Ground Beef Quesadillas

"Quesadillas" are a Mexican dish of tortillas filled primarily with cheese, but often with other ingredients like meat and seasonings. In some form, the idea of quesadillas "likely" date back to the Aztecs, but there seem to be all sorts of stories about the origin of this popular food, although no one story has persuaded me to view it as conclusive. I use 6 inch diameter flour tortillas to make quesadillas, and I got eight quesadillas from the amounts in the recipe below, but naturally the amount of filling used in each quesadilla is the deciding factor, so let's say this recipe will make 6 to 8 quesadillas.

 

Ingredients (8 six inch quesadillas):

 

8 flour tortillas (6 inches in diameter)

1 pound ground beef

1/2 cup thinly sliced onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 teaspoons olive oil

2 teaspoons ancho chili powder

1 heaping teaspoon dried Mexican oregano (or regular), crumbled in the palm of your hand

1 chipotle (chopped) with a tablespoon of adobo sauce*

2 teaspoons (dry) adobo seasoning**

2 tablespoons thick ketchup

1 tablespoon Maggi or Gravy Master seasoning

2 teaspoons Spanish sweet paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

(Optional) 1/2 teaspoon salt (the cheese and some seasonings already have salt)

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese or chihuahua cheese

 

Add the olive oil to a skillet over medium heat; when heated, add the onion and saute for about 2 minutes, then add the garlic and saute a further 1 minute, stirring the contents about the skillet, then add the ground beef and keep moving it around and breaking it up so that no large clumps of meat are present. Add the salt, pepper, ancho chili powder, dried Mexican oregano and adobo seasoning; mix the seasonings in well throughout the meat. Add the chipotle pepper and adobo sauce, ketchup and Maggi or Gravy Master and mix everything well. Saute further for about 2 minutes, stirring everything around often. Put some of the meat mixture onto 1/2 of each flour tortilla, sprinkle a good amount of shredded mozzarella and some Monterey Jack or Chihuahua cheese over the meat, then fold the other half of the tortilla over the filled side. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes on each side in a nonstick skillet (I don't use any oil in the pan) over medium heat (or you can bake 6 to 8 minutes on a foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet at 400 F). Pay very close attention when frying the quesadillas, and use a cake turner to make sure they don't stick to the pan (nonstick skillet or not, foods still stick).    

 

 * If you are not familiar with chipotle peppers, they are smoked jalapeno peppers. They are typically sold in small cans packed in adobo sauce. Adobo sauce is a dark red sauce made from ground chilies and some seasonings. It is spicy and kind of earthy in flavor.  

 

 ** "Adobo seasoning" is not the same as "adobo sauce." "Adobo seasoning" is a mixture of dry ingredients that form a kind of seasoned salt. It is very popular in Puerto Rico, where many people make adobo seasoning according to their own family recipes. Of course, there are commercial brands of adobo seasoning too. Here is the link to dry adobo seasoning ingredients: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/11/adobo-seasoning.html

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Vehicle-This word is related to many words, including: "via," a word borrowed by English from Latin, to "voyage" and to "convey," Latin-derived words borrowed from French, and it is distantly related to "wagon," "way" and "weigh," all words from the Germanic roots of English. "Vehicle" goes back to Indo European "wegh" which had the notion of "movement, travel, ride." This gave its Italic offspring "weyo" meaning "to carry, to bear, to convey," and this gave Latin "vehere" with the same meanings, which produced the noun "vehiculum" meaning "means of transport, conveyance;" thus also, "carriage or cart." This passed to Latin-based French as "vehicule" and English borrowed the word in the first quarter of the 1600s with likely Latin reinforcement and with the idea of "transport," including that of "a means to administer medication to patients," and "a device used to transport people or other livings things or objects;" seemingly, more and more common in usage as motorized transport became increasingly popular. 

Spicy Mexican Corn Soup

This is a good and spicy soup with no actual meat, although I use chicken broth, and you could certainly use vegetable broth instead. Using 2 chipotle peppers will not likely bring smoke billowing from your ears, but if you like more heat, 4 chipotles will likely do the trick. Be sure to include some of the adobo sauce from the chipotle peppers; it will provide great flavor for the soup. Optionally, if you want to thicken the soup, you can add some cornmeal or corn flour. While both are ground corn, corn flour is finely ground. Queso blanco or other white cheese are great with this. I actually used "Chihuahua" cheese, and if you think this is a "dog cheese," you're barking up the wrong tree... It's a white cheese popular in Mexico which originated in the state of Chihuahua. The little dog of that name is simply named after that state. 

Ingredients (about 6 to 8 servings):

3 cups corn (fresh, but frozen corn is fine)
1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
2 to 4 chipotle peppers with adobo sauce
4 1/2 cups chicken broth
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
2/3 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon butter + 2 tablespoons regular olive oil  
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
white cheese in small cubes (queso blanco, Chihuahua cheese, mozzarella or Monterey Jack)
3/4 teaspoon salt (if the broth has a high salt content, you can omit adding salt or just add a pinch)
(Optional) 3 to 4 tablespoons cornmeal or corn flour (or more to your own preference of thickness)

In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over low heat, melt the butter and heat the olive oil. Add the chopped onion and saute for 4 to 5 minutes, then add the minced garlic and saute another 1 to 2 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and add the chopped tomatoes, oregano, chili powder, chipotle peppers with adobo sauce; saute further until the tomatoes soften. Empty the cooked ingredients into a blender of food processor and process until smooth. Return the smooth mixture to the sauce pan over medium heat and add the chicken broth, mix well and bring to a simmer. Add the corn, the cilantro and any salt you're using (if using corn flour or cornmeal, mix it with some water or broth and stir well to prevent lumps, then stir it into the soup). Maintain a steady simmer and cook for 6 to 8 minutes more. When serving, add 4 or 5 white cheese cubes to each bowl of soup. You can also add a dollop of sour cream to each serving (reduced fat sour cream is fine). Serve with tortilla chips and/or grilled corn cakes. 
     
With tortilla chips and a grilled corn cake on the side ... 

WORD HISTORY:
Gringo-This word is related to "Greek" (the word for the people of Greece and their language), a word of shaky origin that was passed to English from its parent language, Old Germanic, which had borrowed it from Latin. While there is no firm evidence as to why the "Hellenes," the previous name for the Greeks, began to be called the "Greeks," the Romans used the term "Graeci" as the word in Latin, seemingly as a borrowing from Greek "Grakoi." The Latin form was passed down to Latin-based Spanish as "griego," which spawned the Spanish word "gringo" (also passed on to Portuguese as such) with the meaning, "speaker of unintelligible words, speaker of gibberish, speaker of such poor Spanish, so as not to be understood;" thus also, "speaker of a foreign tongue." ^ Later in Spanish speaking Mexico, which had lots of contact with Americans, much of the contact being contentious, the word took on the meaning there of "foreigner, an Anglo-American," but often implying that in a less than flattering way. The word seemingly came into more English use during the "U.S.-Mexican War," in 1846-48.    

^ In English we say, "it's all Greek to me" to convey that we don't understand something written or said. This was either developed by Shakespeare for use in the play "Julius Caesar," or it was taken by him from some unknown source, but the saying remains with us to this day. Further, what is now the name for the country of "Wales," and for the people of Wales, the "Welsh," came from the Germanic words for "foreigners, (usually) Celts," and for, "gibberish, foreign (usually Celtic) speech." The Anglo-Saxon conquerors of Britain used their forms of the words (dialects in those times) for the Celtic speaking people of Britain, especially for those who survived the Germanic invasions in Cornwall and Wales.    

Creamy Chipotle Sauce

This sauce goes well with all kinds of things, including with fish, on sandwiches, with veggies and on tacos. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sour cream (reduced fat is fine)
1/2 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat is fine)
1 or 2 chipotle peppers, chopped
1 tablespoon of the adobo sauce from the chipotle peppers*
1 teaspoon (dry) adobo seasoning**

Add the ingredients to a bowl and stir to mix well. Best when refrigerated for at least an hour (longer time period is even better) to allow the flavors to develop.

* "Adobo sauce" is not the same as "adobo seasoning." Adobo sauce is a mixture of ground dried chilies (not necessarily super hot chilies), along with various seasonings and some vinegar and often, some oil. Chipotle peppers come packed in adobo sauce.   

** For more about "adobo seasoning," and for an easy recipe for home use, here is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/11/adobo-seasoning.html  

Great to add a "kick" when used as a dip for vegetables...

WORD HISTORY:
Deter-This word comes from a prefixed word, the main body of which is related to "terrible," a word of Latin derivation borrowed by English from French. The prefix here is "de," which goes back to Indo European "de," which had the notion of, "away from, down from, from." This was also taken by its Latin offspring, with the same meanings. The main part of "deter" is from Indo European "tros," with the meaning, "to be afraid, to fear, to tremble with fear." This gave Latin "terrere," meaning, "to frighten, to make afraid, to make fearful." The two parts together gave Latin "deterrere," meaning, "to frighten from," with the figurative sense being, "to discourage or stop someone from (doing something out of fear)." English borrowed the word in the second half of the 1500s, with the figurative sense, although over time the meaning has, "in some senses," softened somewhat to "discourage through persuasion," but "fear" still lurks behind other uses.