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Hand-Held Venison Quesadillas
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Eileen Clarke - Rifles and Recipes
Author: Rifles and Recipes |
Hand-Held Venison Quesadillas
Eileen Clarke
Rifles and Recipes
I love quesadillas, but they’re hard to eat in a blind—or pickup. So when I saw this folded version, I was hooked. It’s walking around food, which a traditional quesadilla is not. They’re more a drip-down-your-shirt food.
Why? It’s easier to handle: instead of being 10 inches around—and needing both open hands to hold it—it fits easily in one hand. It’s easier both to get in and out of the skillet.
Plus it’s infinitely variable. I’ve eaten at least 5 varieties this week alone including wild turkey with pesto, mozzarella and pepperoni slices, plus Polish sausage (from my book, Sausage Season) with sauerkraut, mustard/horseradish sauce and sweet hot pickle relish. This is what we did last Tuesday for lunch, but you can add jalapeno peppers, nopalitos, pepper jack cheese, and even bacon.
Just don’t overfill the quesadilla quarters. I always do that, but this is enough filling. Trust me.
Hand-Held Quesadilla
Makes 10
Ingredients
For the sour cream/cilantro sauce
4 cups loosely packed cilantro leaves
10 cloves garlic
2/3 cup chopped onion
2/3 cup sour cream
For the meat
2-4 tablespoons oil
12 ounces minced venison
4 cloves garlic
1 yellow onion sliced
1 Anaheim pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground oregano
1/3 cup Pace Picante sauce, mild
To Assemble
10 Flour tortillas (9-10” diameter)
1 pound grated Mixed Mexican cheese
1 ¼ cups Pace Picante sauce, mild
Preparation
1. Start with the sour cream/cilantro sauce. First, in a mini grinder, pulse the cilantro leaves and tender stems with the garlic cloves and onion, pulse it four to five times so everything is minced—not liquefied. Stir into the sour cream, then cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Cooking
1. In a large skillet, heat 1-2 tablespoons of the oil over medium heat and brown the minced venison/burger in batches, adding more oil as needed. Don’t overcrowd the pan. Transfer the browned meat to a bowl, and add the garlic, onion and Anaheim pepper to the skillet. Sauté them until soft, 3-4 minutes.
2. Return the meat to the pan, stir the cumin, chili powder and oregano into the meat and veggies, then stir in the Picante sauce. Remove from the heat.
Assembly
1. Warm a tortilla for 15 seconds in the microwave so it folds easily. In your head divide the tortilla into quarters, like 15-minute intervals on a clock; 12, 3, 6 and 9.
2. Cut the tortilla from the center down to 6 o’clock. Now spread your ingredients, quarter by quarter on the tortilla. Starting with the 6 to 9 quarter and the sour cream/cilantro spread--something that will stick to the tortilla—--gently fold that quadrant up over the 9 to 12 quadrant, then the 9 to 12 over the 12 to 3, rotating clockwise around the face of the tortilla. You now have a multi-layered triangle, with a layer of tortilla between each element of the filling.
Once you’ve made your first one, you’ll see which layers end up deep inside, and set it up so any cheese quadrant that needs to melt, will end up with only one layer of tortilla between it and the hot skillet. Don’t worry, it will be obvious.
3. Now put a smear of oil in the skillet, turn the heat to medium and toast the outside of your tortilla, both sides, until golden brown. If you’re going to be sitting around a campfire while eating these, you could also wrap them in foil and set them at the edge of the fire.
Explore Eileen’s other wild game recipes at https://www.riflesandrecipes.com. There are hundreds, from simple grill to fool-proof sausage and jerky.
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Image 1 Caption: Hand-Held Venison Quesadilla
