Cabbage Quesadillas

It was Friday night and the cupboard was bare....I didn't want to spend a ton of time making dinner and I was at the point of saying the hell with it and ordering out when.....I thought of cabbage quesadillas! Cabbage is one of the rare Wisconsin winter vegetables that's popular in Mexican cooking. I've never seen a cabbage quesadilla on a menu, but it seems conceivable.

I've been eating a lot of this local savoy cabbage. It's pretty much the only local semi-leafy vegetable that's left, and I've made a vow not to buy California lettuce this winter.

This is hot salsa that Dave made this summer with peppers from the family garden plot. It's been in the freezer, but he recently pulled it out to thaw. I think his plan is to process it and bottle it as hot sauce - right now it's pretty chunky.

I added the juice of a few limes and three big spoonfuls of hot sauce to the cabbage and let it cook for a few minutes.

These tortillas had been in the fridge way too long, and were quite stale, but still fine for quesadillas. The oil and heat from the pan moistens them sufficiently. the cheese is local jack.

After just about 5 minutes, the cabbage was cooked down to about half it's original size.

I melted a liberal amount of butter (homemade!) in the pan and put the first tortilla in. First, the cheese went on....

....then half of the cabbage. The cabbage mixture got pretty juicy as it was cooking so I used a slotted spoon to strain it a little.

When the cheese started to melt I flipped it and added the second tortilla.

These turned out exceptionally golden and beautiful. It must have been the butter! The cabbage was really mild , but it added a nice texture. The hot sauce was way hotter than I anticipated (note to self: don't add hot sauce to anything without testing it first!) but it was still quite good. The sour cream helped cook it down a bit. I'm certainly glad I didn't order out!

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Cabbage Quesadillas

About 2 cups shredded cabbage
Juice of 1 or 2 limes
Hot sauce (or salsa) to taste
Two flour tortillas
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese (as much or as little as you want.)
Butter for the pan (more butter = better quesadillas)

Combine the cabbage, lime juice, and hot sauce or salsa in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until tender (about 5 minutes.) Meanwhile, shred cheese and get butter heating in a cast iron skillet. When pan is hot, add a tortilla. Put half the shredded cheese on the tortilla, topped with half the cabbage (lift cabbage out of pan with a slotted spoon to let the juices drain.) When cheese starts to melt, fold quesadilla in half and cook till cheese is completely melted. Flip if you think the other side needs more cooking. Repeat with second tortilla and fillings. Serve with a big dollop of sour cream.

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