July Food Challenge: Black Bean Quesadillas with Raspberry and Fig Salsa

It's that time again! Unfortunately, I was swamped with work during the last two food challenge months so I'm really excited to share my recipe for July. The food draw landed us with a slightly strange mix of ingredients with black beans, raspberries and figs so I started thinking about how I could incorporate them while keeping things appetizing. I love black beans because they're so filling and versatile so in the long run, I'm glad they were in the mix. I definitely wanted to do something savory because I thought it would be easier to bring the raspberries and figs over to the savory side than it would be to make black beans sweet.

Beautiful Raspberries! 

Dried Figs

This recipe is based on my favorite quesadilla recipe from Economy Gastronomy - a television show from a few years ago that seriously needs to be revived. It was a brilliant show that demonstrated how to get the most out of you groceries and therefore how to save money on your weekly shop. THis included things like roasting a leg of lamb and using the leftovers for shepherds pie or using a quick saute of minced beef to make tacos, lasagna and chili. Obviously, as a poor grad student, I loved this show!

Onions and Chili

Bean Layer

Ready to crisp!

Anyway, I've added to the basic premise of the show's quesadillas and simply adapted my usual, go-to pico di gallo recipe to include the fruit. I also served these quesadillas with a simple guacamole and some sour cream. Delicious!This was a super quick recipe and actually surprisingly tasty! Give it a go if you're feeling adventurous...

Crispy!

Ready to eat! Quesadillas, guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Yum!

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 15 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients: 

2 cans of black beans in water, drained and rinsed
1 red onion, chopped finely and divided
1-2 green onions, chopped finely
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green chili, deseeded and chopped finely
3 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped and divided
1 tbsp chives, chopped
200g cheddar, divided
8 flour tortillas
5 tomatoes, chopped
1-2 limes, juiced
1-2 tbsp jalopenos, chopped
4 dried figs, chopped finely
150g raspberries, chopped

Method: 

To make the salsa: Mix the tomatoes, 1/2 of the red onion, lime juice, jalopenos, figs, raspberries and 1-2 tbsp of the coriander in a bowl and set in the fridge to let the flavors mix. Add salt to taste.

For the quesadillas: Saute the other half of the red onion, green chili and the green onions in a splash of oil over medium heat. Add in the red pepper and continue to saute over medium-low heat until the ingredients are fragrant. Add the black beans and saute until they have warmed through and softened slightly before adding the rest of the coriander and the chives. Stir thoroughly and use a masher or the back of your spoon to mash the beans so that half of them are mashed and the other half are still solid. Finally, add in 3/4 of the cheese and mix until melted. Spoon a few tablespoons of the bean mixture on to a flour tortilla and spread out in an even layer (about a cm thick) across the tortilla, leaving a small border around the outside. Sprinkle with a little of the remaining cheese, top with a second tortilla and paint with a little oil before popping into a pan over medium heat. Allow the first side to crisp while painting the second side before flipping. This stage will only take a few minutes so keep an eye on them! Also, while waiting for each side to crisp, press lightly on the tortilla to encourage the two sides to stick to the filling. When both sides are ready, remove from the heat and allow to sit for a few seconds before slicing. Enjoy!

Food Challenge April: Okonomiyaki Pancake

At the beginning of April, I joined a very unusual enterprise: a year round food challenge. A product of the imaginations of my lovely friends Laura and Kate (and Rachel who I haven't met but am sure is also lovely), the challenge requires all members to submit three ingredients each month which are then placed into a hat. Laura draws out three at random and those ingredients then form the basis of a dish that we all have to individually come up with before submitting our results at the end of each month. While it isn't a competition, the goal is to push ourselves to try out new and unusual recipes. The only rule is that you have to come up with the final dish on your own, although you can look at other recipes for inspiration. I've never tried anything like this before so I was really excited to jump on board and get cooking! I'll be posting my resulting recipes here as well every month. So, without further ado, April's ingredients were: beetroot, cabbage and chorizo.

Food challenge ingredients

Chopped cabbage

Now, I'm sure like most of you, my mind immediately went to cabbage rolls. But with the weather getting warmer, I just wasn't in the mood for something that was quite heavy when I'd tried it previously. Another thought I had was of course coleslaw (especially since I immediately remembered my cousin Wendy's delicious version!) but I thought that might be a bit greedy as a main dish. So, I put the food challenge to the side until I happened to be reading an article about Japanese restaurants and they mentioned Okonomiyaki. I'd never heard of this Japanese pancake dish before but since on of the main ingredients is cabbage, I thought it deserved more of an investigation. Much to my surprise, the name essentially means "whatever you want" and you can customize your pancake with whatever ingredients you fancy. Perfect for my first food challenge!

Chopped chorizo

Grated cabbage

I grated the beetroot so that it would color the pancake and that way we wouldn't have massive lumps of beetroot strewn throughout the dish. I liked the effect but I can understand how others might be a bit put off by a Pepto colored pancake! Another option would be to pickle the beetroot so that it is closer to the original Okonomiyaki dish, which is served with different sauces and pickles. While I'm calling this an Okonomiyaki pancake, I am also fully aware that it's not a very true representation. For example, Okonomiyaki is usually served as one big pancake but my pans weren't going to accommodate a behemoth like that so I split the batter into four smaller versions. However, I really liked the idea of having a dish that would make using leftovers really easy and I think I'll try this again in the future. The only change I would make is to add some green onion for color to the final dish... I didn't have any this time unfortunately. Another dish that I'm looking forward to trying is Kimchijeon (kimchi pancake) with some homemade kimchi I made using the leftovers from this dish... so stay tuned!

Basic batter ready for ingredients!

Pancake ready to flip

Finished version... needs something green!

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 10 min

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients: 

1 cup flour

2/3 cup water

1 egg

1/4 of a small white cabbage, chopped into thin strips

100g beetroot, grated

100g chorizo, chopped into small pieces

Oil

Method: 

Mix all of the ingredients except the oil in a large bowl. Heat a large pan over medium heat and add a splash of oil to keep the pancake from sticking. When the pan is hot, carefully pour in your desired amount of the batter and lightly press with a spatula to help it spread out. You should have about a pancake about a centimeter thick (possibly a bit more depending on your ingredients). Allow to cook until the bottom is nicely browned and a bit crispy. I also followed the age old pancake advice and waited until I saw bubbles on the top before flipping. When it's ready, carefully flip the pancake and allow the second side to brown as well. Serve with your choice of dipping sauce, enjoy!