Roasted Corn Quesadilla with Tomatillo Salsa

A few weeks ago I made a sweet and sour roasted tomatillo and apple salsa. It was a lot more than I could devour with chips in just a couple days, so I froze some of it and have been using it in different ways since - dipping sauce for veggies, dressing for salads, spread for sandwiches etc. Here’s another recipe that brings out the bright flavors in this salsa - crispy quesadilla with corn tortillas and a roasted corn, pepper and beans filling.

Ingredients: (Makes ~4-5)

8-10 Corn tortillas

½ cup roasted tomatillo & apple salsa (Click here for recipe)

¾ - 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (or other quick melting cheese - I used Queso Chihuahua Shredded cheese)

Filling

1 cup sweet corn

1 small red bell pepper - chopped

½ small onion - chopped (~¼ cup)

½ cup black or kidney beans - cooked (or from a can)

1-2 cloves of garlic - minced

1 tsp oil

Salt, black pepper - to taste

To make Filling:

Heat oil over medium-high and add garlic and onions. Saute for a minute, then add the pepper and corn. Let them cook until browned, stirring occasionally. Add the beans, season with salt, pepper, mix well and take off the heat.

Assembly:

Warm two tortillas on both sides. Spread about 1 Tbsp of salsa on one of the tortillas. Top it with 2-3 Tbsp of filling mixture and about 2 Tbsp of shredded cheese. Place the other tortilla on top.

Press down with a spatula and cook on medium heat until the bottom is browned and crispy. You can use a little bit of butter/oil if you like. Gently flip the quesadilla and cook the other side until crispy. Cut into wedges and serve with more salsa for dipping.  

~Gayatri

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Roasted Tomatillo and Apple Salsa

Tomatillos, often confused with unripe green tomatoes, have a completely unique personality of their own. Both are technically berries, but unlike tomatoes, tomatillos are covered with a thin paper-like husk, and the fruit has a sticky coating underneath the husks. Raw tomatillos can be extremely tart, but cooking them helps mellow the acidity as well as soften the skin, making them perfect for a sauce.

I always like sweetness accompanying any tart flavor, so after some internet research, I decided to use apple as the complementing flavor for tomatillo salsa. This ended up being the perfect amount of sweet, sour, and spicy for me, but feel free to play with the quantities to skew the taste one way or another!

Ingredients: (Makes ~1.5-2 cups)

4 medium tomatillos - remove husks and rinse

1 medium apple (I used the Golden Delicious variety)

4-5 cloves of garlic - minced

1 small onion - roughly chopped (~⅓- ½ cup)

1 small jalapeno pepper - cored and roughly chopped (add more if you prefer a spicier salsa)

1 cup loosely packed cilantro (I used both leaves and stems)

Salt, black pepper to taste

1 tsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a cookie sheet/ baking pan with Aluminum foil.

Chop the tomatillos into quarters. Slice the apple into thick wedges. Place both on the lined baking pan in a single layer and bake in preheated oven for ~20 minutes until slightly browned.

While the tomatillos and apples are baking, prepare remaining ingredients by sauteeing the onions, garlic and jalapeno in olive oil over medium-high heat. Let them cook until you get a good char on the jalapeno and onions.

Add the onion mixture, the cooked tomatillos and apples, cilantro to a food processor and blend to your preferred consistency. Season with salt and pepper. To keep it chunky, you could reserve a couple tablespoons of finely chopped apple.

Store in the refrigerator. Serve with tortilla chips or use in your favorite Mexican recipe!

~Gayatri

Other recipes you might like:

Vegetarian Enchiladas with Sour Cream Tomatillo Sauce

Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas

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Apple Pie Roll-ups

This tasty snack is inspired by the Pillsbury apple pie crescents, which look super easy to make. I had some apples that needed to be used, and wanted to try something other than my go-to easy apple crisp. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any Pillsbury crescent rolls, or apple pie spice, or even pie crust. So, I made my own! If you have all the ingredients on-hand, these not-too-sweet treats are simple to make, and you’ll have trouble stopping at eating just one!

Ingredients: (makes 16)

2 apples

2 9” pie crusts (*see footnote for recipe)

½ cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground cardamom

3 TBSP unsalted butter, melted

Heat oven to 375F.

Core, peel, and slice the apples into eighths so you have 16 pieces total.

In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom.

Roll out the pie crusts and, using a knife or pizza cutter, cut each crust into 8 wedges. On each wedge, spread some of the sugar and spice mix.

Dip each apple piece into the melted butter, then place at the large end of each wedge. Roll up the apple slice in the crust, tamping the end down, and place on a lined baking sheet.

Brush each roll-up with the leftover butter. Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes until crust is browned and crispy. Let cool 5-10 minutes.

Enjoy as-is or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

~Karla

Pro-tip: if you use a smaller apple (or only use one apple cut into 16ths), or have large pie crust wedges, pinching the edges together will help keep the delicious caramelized sugar-spice glaze from seeping out during baking.

*Whole-wheat pie crust recipe (makes 2 9-inch crusts when rolled out to about ⅛ inch thickness):

½ cup canola oil

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

4 tsp sugar

½ cup buttermilk (1 cup buttermilk = 1 cup milk + 1 TBSP vinegar or lemon juice)

dash of salt

Stir together flour, sugar, salt. Add oil and mix. Pour in buttermilk and knead w/ hands. Form into ball (or 2 balls). Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour before using.

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Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Monday, September 14, 2015

Apple Millefeuille (a.k.a. Leaning Tower of Fruit!)

Growing up I’ve always had a sweet tooth, and I can hardly recall any meals from my childhood without a dessert. If nothing else, I used to have a little bit of jam, jaggery, or sugar with ghee on my plate. Over the years I’ve consciously tried to reduce my refined sugar intake, which is not very easy when you like to bake cakes ;-) … but I now enjoy the healthier desserts with a lot of fruits, so I can occasionally indulge in the more sugary delicious baked treats.

This recipe is for a simple dessert which can be made with fresh fruits such as apple or pear. I like calling it Millefeuille because it is a layered tower. Millefeuille is a French pastry with several thin crispy layers stacked up with creamy filling in between. This version doesn’t have any pastry but it does have thin and crunchy layers of apple! The dish is not just visually pleasing but it also really elevates the taste of the simple everyday apple. It uses very few ingredients (things you might already have in your pantry) and takes hardly any time and effort to put together. It’s a healthier dessert too - in addition to the vitamins and fiber from the fruit, you can also get your protein fix with your favorite nuts and nut butters.

Ingredients: (Serves 1-2)

1 apple (any kind - I used the Gold Delicious variety)

~2 Tbsp peanut butter (or any other nut butter)

1 Tbsp dried cranberries/raisins (or chopped fresh berries)

1-2 tsp chopped nuts (I used pecans and pistachios)

Cinnamon, nutmeg (optional)

Any seeds such as sunflower or chia, nuts, granola etc. can be used in this recipe.

Sauce

1-2 tsp honey

¼ - ½ tsp lemon juice

Water

A pinch of ground cardamom

Salt (optional)

Thinly slice the apple. Mandolin slicer would work great for very even slices, but I just used a knife. Core the slices with a small cookie cutter or a knife. Start laying down the slices from the bottom up. After every 2-3 slices spread a thin layer of nut butter, sprinkle chopped nuts and cranberries. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg if using. Continue till you reach the top.

To make the sauce, mix honey, lemon juice and cardamom powder. Thin the sauce to your liking with water. If your nut butter doesn’t have any added salt, a little bit of salt in the sauce would taste great! Drizzle the sauce on the apple tower.

I’ve been asked how to eat this tower of fruit , so here are the 'instructions' ;-). I like to gently push it over so the apple slices fan out nicely onto the plate. That makes it easy to cut into only a few slices at a time. Dip in extra sauce if desired and enjoy as a (relatively) guilt free breakfast or dessert!

~Gayatri

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Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Monday, August 17, 2015

Easy Apple Crisp

This past holiday season, our employer gave out some pretty nice treats – our choice between a whole ham, turkey, or fruit basket with option to add sausage and cheese. I opted for the fruit basket with sausage and cheese – and boy, did it come with a lot of great fruit! I thought I might not be able to finish it all before they had chance to go bad. There were a lot of apples that needed to be eaten, so I figured the best way to make use of them was obviously a dessert ☺
 

I didn’t have any pie crust, so wanted to make something like a quick cobbler. I searched for some recipes, and cobbled together one of my own roughly based on a handful that I liked. I have made mini-crisps in a muffin pan, as well as one big crisp in a large baking dish. It turned out moist in the middle and crumbly in all the right places and full of great apple flavor!
 

 

Ingredients 

5-6 medium-sized apples

1 cup margarine
1½ cups oatmeal 
1½ cups brown sugar 
1½ cups flour (I used whole wheat)

  

Preheat oven to 350F.

  
Peel, core, and chop the apples into roughly ½-inch cubes and place in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine margarine, oats, brown sugar, and flour, and mix until a crumbly dry-ish mixture forms. Scoop about one-half to two-thirds of the mixture into the bowl with the apples, and stir to combine so that it is evenly distributed throughout the apples.

  
For mini-crisps: line a muffin pan with muffin liners (the foil kind works best) and fill each cup almost to the top, leaving about a quarter to half an inch for the crumbly crust. Sprinkle about half a tablespoon of the crumbly mixture on top of each muffin cup and pat down to form a crust, adding more if needed. Bake 15-20 minutes until the crumble crust is golden-brown. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

For large crisp: pour the apple-crumb mixture into a baking dish (I typically use one of those oval Corningware casserole dishes). Pour the remaining crumbly mixture on top and pat down to form a crust. Bake 30-35 minutes until the crumble top has turned a golden-brown color. Let cool before serving.

 

Serve up the apple crisp as is, or with a scoop of cool vanilla ice cream. This is one dessert that reheats quite well, and usually goes fast in our house!

  
 ~Karla