A sultry summer night begs for a margarita chill. I can’t think of a better counterpoint to a salt-rimmed glass than mango quesadillas (kay-suh-dee-yah). In the purest definition of the word, quesadillas are a turnover (folded in half) made with traditional masa dough.
This recipe (stuffing store-bought flour tortillas, then frying, sandwich-style) is technically a sincronizada. I am fully aware that calling this sincronizda a quesadilla could be opening up a tequila bottle full of worms. Nevertheless, I defer to Americanized menu nomenclature and proceed.
The two techniques required with this recipe are turning the quesadilla over without splattering grease and slicing the fried tortilla without it crumbling. I use tongs (and my other hand) to safely turn the tortilla over when it is nicely browned on one side. You may find a long spatula works best. (It may be easier if you remove the tortilla from the heat so it doesn’t burn when performing the quesadilla flip.) Likewise, it is important to use a very sharp knife when slicing the quesidilla into wedges. A dull knife could cause the cheese mixture to “splooge” out and quesidilla to crumble.
Substituting jalapeno jack cheese for the goat cheese and chopped jalapeno is a fine, less costly idea, as would be adding chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice to the cheese mixture. If I had boiled shrimp on hand, I would slice them horizontally and press into the cheese, alternating with mango wedges. Maybe next week.
