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
Serves 2. About 22 minutes.
Ingredients
- 30g huitlacoche (corn smut)
- a little oil
- 1 pinch epazote
- to taste white onion, chopped
- to taste salt
- 70g quesillo, or Gouda
- 2 corn tortillas, 15cm
- to serve green tomatillo salsa or hot salsa
Method
- Fry the huitlacoche in a little oil with the epazote, onion and salt until it turns to a paste. Set it aside.
- Slice the cheese thinly and lay it on a hot comal, with the huitlacoche on top.
- Warm the tortillas on the comal over a low heat.
- When the cheese starts to melt, lift it carefully onto a tortilla with its huitlacoche and fold the tortilla in half.
- Brown the quesadilla lightly on both sides on the comal.
- Serve, opening it carefully to add salsa if you want it.
Notes
The recipe is José María Díaz's, for the Fundación Casa de México en España. MASECA's version adds garlic and chile serrano, cooks the filling 5 to 7 minutes stirring all the time, folds the cheese inside a fresh blue maize tortilla, and serves it with avocado.
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.