Tortilla's Journey to Quesadilla!!

Sunday is my me time day and so is for my husband, we both do our own thing getting out of each other's hair for some time :-) My concept of me time is turning up the radio and pottering in the kitchen :) My mind was racing thinking of various things I could make, but I finally settled down on a Mexican favourite, Quesadilla !! When I had a Quesadilla for the first time, I didn't realise a plain tortilla stuffed with goodness can render such a delightful and sumptuous meal! I still am on the make your ingredients work for you spree, so I pulled out every single thing I could find and loaded it on a corn tortilla wrap and there is was sunshine on a plate! This is how I embarked on my Journey to a Plain Tortilla to a glorious Quesadillas !!
This makes 2 Quesadillas 1 meat and 1 vegetable, feeds 2 hungry or 4 as starters:

For stuffing:

1. half of large red pepper
2. 1 small red chilli (take a mild or a hot chilli depending on how spicy you want your Quesadilla to be), I make mine quite hot.
3. 2 rings of marinated spicy jalapeños 
4. 1 clove of finely chopped garlic
5. 3 spring onions, take white and green both and chop them finely
6. 1 medium size tomato
7. handful of finely shredded spinach
8. Tomato Ketchup
9. Pepper paste (I had some left over pasta pepper sauce, if you don't have this skip it)
10. a dollop of sour cream or low fat naturally set yoghurt (I used yoghurt in mine)
11. Lemon or Lime to sprinkle
12. Salt and Pepper to season
13. 3 large marinated olives
14. a bunch of cilantro leaves or flat leaf parsley
15. a couple of red small radishes
16. Grated Cheddar Cheese
17. Shredded cabbage.
18. Pepperoni slices 6-8 for the meaty version 

Wraps:

Corn Tortilla wraps

Olive oil for brushing

Lets get cooking!

1. I know this sounds like a huge load of chopping and cutting, but its a very soothing thing to do if you are looking at doing something that can take your mind off the mundane problems, I find chopping vegetables pretty therapeutic, may be because of its repetitive motion and the pile of goodness that you get by the end of it :)
2.  Chop all the vegetables finely but bite sized so that you get a nice crunch when you bite into your Quesadilla.

Pre the tortillas for their transformation to Quesadilla:

1. I find flipping Quesadillas very risk and stressful, so I cheat a little :) I brush 2 tortilla wraps with olive oil and heat them up on the grill pan until they have nice charred lines on it, this becomes the lid of your Quesadilla. Set them aside.

Pre the Quesadilla - Quesadilla - Veg:

1. Take the unheated tortilla wraps smear them with pepper paste and tomato ketchup.
2. Top up with all the cut vegetables, drizzles yougurt over the toppings, add Cheese and squeeze a little lime to freshen up everything.
3. garnish with cilantro or parsley
4. Transfer the tortilla on the heavy bottom grill pan Cover it with the prepared tortilla.
5. Press it down firmly or place weight on top so that the 2 tortilla wraps stick well together and help the cheese to melt.
6. Once the cheese starts melting and sauce starts oozing out, it time to take them out.
7. Cut them into slices of our choice and enjoy it with a chilled beer!

Pre the Quesadilla - Quesadilla - Meat:

To make a meaty version, just place the pepperoni slices on top of the vegetables and then load it with cheese.

Once you have chopped the vegetables, it takes less than 5 mins to get the Quesadillas from the hob to the plate:)

Bon Appétit!!!