Shredded Chicken Quesadillas

Quesadillas are just another of the seemingly endless variations of dishes that can be made using tortillas (either flour or corn varieties). Although authentic Mexican quesadillas are usually made from corn tortillas, in the Tex-Mex variation and also in Northern Mexico, flour tortillas are much more common.

The concept is very simple - place the ingredients of your choice in one half of a tortilla and heat in a frying pan or on a comal - a Mexican cast-iron griddle pan. Then fold over and cut into wedges and eat! In Tex-Mex cuisine, 2 tortillas are often used instead of 1. In Mexico this would be called a sincronizada (synchronised) rather than a quesadilla. Confused?!?!

Cheese and Onion Pasties

Just a quick one from me today, as I am busy. (Pictures will follow shortly)

These pasties are made with puff pastry and are really simple to make.
The origins of cheese and onion pasties are not really clear. Perhaps they are a veggy alternative to the traditional Cornish Pasties. Who know?

Ingredients

300g onions (2-3 onions)

450g grated cheese of your choice (I used a mix of mature cheddar and gouda)

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp mild mustard

1 tsp paprika powder
2 packets of frozen puffy pastry squares (20 squares in total)
A little sunflower oil to fry
1 egg to glaze the pasties

Makes between 15-20 pasties

Method

Place the pastry squares individually onto a clean surface to defrost.

Peel and finely chop the onions. Fry these gently in a medium pan with a little sunflower oil, until they are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Add the grated cheese and mustard together with the spices and mix through the onions well.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Depending on what shap you want your pasties to be, you can either leave them as squares (will give you triangle pasties) or cut the squares into circles (will give you D-shaped pasties). 

Spoon a little of the cheese and onion mixture onto one half of the pastry, leaving a thin space round the edges with no mixture. Fold the other half of the pastry over and crimp down with your thumb or a fork, making sure there are no holes for mixture to escape. Cut a small slit in the top of the pasty to allow steam to escape.

Place the pasties onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, and glaze the tops with a little beaten egg.

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until risen and golden brown.

Allow to cool slightly before eating, or you will get some molten cheese burning your mouth!

Enjoy!