finally, in case you, like me, want to make this thing spicy: these are red pepper flakes. They're spicy. Not a lot to say, really.
But that's okay, because now it's cooking time.
Cooking Time
Cut your apple into thin slices-- maybe half an inch thick at the most. If you stuff your quesadilla with a bunch of big chunks of apple, they'll probably all roll out when you're flipping the quesadilla. Now we're going to assemble the quesadilla. I'm going to fold it in half, rather than use two tortillas, so I'm only putting the ingredients on one side. If you're using two tortillas, just put them across the whole surface. I'm really measuring by sight more than amount. I'm going for one thin layer of cheddar...
then one thin layer of apple...
then a few dollops of onion jam (an entire layer makes the flavor a bit overpowering in my opinion)...
sprinkle on a few red pepper flakes (again, omit this step if you don't want it spicy)...
and, if you want, toss on a final sprinkle of cheddar for good measure. Fold the top over, and sort of press down a bit to keep it shut. If you have any extra apple slices (I always do), they make a great snack while you're cooking, or a great side dish if you don't mind that they're just leftovers.
Okay, time to cook! Add a bit of butter to a frying pan over medium-high heat. If I had to guess, I'd say I used a teaspoon of butter for each side. This is the key, by the way, to a really good quesadilla. Baking it is healthier, and microwaving is quicker, but frying it in butter gives it that crunchy, salty, golden-brown outside that makes restaurant quesadillas so amazing. Once the butter is completely melted and maybe making a few little popping noises, put the quesadilla into the pan. I'm terrible about dropping the filling into the pan, but I just scoot it all back in with the spatula and pretend it never happened. Once the bottom side looks golden, drop another bit of butter on the side of the pan the quesadilla isn't occupying, and let it melt.
Now it's time to flip it over. This is the hard part, and I'm still not terribly good at it. I do think, though, that it's more important to focus on getting the quesadilla to land in the pan where it belongs than to worry about keeping all of the filling inside.
See? I can't flip it properly, and I'm still gonna eat it. It's fine. Now just wait for the bottom side to turn golden, and you're done!
If you want something creamy with your quesadilla, you can add a bit of sour cream. I don't think it needs it (and I'm always a fan of sour cream with my quesadillas). The flavor's amazing already. The cheese is tangy and sharp (and melty and gooey), the apples are still raw, but warm (so they retain that slight tang), the onion jam adds sweetness and onioniness, and cooking it in butter just adds that golden crunchy texture that made me a quesadilla fan to begin with.
So, there we go. Is anybody going to try and make it? Anybody just love quesadillas? European friends, do you guys even do quesadillas? I hope you do. I'd be depressed if I couldn't get quesadillas.
Ready to hear something crazy? If I had to give up either chocolate or cheese for forever, I'd definitely give up chocolate. That isn't to say that I'd be happy about it-- but cheese. It's melty and gooey and cheesy, after all. Speaking of melty, gooey, cheesy, and terrible transitions, who wants to hear about quesadillas?
I have sort of a long history with quesadillas. It's been my go-to dish at Mexican restaurants since I was little, and I still remember being taught how to make terrible quesadillas by my wearied mother as a tiny thing. I'd just put some shredded cheese between tortillas and microwave it, and it never turned out right. Nowadays, I've figured out how to do quesadillas, and I sort of have them too often now. Sometimes it's monterey jack, black beans, onion, lime juice, and jalapeno. Sometimes, when I'm super lazy, it's just a couple slices of Muenster in the middle of a tortilla, with sweet lime pickles on the side.
This time, it's sharp cheddar, apple, and onion jam.
Ingredients
I already recommended this recipe for caramelized onion jam before, but I'm gonna go ahead and recommend it again. It's sweet, it's acidic, it's oniony, and it's completely delicious. I've been using it on grilled cheese, on these quesadillas, on crackers, on a spoon... it's so worth making. (This particular batch turned out weirdly light in color, so please ignore how strange it looks.)
Tortilla-wise, I'm using what I have on hand. It happens to be a flour tortilla, but I don't see why you couldn't use corn. It would taste a little different, but you probably already knew that part. I imagine it would still taste plenty delicious.
If I were being respectable, I would have shredded this sharp cheddar by hand. Having opted, instead, for laziness, I'm using pre-shredded.
And now, apple selection! I'm going with a gala apple, but that's largely because I always go with gala. I imagine this would taste pretty nice with a granny smith. I wouldn't go for a super sweet/not very acidic apple, though.
And finally, in case you, like me, want to make this thing spicy: these are red pepper flakes. They're spicy. Not a lot to say, really.
But that's okay, because now it's cooking time.
Cooking Time
Cut your apple into thin slices-- maybe half an inch thick at the most. If you stuff your quesadilla with a bunch of big chunks of apple, they'll probably all roll out when you're flipping the quesadilla. Now we're going to assemble the quesadilla. I'm going to fold it in half, rather than use two tortillas, so I'm only putting the ingredients on one side. If you're using two tortillas, just put them across the whole surface. I'm really measuring by sight more than amount. I'm going for one thin layer of cheddar...
then one thin layer of apple...
then a few dollops of onion jam (an entire layer makes the flavor a bit overpowering in my opinion)...
sprinkle on a few red pepper flakes (again, omit this step if you don't want it spicy)...
and, if you want, toss on a final sprinkle of cheddar for good measure. Fold the top over, and sort of press down a bit to keep it shut. If you have any extra apple slices (I always do), they make a great snack while you're cooking, or a great side dish if you don't mind that they're just leftovers.
Okay, time to cook! Add a bit of butter to a frying pan over medium-high heat. If I had to guess, I'd say I used a teaspoon of butter for each side. This is the key, by the way, to a really good quesadilla. Baking it is healthier, and microwaving is quicker, but frying it in butter gives it that crunchy, salty, golden-brown outside that makes restaurant quesadillas so amazing. Once the butter is completely melted and maybe making a few little popping noises, put the quesadilla into the pan. I'm terrible about dropping the filling into the pan, but I just scoot it all back in with the spatula and pretend it never happened. Once the bottom side looks golden, drop another bit of butter on the side of the pan the quesadilla isn't occupying, and let it melt.
Now it's time to flip it over. This is the hard part, and I'm still not terribly good at it. I do think, though, that it's more important to focus on getting the quesadilla to land in the pan where it belongs than to worry about keeping all of the filling inside.
See? I can't flip it properly, and I'm still gonna eat it. It's fine. Now just wait for the bottom side to turn golden, and you're done!
If you want something creamy with your quesadilla, you can add a bit of sour cream. I don't think it needs it (and I'm always a fan of sour cream with my quesadillas). The flavor's amazing already. The cheese is tangy and sharp (and melty and gooey), the apples are still raw, but warm (so they retain that slight tang), the onion jam adds sweetness and onioniness, and cooking it in butter just adds that golden crunchy texture that made me a quesadilla fan to begin with.
So, there we go. Is anybody going to try and make it? Anybody just love quesadillas? European friends, do you guys even do quesadillas? I hope you do. I'd be depressed if I couldn't get quesadillas.