Quesadillas.

Oh, my. My posting has been very poor lately. I don't like to use excuses, but there has been so much work at school!
I really should make time.

So I've decided to leave the Morelia photos for some other time, and talk about food.
During this time of the year, lots of yummy food (for us) start to appear. Some of these dishes date from pre-hispanic times.
My favorites are pumpkin flower and huitlacoche quesadillas. Pumpkin flower, I'm sure you've seen. Huitlacoche? Ha, most probably not! Huitlacoche is the fungus of the corn. Yes, the fungus! In English it is called corn smut, and you can read more about it here.
Anyway, I'll show how both delicacies are prepared. (Kelli, I owed you this post).
First I'll start with Flor de Calabaza (pumpkin flower) quesadillas.

This is the way the flowers are sold at the market.
First you have to wash the flowers.

Then you have to pull the flower away from the base
of the flower, including the pistil. If you leave this part,
it will taste sour.

Here are all the discarded parts.

Then proceed to chop up the "flowers".




Sauté some diced onion (here we use white onions)
in oil. You can use olive oil if you want.

When the onion is transparent, add the flowers.
The flowers will wilt pretty quick, and lose some moisture.
Season with salt, pepper, whatever you like to use.


You let the liquid evaporate a little (not too much,
you don't want it dry) and it's done. This is how it looks.



Now the huitlacoche....

These are the "diseased" corn grains. I also wash them,
and remove the "threads".

A closer look at he stuff.

The "grains" are chopped.

As with the flowers, dice onions, sauté them, but with the
huitlacoche you will also add chopped tomatoes and green chile.
Hitlacoche is dry, so the tomato will give it moisture.
Some people add epazote, a very strong
flavored leaf or herb used in many Mexican dishes.

Our neighbors were having "carne asada" (BBQ)
so I shared the huitlacoche and flor de calabaza,
and they shared meat and sausages.
The stuff in the pot is huitlacoche. You can see
the epazote leaf near the top


A quesadilla of each (tortilla with string cheese, and a
spoonful of each dish). These are put to the heat so the
cheese melts.

Mmmm, we love it! But I can understand
if YOU don't.

Hope you enjoyed this "cooking lesson". If you have pumpkin flowers on hand you should try it. It is really good!
Have a nice evening, adios......