Making Quesadillas

you you a warm gooey cheese quesadilla I mean what could be better than that I guess that's up kind of a rhetorical question I mean just think about it yes grilled cheese sandwiches Pizza calzone ace cheese fondue I mean they all have that irresistible combination of melted cheese and bread but you know what could this a little bit better is a homemade flour tortilla now I know I'm the guy that's always showing everybody how to make corn tortillas I just love them but the truth the matter is probably easier to make a good flour tortilla I mean you probably already have all the stuff that you need in your home you don't have to go rushing around looking for fresh ground corn masa or masa inna I mean it really basically just starts with this stuff right here all-purpose flour then you'll need some sort of shortening to go into it I'm gonna use some fresh rendered pork fat but you could use some vegetable shortening too if that suits your tastes just be sure to get the trans fat-free variety then I need a little bit of water for this recipe I'm gonna need about 3/4 of a cup I'm gonna stir I'm just slightly under a TSP of salt into that stirring it till it dissolves and we're ready to put it all together okay we're gonna start with flour and the all-purpose flour that I need here's about three quarters of a pound that'll be about 2 and 3/4 cups and then the pork lard I might be wondering why I'm using pork time because I just like the way it tastes it makes the richest most savory flour tortillas you could ever imagine gonna need about 1/3 of a cup to go into our flour then the top goes on the food processor and I'm going to pulse it until we get that fat distributed now with the machine still running I'm gonna slowly pour in the water and when the dough comes to a ball like that should be slightly scared it's ready no kneading is needed here but it's ready to divide into balls that we're going to use to make this our tortillas kitchen and get a little bit of flour to sprinkle over the top of it Pat it out kind of into a sausage shape here and then using one of these scrapers I'm going to cut it into six pieces and then each piece in half to make 12 dough bowls that I'm going to roll up and let rest for about an hour on a plate covered with plastic that'll make them easy to roll out the dough is ready to roll and I've got this really cool little rolling pin perfect for rolling out flour tortillas the first thing that we got to do is to lightly dust the counter and the dough ball with flour and then I'm going to use classic rolling technique so which means you roll away from yourself and you turn the dough about a quarter of a turn after each roll perfect technique for rolling out pie crusts or pita bread flour tortillas whatever it is then I get it to about seven inches I'm going to put it on to the cast iron skillet the best thing to cook flour tortillas on it's heated to about medium over between the medium-high and immediately you should hear just the time with a little bit of a sizzle you'll see these little bubbles after about 30 or 45 seconds it'll be browned underneath flip it over and bake it on the other side the more bubbles the flakier the lighter your flour tortilla will be okay let's take our puffy flour tortilla and put it into a cloth lined basket here roll out and bake all the rest of them in exactly the same way stacking one right on top of another they'll trap all the heat together and finish their cooking kind of slightly steaming one another and now back to that question of quesadillas hoo-wee warm quesadilla made with the homemade flour tortilla what could be better than now when I'm in Mexico City and it's Saturday and I'm in the mood for quesadillas this is the place that I come to it's called the Basava though or the Saturday Bazaar and it's kind of like an an Art Fair with a very famous quesadilla stop this is the sign on Hill section of Mexico City and well forever it's been the sort of unofficial hub of the art world I mean just a few blocks over here is where Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo had their home and studio and they were always inviting over other famous artists and intellectuals now believe it or not this home collection of galleries and craft shops is only open one day a week on Saturdays and this is that very well-known quesadilla stall that I was telling you about in fact it's a great place to get a lesson in the simple art of quesadilla making the first thing that you'll notice is that there's no flour tortillas anywhere inside in fact the first thing that they do is to make some fresh-ground corn masa press it out in an old-fashioned wooden tortilla press lay it on a griddle bake it on both sides and then they add to it whatever toppings whatever fillings you want for your quesadilla you can of course have cheese or roasted peppers but they also offer chorizo sausage a little shredded chicken mixture that they called pinga some cactus paddles with shrimp or some squash blossoms that's fantastic I can't imagine what could be better than this actually well the bazaar sabado is a Saturday only affair this is definitely it's Sunday counterpart I'm in the middle of downtown Mexico City and the old famous Lagoon eeyah market definitely a little more rough and tumble than the bazaar sabado you might want to say that it's sort of like flea market meets Antiques Fair me too art auction meets pawnshop but no matter what cool things you'd find here don't pass up this stall they make some of the best rustic quesadillas in this fool Senhor Provo me gustaría una quesadilla de que Vitas tech le Fay's con messes yes sir she presses out a kind of oval tortilla with blue corn masa then lays it on the hot griddle when it's done on one side she flips it over cooks it a little bit longer and then take some of that Oaxacan string cheese lays it directly on the grill to get it started softening and then scrapes up that slightly melted cheese and puts it on top of the tortilla along with some cooked greens these are the lambs livers that they have geared folds it up via style and then serves it on a paper lined plate this is amazing stuff there's only breed restaurants in Mexico especially here in Mexico City that are embracing and reinventing the traditions of Mexican cuisine in the culture this place is called ataxia which is the an Aztec word for peace I think you'll agree with me that the vibe in here is all cool and calm right in the heart of the world's biggest city now places like poxy approval Isha's point that I've embraced wholeheartedly for years and that is that Mexican traditional classics can make a smooth transition into world-class fine dining it's just all a matter of choosing the best ingredients respecting the techniques in thinking about fresh ways that you can present things now here in Mexico said you can go out on perfectly any street corner and find somebody making fried quesadillas that are served on a piece of paper on a plastic plate well here in Picea they miniaturize all of that and then serve them to their guests is a sort of delicate amuse-bouche just to start the meal my little crispy fried quesadillas with a swish of guacamole a martini that's made with tropical black sapote and a foam on top that's infused with orange a classic classic combination I mean I have a luxury what could be better than this now so far we've only been talking about gooey melting cheese in quesadillas and when you come to a Mexican market like I brought you here in downtown Mexico City to the great big mayor said well you'll find things like your classic chihuahua cheese that'll melt but now you can find a lot of mine Jago Mexican made Montreuil go here but to tell you the truth in a Mexican market what you find most of is Jesus that don't melt I call them like garnishing Jesus then they're a little bit like parmesan you can see all of this variety that we have here and you sprinkle it over the top of the dish and it just makes the flavors pop and then there's this now if you think that that looks like a drier form of the American ricotta well you're exactly right this is called Vegas on here now that word ricotta comes from Italian and it means we cooked make its own means brie cheese and I'll tell you why when the cheese making process you add an enzyme or some acid or culture to milk great the con from the way but that way that liquid clear stuff still has a lot of milk solids in it you can heat it up and well you get another harvest of cheese out of it you get baked a song out of it now this stuff is a little bit drier than what we get in the United States and a little bit Tangier Bayonne it's incredibly creamy just melts in your mouth

Channel: monteam

Views: 166,503

Rating: 4.8717947 out of 5

Keywords: Rick, Bayless

Id: 6sD3UwVctjU

Length: 14min 20sec (860 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 05 2011