This week I was really busy at work so I asked my lover to have a look through the books to find something quick for dinner… And he chose these: quesadillas!
This recipe from Lorraine Pascale’s Fast Fresh and Easy Food makes four quesadillas, which can be cut into 16 triangles to serve as finger food – ideal for a party! Like a Fiesta Friday kinda party!
To make four quesadillas you will need: 4 tablespoons roasted hazelnuts, fresh coriander, 4 tortillas (corn or wheat) 250g goats cheese and 4 teaspoons runny honey. It’s a complicated recipe in that you need to put the oven on and use two frying pans to make sure everything cooks properly and stays warm. If you’ve got one of those hotplate things I’d imagine you could use that, and if you’re cooking these as canapes I would skip the second pan and just make them one at a time. I had chips in the oven so I used two pans.
Turn the oven on to 100c (gas 1/4) and then put two medium frying pans on medium with a drizzle of sunflower oil in each pan. While these are heating up break the hazel nuts with a pestle and mortar, but don’t grind them too small. Chop the coriander leaves (I used dried ones that were in the cupboard)
Lob a tortilla into each pan and toast them for a minute, then crumble some of the cheese (roughly 60g) onto each tortilla, then scatter some hazelnuts, coriander, and a tsp of honey over the cheese.
Now listen up, don’t do what I did and spread it out all pretty like in the picture; pile it in the middle or it’ll all fall out the sides after you’ve folded the tortilla over on itself – then press it down slightly. Reduce the heat down low, cook for a minute and then flip them over to cook for another 5 minutes.
So if you’re making 4 at once this is where you want to slide them onto an oven tray and put them in the oven to keep them warm while you turn the pans back to medium and make the second pair of quesadillas. I just scraped mine off the pans and cut them in to 4 and served them up with oven chips and rocket for our tea.
I think that these were slightly stickier than they should have been after all the filling poured out, and I should have bought some new nuts rather than the ones from the back of the cupboard; but I’d definitely give these another try – and maybe even serve them as canapes.!
Fast Fresh and Easy Food by Lorraine Pascale (Harper Collins 2012 ISBN: 978-0-00-793482-9)
New Recipe Night 
Wow! They all look so rich and delicious. I love food that is fast, fresh, and easy, what a great cookbook to have around. Happy FF, and have a wonderful weekend. 🙂
Thank you, you too! And have a happy Fiesta Friday! It’s a really good book to have, all the meals under half an hour – but always best to have a practice before making them I found (as seen on week 19 http://wp.me/p42Dr4-3t the chicken that everyone thought was beef…)
Sweet quesadillas? Brilliant! Why haven’t I done this before?! Great idea 🙂
Try it definitely try it hehe – I’d never had a quesadilla before this, so I’m looking forward to trying a savoury one 🙂
A new use of goat cheese for me! Why haven’t I thought to add them in quesadillas? These look great!
Thank you thank you, they’re really tasty – just pile the filling in the middle or it’ll all slide out and burn into the pan 🙂 these were my first ever quesadillas, will definitely try more!
I LOVE your combination. I agree that they would make a very special canape!
The book says something about making the canapé with rocket, but the instructions were really confusing so I ignored them and had the rocket on the side instead – delicious though! 🙂
Goat’s cheese is so delicious and the tartness goes so nicely with something sweet like honey (or I often find fruit to be a nice alternative). Never thought to have them in tortillas…can’t wait to try that!
Ooh what a great combination of flavours, these sounds yummy
LOVE this flavor combination! I adore the recipes you choose for your blog!
Aww thank you – I’ve not picked many duds!
This looks like a GREAT dessert, or maybe an sticky lunch (in a good way). So delicious looking, but then I love goats cheese. It’s a pit it’s so hard to find here. I can but drool.
Hi Simon – sorry it’s taken me a while to get over to you and say hello! This is a great flavour combination – very adventurous. I have a big frypan so normally put one tortilla in it, top it with grated cheddar and sweet chilli sauce, put a second tortilla on top of it and just flip it as the cheese melts a bit and it’s all glued together…I need to try this version next! If you store your ahem, nuts in the freezer, they last forever…thanks for sharing and happy Fiesta Friday!
Hehe thanks Selma! I’d been giving the nuts to the robins that moved in last winter then forgot about them – shoulda got new ones haha (no space in my tiny tiny freezer) I’ll give it a try doing it that way, folding it over was so messy! Happy Fiesta Friday 🙂
Oh my days – the title of this post alone made my stomach rumble. Definitely giving these a go! How good is tangy cheese with sweet honey? Such a great combo.
It’s the tastiest thing! I wish I’d got slightly tarte-er cheese and new nuts, but it was delicious 🙂