Saag (Indian Spinach) Quesadillas

You know, I've always claimed that Indian and Mexican foods have a strong common base - heavy use of cumin, cilantro and serrano and jalepeno peppers.

With this, I made my first venture into the fusion and nailed it.

I had promised Channing we'd have Chicken Quesadillas for dinner, only to get home and find that I had left the chicken filling out all day. It went very bad. So, rather than dooming him to another night of microwaved Grillers Prime, I searched around for something I could make quesadillas from beyond the cheese and tortillas I knew I had.

In scrambling through the fridge, I came across the leftover saag panir (Indian creamed spinach with cheese) from our dinner a few nights before. I can't claim the saag for myself - it was frozen from the store, btw.

So I took that, removed the panir chunks (because those basically wouldn't melt) and mixed in the shredded monterey jack cheese we had. It was still a bit soupy, so I threw in some cheddar to get to the right consistency for quesadillas (basically, just enough cheese to bind the rest when melted).

Pre-cooked, it tasted pretty good.

When properly grilled up, amazing. Wow. I'll make this on purpose, for sure, though I may try with just the jack cheese, to see. But it's a definite winner. And as I want to start actually creating recipes, I think this Indian/Mexican fusion is a great direction that will work.

P.S. I'm starting to teach Channing some basic kitchen techniques, so he can have some of the things he likes if I don't happen to be home (slicing meats, etc). We did these collaboratively, with him manning the grill after the first one, and he did a great job. While I don't think that cooking will be an interest for him like it is me, it was fun and I think we might take one of the Chopping Block's couples classes just for grins.