Before we were married, Country Boy and his flatmate used to have Mexican most Wednesday. When I say Mexican, it was a loose interpretation of Mexican, which involved lots of chicken, sour cream, salsa, and a packet of seasoning. As I spent a lot of my free time at their house, I often did the cooking (a fair exchange since they bought the food). I would set all the fillings out in bowls and then we would then load up some wraps with as much filling as humanly possible, and eat it with the juices dripping down our arms and onto our plates

Now whenever we have ‘Mexican’ I always think of that time in my life. These days when I make Mexican inspired food, I try to mix it up a little. I have made quesadillas several times now, but have only just worked out how to pronounce them (kay-sah-DEE-yah).

Chicken and Corn Quesadillas


Ingredients
500g chicken thigh fillets
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
2T oil
1/4t chilli powder (use more or less according to your liking)
1t ground coriander
2t ground cumin
310g can corn kernels
1T corn flour
1c tomato passata (or canned chopped tomato)
3t lime juice
6 spinach leaves
Salt
1 1/2c grated cheese
8 large flour tortillas
Sour cream and Avocado salsa to serve


Method
1. Dice the chicken into small pieces (approx 1cm cubes).
2. Finely slice onion and crush garlic.
3. Heat oil in frypan.
4. Brown chicken with onion and garlic in hot pan.
5. Add in ground chilli, coriander and cumin, and cook for a further minute
6. Add in drained corn kernels
7. Sprinkle corn flour into saucepan, stir through, cooking for a further minute.
8. Add in tomato passata and lime juice.
9. Finely shred the spinach leaves then stir into the mixture.
10. Season well with salt
11. Allow mixture simmer and excess moisture to evaporate. There should be no obvious juices running of the mixture.
12. Sprinkle a big pinch of grated cheese over half the tortilla, top with a spoon full of chicken mixture, and then another pinch of cheese.
13. Fold the tortilla in half.
14. Place in a sandwich press until tortilla is crispy. Alternatively heat a nonstick fry pan and place quesadilla on the base, turn when one side is crisp and repeat.
15. Cut into 3 wedges and serve with sour cream and salsa.


To me, Mexican food is a little taste of the 1990’s. So friends, what foods conjure up memories for you?

I made the salsa by tossing some diced avocado, shredded mint, lime juice, olive oil, and a teaspoon of sweet chilli sauce (not authentic I know, but tasty). If I had some tomatoes, I would have added them too.