Minnesota Cooking: Quesadilla - The Grilled Sandwich of the Southern Set

Now mind you, this may or may not have ever been cooked in a Mexican style arrangement, but this is what we ate today at my home in southern Minnesota. Call it what you will. The technical name for this dish is quesadilla. Pronounced kay saw dee awe.

You cannot ask me why the two ll's are pronounced like the letter 'y'. It looks like dilla, but it's not.

I have evolved in my preparation in the past 32 years of creating these grilled wonders. I used to put them together and then try to flop them in to a frying pan, and then, I'd attempt to flip them over, spilling most of the insides to the outsides.

Yes. It was a mess. They always tasted pretty good, but very difficult to cook.

What did I do differently?

Well. Cooking smarter, not harder, I decided to let gravity work for me.

Oh, and before I forget, this requires two pans.

One to cook your meat, and one more to cook your quesadilla.

Cut some items to put inside your wraps. Minced onion, bell pepper, green olives, tomato, shredded cheese and some seasoned hamburger. I used a package of Enchilada seasoning today, but previous to today, I have used mild Taco Seasoning.

It's easy enough. Brown your hamburger. Add the package of seasoning and 3/4 cup of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Enough for the cornstarch in the mix to make the water into gravy.

The other day, I added refried beans to the hamburger, and today I added a cup of shredded carrots.

The pan is heated to medium heat, butter is melted in the pan. The flour wrap is buttered on the outside and placed in the pan. Then, sprinkle the fried meat on the tortilla evenly. Then, place your minced onions, minced pepper, minced olives, minced tomatoes on top of the meat, then, sprinkle with shredded cheese. I prefer to use Sharp Cheddar shreds, but some people like to the use the Mexican Shreds because they have hot peppers in the cheese.

As soon as you have the cheese sprinkled across, then, you can butter the second tortilla wrap and place on the top. At this point,, you'll need to check the bottom wrap for browning.

As the bottom tortilla was getting darker, I took a chinette paper plate and slid it under the wrap. I had a second plate that I placed on the top of the top wrap.

Hold firmly and flip over. Then, put the top plate down and slide your creation back into the pan.

From here on, the only job you have left is to lift the edge of the bottom wrap up and get ready to scoop it out with the plate again.

Check for browning and then, remove from the pan and place on a plate.

A pizza cutter works wonders for cutting the quesadilla into wedges. The pizza cutter wheel cuts through to the glass plate and then, cut, is now ready to eat.