Double Decker Quesadilla with Homemade Tomato Salsa

Here's another idea for serving with Homemade Tomato Salsa. All of the sudden, Mexican cuisines become so easy now that I have the salsa handy. Apart from the Cheesy Enchilada, I have also used it for pizza with great result.

I used Gouda cheese here because for some reason there's no Jack cheese in either Gourmet Market or Tops. I must have bought the last one from Villa Market. If you find Pepper Jack Cheese, go for it and omit the jalapeno pepper. I just thought mixing jalapeno pepper and the cheese together would generate similar taste to that of pepper Jack since that's what it's about (don't quote me, I never have pepper Jack before).

"Every bite is a surprise" Love the combination of sharp Cheddar and nutty, buttery Gouda.

Ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)

• 3 flour tortilla
• Pure sesame oil
• 1/2 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup Gouda cheese, grated
• 1 small pickled jalapeno pepper, sliced

To Serve:

• Homemade Tomato Salsa
• Mexican Grilled Pepper and Corn Salad (or Guacamole)
  
• Sour cream (1 TB lemon juice + cream)

1. Preheat oven at 120C. Lay a piece of baking paper over baking tray.
   
2. Brush a piece of tortilla with just enough sesame oil. Place it greased side down on the baking paper. Sprinkle Cheddar cheese over.
3. Top it with a second flour tortilla. Put on top Gouda and jalapeno pepper. Cover with the third piece of tortilla. Brush top with sesame oil.
4. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cheeses melt.
5. Let it cool and set for 5 minutes. Cut it into 6 wedges. Serve with Homemade Tomato Salsa and sour cream.
   

Blossom Your Taste Buds to Vegetarian Wonders

Mia and I had this joke about the overt Anusara expression. So when I half-jokingly requested for a theme for the home-cook dinner at her house, she replied with "Blossom Your Taste Buds to Vegetarian Wonders/ - Anusara Mia". John Friend would have been proud.

Mia and Fredrik make the prefect Swedish couple I know. Everything about them just seem so perfect: the tidy white apartment (less so now that Ludvig is in their life), perfect manner, charming charisma, well dressed.... everything about them is just so..... CLEAN. They are like the couple in 70's Sci-fi movies. Like this (except they have blonde hair):

It was a fun night with great companions (and charming baby) where I gladly played Chef de Cuisine and Mia the Sous Chef, Fredrik the Chef de Plunge, and Adrian the Food de-Vourer. I simply can't bear the sight of the mess I made. God bless the dishwasher.

I didn't take the pictures of the dishes - didn't want to creep them out - hence the use of my old photos. Here's a rundown of our dinner menu:

Couscous and Spinach Pilaf with Labneh and Chili-roasted Tomatoes

Exactly the same recipe as Barley Pilaf with Roasted Vegetable and Deep Fried Goat Cheese. We made these changes:

• Labneh instead of deep fried goat cheese. Mia and Fredrik prepared homemade labneh the night before. It's flavored with minced garlic.
• Zucchini instead of pumpkin.
• Organic wholewheat couscous instead of cooked barley.

Again, this dish takes a while to prepare but works well with planning and it never fails to impress even the carnivores. Despite the rainbow combination of colorful vegetables and herbs, the unassuming, darkly colored, cinnamon-spiced lemony caramelized crispy onions always win. My Swedish friends were talking about making this for their non-vegetarian parents back in Sweden during Christmas.

Veggie Inside-out Lentil Burger

An adaptation of the Veggie Chickpea Burger. The patties are made up of lentils, eggs, onions and homemade breadcrumbs. Use black lentils if you may - they hold up the shape better than red lentils. We (or rather Fredrik) sliced the patties into two halves and used Couscous Pilaf as the filling. If you have extra labneh, spread them generously over the cut side of the patties. Mia liked the idea of turning patty into burger bun and called it the inside out burger.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

The combination of roasted tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese sends everyone into ecstasy. The oven-toasted tortilla shell (or taco shell) gave it an interesting crunch.

Vegan Coconut Chocolate Pudding

I was talking to Dan (our chef friend) the morning before and he mentioned "no matter what you cook, how good the main course is, dessert ALWAYS wins". Coming from a pro chef with years of experience, he must be right. This is a relatively easy dessert that you can make in advance. The secret is coconut milk. YUM~ I seriously need to work on my measuring skill: there were 3 large servings left at the end of the night. I took home one. It never hurts to have more chocolate.

The Truth about Tortilla

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

I got confused with the word tortilla. I always thought it refers to the kind of flatbread or chips that they serve in Mexican restaurant. How sorry was I for my ignorant. Apparently the Spanish word denotes two different classes of foods.
In Mexico, tortilla is what most of us know it to be: either flour tortilla used for burritos or corn tortilla most commonly used for tortilla chips, but also serves as an essential ingredient for enchiladas, tostadas and flautas. However in Spain, Puerto Rico, South America and Cuba, tortilla refers to any round, layered omelette. Now that makes sense. At Sunshine Kitchen (Gourmet Market at Paragon), where I frequent, the tortilla come in two types: chopped potatoes or pumpkins. I prefer the one with chopped potatoes because they hold up well. The pumpkin is a little too mushy. That's not what I'm cooking though.
I guess it's called tortilla soup because the use of corn tortilla. It's basically a very rich and flavorful fresh tomato and sun-dried tomato soup with hints of spicyness.

Ingredients:
(6 servings)
6 oven-toasted tortilla shells, carefully cut into matchstick-thin strips
(If you only have corn tortilla, cut them into matchstick-thin strips before you bake them with glug of olive oil and salt in oven until crispy)

20 red cherry tomatoes, halved

3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large white onion, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 can crushed tomatoe
6 cups vegetable broth or water

a few sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled

1. Toss cherry tomatoes with a bit of olive oil and salt. Bake inn oven at 180C for 40 minutes until the tomatoes are shrunken and golden around the edges.
   (I did this step a day in advance. The tomatoes keep well in a jar for days in refrigerator)
2. Cook onion and garlic with a splash of butter (I avoid cooking with olive oil) along with a pinch of salt. Stir in spices and then the crushed tomato. Cook for 5 mintues or so. It should thicken just a bit.
3. Remove from heat and add one cup of broth and puree with a blender. Add the remanining broth and puree until smooth.
   
4. Bring the soup back to simmer and cook for another 10 minutes.
   
5. Serve in individual bowl topped with tortilla chips, roasted and sun-dried tomatoes, and some goat cheese.
   
6. I happened to have some cilantro to throw in as well. You can also finish with slices of avocado, or white onions. I added extra goat cheese to make it creamier.