Tortilla - a thin cake of unleavened dough, kneaded from wheat or high-quality corn flour. They can be eaten simply instead of bread, or cooked with a filling. Tortilla fried in butter in Mexican cuisine is called tostados, there are also such types of dishes as quesadilla, burrito, enchilado, and tacos. All these are tortillas, but with different fillings, one thing unites them: cheese is always used in the filling.
Mexican tortilla-cheese dishes - general cooking principles
The dough for flatbreads can be of two types: traditional from corn or from wheat flour. To prepare it is quite simple, all that is required is, in fact, flour, water, butter from cow's milk, and salt. If you do not want to mess around with the manufacture of cakes, you can buy them ready, in any major supermarket.
Tortilla, traditional for Mexican cuisine, are becoming popular in our kitchen. They are served fried in butter for tea or instead of bread, but more often some tasty stuffing is wrapped in such cakes, the essential component of which is cheese.
Depending on the type of filling, each dish has its own name. For example, if you put lightly melting hard cheese in the filling or add minced meat with it, you will get a quesadilla. Tortilla with cheese, boiled chicken and vegetables, baked with a special tomato sauce, is called enchilada in Mexican cuisine. Burrito - similar to European fast food tortilla with cheese and beans.
You can quickly make a tasty pie from tortilla with cheese or wrap fried meat with light vegetable salad and cheese in such flatbreads, you get something like shawarma, in Mexican cuisine - tacos.
The final stage of cooking is warming up. Rolled flatbreads do not fry, namely, they are heated in a dry frying pan, so that they are only slightly browned. So they become crispy, the cheese inside melts a little and becomes viscous.
The easiest recipe for tortilla with cheese - “Quesadilla”
Ingredients
For cakes:
creamy “Farmer” oil - 100 g;
half spoonful of fine salt;
one and a half glasses of water;
wheat or corn flour - 600 gr.
In the filling, four tortillas:
120 gr. any semi-hard cheese.
Cooking Method:
Sift flour into a spacious, convenient for kneading bowl. Add salt, melted and cooled butter and cool water. First, stirring with a spoon, then moving to the manual kneading, prepare the dough. It comes out soft and almost does not stick to the palms.
Roll out the dough with a very thin layer and, using a plate as a stencil, cut circles.
Laying blanks on a dry frying pan, lightly fry on both sides, preventing the reddening. It is better not to over-cook the tortillas than to overdry.
At least 20 cakes come out of such a portion of dough. They can be prepared for the future, as the tortillas are stored for a long time, if they are kept in a tightly tied package.
Grind the cheese - rub on a medium or large grater.
Put the cheese chips in a fairly thick layer on one of the cakes, put another one on top.
Carefully transfer the “construction” to a heated frying pan and fry over low heat. Warming up for one minute, carefully turn to the other.
Cut the tortillas into four parts and serve immediately with some hot sauce.
“Quesadilla” - Mexican tortilla with cheese and minced meat
Ingredients:
half a liter jar of tomatoes, canned in tomato juice;
300 gr. mixed, low-fat minced meat;
1/2 can of sweet corn;
cheese - 200 g;
spoon of vegetable oil;
four tortillas.
Cooking Method:
Pour oil into the pan or thick-walled stewpot. Placing on medium heat, warm well.
Distribute the mince evenly over the bottom of the pan. After waiting a minute, we begin to mix, trying to smash the lumped meat to the maximum. Fry over medium heat for about three minutes, until the color changes. In the middle of the process, add sliced tomatoes, and a minute before readiness, we add and season with pepper. After removing from the heat, we mix in the minced canned corn and let the filling cool down a little.
Grate the cheese with a coarse or fine grater and sprinkle them on the scones, only half of each.
Fold in minced cheese shavings and cover the filling, wrapping the free side of the flat cakes on it.
Well heated grill pan, fry the cakes, bringing a light blush on both sides. Note that you do not need to grease the pan with oil. If there is no grill, you can use any griddle.
Enchilada - tortillas with cheese and chicken in tomato sauce
Ingredients:
tortilla - five tortillas;
70 grams of “Russian” cheese;
boiled chicken breast - one fillet;
small onion head;
garlic;
sweet pepper - half of a large fruit;
one fresh tomato and 100 grams, canned in its own juice;
spoon of refined oil.
Cooking Method:
Small onions and two garlic cloves. The flesh of the sweet pepper, fresh and canned tomatoes, also cut into small pieces.
Passeurse onion with garlic in butter until transparent, add sweet peppers with tomatoes and stew under a lid for seven minutes. At the end add some salt, for the sharpness, you can add red pepper.
Cool slightly, transfer the contents to the blender bowl, smash to puree state.
Boiled breast cut into strips or small cubes, rubbed through a large grater cheese.
We measure off a third of the prepared sauce, mix with chicken meat.
We spread on a cake, closer to the edge, two spoons of meat filling and wrap it with a roll. In this way, prepare all the tortillas.
The resulting rolls tightly laid in a refractory form, pour plenty of the remaining sauce and fall asleep with cheese.
Place the form in the oven, bake the enchiladas at 180 degrees until golden brown.
“Tacos” - a simple Mexican tortilla snack with cheese, meat and fresh vegetables
Ingredients:
five tortillas; 250 gr. any boiled meat;
tomato sauce or ketchup;
half a cup of canned corn;
Tabasco sauce;
fresh sweet pepper - large peppermint;
Chinese cabbage or leaf lettuce.
Cooking Method:
Shred Beijing cabbage with short, fairly thin strips. If you decide to use lettuce leaves, finely narvite them. Cut the pulp of peeled Bulgarian pepper into strips.
Boiled meat cut into thin strips. However, it is not necessary to use it, any meat products are suitable for snacks: sausage, ham, sausages or smoked meats, including chicken.
Combine meats with vegetables. Add the corn and grind the cheese to them, mix.
Fold the tortillas in half, fill with the filling and warm slightly on a dry ordinary grill or pan. Fresh vegetables, therefore, in order not to spoil the basic taste, we warm briefly. Suffice it to stand for a minute on each side.
Serve such a snack should be in a warm form, adding to the filling after warming up with sauces, to your taste. When cooled, the cakes become soft, the taste of the dish is lost.
“Burito” - Mexican-style fast food made from tortilla with cheese, beans and beef
Ingredients:
beef (pulp) - 300 gr .;
large onion;
one sweet pepper;
garlic;
chili peppers;
two small fresh tomatoes;
a jar of white beans;
a bunch of fresh cilantro;
80 grams of hard, sharp cheese;
four tortillas;
three spoons of non-aromatic oil;
small lemon;
half a spoon of ground coriander.
Cooking Method:
Wash the flesh with water, cut into very thin strips, almost straws. Be sure to dry the meat and take a sharp knife, the wet flesh will slip out of your hands, and a blunt knife will not allow you to cut it thinly.
Finely less often, chili pepper with seeds, onions and three small cloves of garlic.
Fry the pieces of beef in butter until golden brown, pour in some water, pour in and stew the meat until soft. At the end, there should be no moisture in the meat pan. Put the beef on a plate. Put the onion in the pan, with the remaining meat juice and butter. Fry until ruddy, add Bulgarian pepper and chilli, stirring, fry for two minutes. Cooking on medium heat, do not cover the pan with a lid.
We spread previously fried meat to vegetables, add garlic. Dusted with coriander and stirring, warm for about a minute. Now we lay out the finely chopped tomatoes, mix everything and simmer another fifteen minutes.
Drain the beans from the jar with all the liquid, crush the seeds with a fork and transfer them to the pan. Adding finely chopped cilantro, mix everything well, setting the maximum heat. Sprinkle the filling with lemon juice.
On the cakes, closer to the edge, we put two thin slices of cheese and put hot meat stuffing on them. Having added a sprig of cilantro, we turn in the form of a roll or envelope.
Quickly warm up the rolls in a dry pan. It is desirable that it was a grill pan.
Served with a creamy garlic sauce, generously flavored with greens.
Tortilla Pie with Cheese
Ingredients:
tortillas - six tortillas;
sweet cream butter - 50 g .;
200 gr. any natural cheese;
“Feta” cheese - 300 gr .;
one egg;
three spoons of dark sesame.
Cooking Method:
Butter cut into small pieces. Putting them in a saucepan, put on a small fire. Once all the pieces melt, remove from heat.
We grind hard cheese in a separate bowl on a large grater.
We spread the cakes on the table, with a cooking brush we lubricate the surface with each melted butter.
Liberally sprinkle the cakes with hard cheese, and paint fingers on it with “Fet”.
Fold the tortillas in the form of rolls.
We lay out a round form with parchment paper and lubricate it well with the remnants of melted butter.
We spread the prepared tortilla rolls in a circle.
Lubricate the surface of the future cake with a beaten egg, sprinkle with sesame seed. Place the form in the oven, bake for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees in advance.
Allow the finished cake to cool slightly right in the form and only then remove it.
Tortilla with cheese - cooking tricks and useful tips
The important point is that the dough should be rolled very thinly, the thickness of the layer should not exceed 2 mm. When frying, set the minimum heat, you should not allow the cake to brown, since in the future it will still be fried.
In the process of cooking, ready-made tortillas do not dry out, the cakes should be stacked under a linen towel and cooled only under it.
If you have prepared a lot of cakes, put them in storage in a tight-fitting bag. Keep at room temperature, do not put in the refrigerator.
Use quality cheese that melts easily when heated. To enhance the taste, you can add different types of cheeses, such as feta or mozzarella.
It is preferable to serve dishes from a tortilla with cheese with sharp garlic sauces like "Salsa".
