Hey guys! I hope everyone is doing fine. I know it’s been a while but I’m done with exams now and I’m ready to go ham with the recipes so today I brought this delicious Beef and Plantain Quesadilla recipe to you and I hope you’ll enjoy every bit of it.

Quesadilla is a Mexican dish that is made up of Tortilla wraps stuffed with either beef, chicken, vegetables etc with cheese. As basic as that sounds, the type of filling that can go into a Quesadilla is endless so I decided to have fun and go with minced beef and plantain. This isn’t the most traditional Mexican tasting Quesadilla you’ll find, I added a Nigerian twist to it and I guess it works perfectly.

Ingredients:

2 Large ripe plantains

500 grams of minced beef

6 Corn Tortilla wraps (or Flour Tortilla wraps)

1 large red onion

1 teaspoon each of Salt (or to taste), cayenne pepper, paprika, curry, thyme, white and black pepper

1 heaped teaspoon of tomato puree

1 large green and yellow (or red) bell pepper

200 grams (or more) of mozzarella cheese or any preferred type of cheese

2 cups of water

Butter and Oil to fry

Method

Filling:

• Cut the plantains into diagonal slices, shallow fry in hot oil until golden brown and set aside.
• Chop one large onion, scoop 1 cooking spoonfuls of the oil from frying the plantains into a pot and reheat. Once hot add the chopped onions and fry until it develops a light golden brown colour.
• Add the minced beef to the pot and fry till there are no pink bits.
• Add the spices ( salt, cayenne pepper, paprika, curry, thyme, white pepper and black pepper) and stir the contents of the pot.
• Once mixed all together add the tomato puree and stir properly. Cover and allow to cook for 3 minutes.
• Add 2 cups of water, stir and cook with the lid on till the water almost dries up completely, this will give a sort of creamy texture to minced beef.
• Chop the bell peppers and add to the pot once the water is almost dried up.
• Continue to cook for about 2 minutes till the water dries up completely.
• Take the pot off the heat and drain off any excess oil that’s in the beef mixture as the oil will make your Quesadillas soggy which you don’t want.
• Set aside the mixture to cool down.

Assembly:

• To a large frying pan or skillet on medium-low heat add a little knob of butter to grease the pan.
• Place the tortillas immediately into the greased pan and start to assemble the Quesadilla.
• Layer only on one half of the tortilla. First the minced beef then two plantains on top of it, then the grated cheese.
• While after layering the inner contents check the tortilla to see if it toasted properly it should go from being soft to slightly more firm, raise the un-layered side of the tortilla with a spatula and see if it’s toasted to a golden brown colour. If so, flip the tortilla unto the stuffing to form a semi-circle and cook for about 15 more seconds to allow the cheese melt.
• Take the Quesadilla off the pan and leave to cool slightly, as it cools the tortilla would become crisper.
• Cut each Quesadilla into two to form quarters.
• Repeat the assembly process to make more Quesadillas. This recipe makes 6 Quesadillas using medium-sized tortilla wraps.
• Enjoy the Quesadillas on their own or with a nice side of guacamole.

That’s it guys it was a pretty long and complicated one but I tried my best to make it as comprehendible as possible. I hope you enjoyed this one.

Take care and I’ll catch ya on the flip side.

For a visual representation of this recipe visit the link: https://instagram.com/p/Bl5caTiAeW2/