Mesoamerica · Volume 01, The Highland Mole and Maize World
Quesadillas de Huitlacoche
Valley of Mexico and Puebla
Illustration
- Time
- 22 minutes
- Researched
- Researched from 103 sources in the brief
As tradition built it
Quesadillas de huitlacoche
Casa de México en España . Serves 2 . 22 minutes
Ingredients
- 30g huitlacoche (corn smut)
- 1 pinch epazote
- to taste onion
- 1 fresh corn tortilla
- 70g, or Gouda quesillo or other melting cheese
Method
- Sauté the huitlacoche with epazote and onion until it collapses into a rich, earthy, faintly mushroom-and-corn filling.
- Fold into a fresh corn tortilla with quesillo or another melting cheese.
- Cook on the comal until the cheese runs.
What a modern chef changes
Concentrated filling, real quesillo, live-fire melt
Method
- Dehydrate a portion of the sautéed huitlacoche before folding it back into the fresh filling, concentrating its earthy flavour without the wateriness fresh corn smut can carry into the finished quesadilla.
- Use real quesillo, hand-stretched and hand-pulled rather than a pre-shredded substitute, and finish the assembled quesadilla briefly under a Big Green Egg's very hot direct zone for a faster, more even melt and a lightly charred tortilla edge that a stovetop pan struggles to give without overcooking the filling.