revisiting a favorite

i am hard at work on what i hope will be my next book.  one of the recipes i plan to include is for the quesadilla cakes that i made a while back.  in order to get my notes cleaned up and ready for the folks up north, i decided to make them this morning.  

first thing i did was grab the camera and my nifty new macro lens.  best investment i have made this year:  digital photography classes.  second best, that lens.  

the original recipe is found here.  when i made them, i used parmesan cheese because that is what the nice young lady working in a local mexican bakery told me they use.  all research on the internet mentions a traditional choice of cotija with parmesan as a close substitute.  this morning, i bought a package of crumbled cotija.

 it resembles finely crumbled feta or parmesan but the flavor is milder than either of those.  i also think it is a little saltier than parmesan but that could just be this particular brand.

 rice flour is a popular ingredient in el salvador, i have a co-worker from there and she mentions baking with it at home too.  this brand, tres estrellas, is easy to find in supermarkets; just look in the section where they stock the latino ingredients.

 don't be lazy-generously grease and flour the pan to make it easy to get the cakes out.  i used spray grease and i am thinking that next time, i will use shortening since they still stuck-even with the flour!

tasty!!!  go on a cotija hunt and try these out, you will enjoy them- i promise!