Ilse's Kitchen - culinary adventures of a girl who loves to eat

Mexico - once it nestles in your heart, it’s a country you never forget. The colours, the vibrance, its tastes and its smells. After four years there even the hustle and bustle of Mexico City have somehow become part of me - no matter how long I stay away.  These times bring out nostalgia in me, so I’ve been doing a lot of nostalgic cooking - and that means posting nostalgic recipes. Here’s a lovely and incredibly easy recipe for quesadillas - kekas for short - with chorizo. I hope you enjoy it.  Ingredients: 60g chorizo, sliced and chopped (*you want a soft chorizo, not the hard dried type) 125g mozzarella, shredded 2 medium-size plum tomatoes, chopped 4 small flour tortillas 1/2 avocado, cut in slices salsa roja (click here for my  salsa roja recipe ) Instructions: 1. Mix the tomato, chorizo and mozzarella and divide into four - a quarter for each tortilla. 2. Spread over the tortillas so that it covers half of the surface and fold shut, as in the ...

I spent four years living in Mexico, and tacos de bistec con queso were one of my ultimate feel-good foods. There are a lot of great Mexican recipes, but this is one of my favourites: it’s super easy and one of the few things that I still make on a very regular basis. So yesterday, when my boiler quit on me and I was left without heating or hot water and full of fear of the possibility of an impending lock-down & the implication that this meant I might be left in the cold for the length of quarantine, this was naturally what I turned to. And it worked to reassure me for a while - the familiarity was comforting and the spiciness warmed up my insides. Ingredients (makes 4): Salsa Roja 3 medium sized plum tomatoes 1 small yellow onion 1 clove garlic 2 red chili peppers, deseeded (or more, if you prefer it extra-spicy) few decent dashes olive oil pinch of salt Tacos: 200g beef steak 1 medium-small yellow onion, chopped. Few good handfuls grated cheese 1 lime, cut i...