Korea meets Mexico in the kimchi quesadilla

Mexico has ne'er been acrophobic of taking thing overseas and making it better. Ask the pig. Ask shawarma. So wherefore not kimchi? Why not propulsion fermented cabbage, calved successful Korean winters, into a blistery cookware with melted food and a tortilla, the Mexican comfortableness blanket? And portion we’re astatine it, wherefore not driblet successful a small anchovy to necktie it each unneurotic with that quiet, briny punch for delicious kimchi quesadillas?

Let’s backmost up. Fish has ever been portion of Mexico’s cooking story. Long earlier missionaries and European spices arrived, coastal peoples grilled and smoked food implicit unfastened fires, folded it into masa oregon dried it to travel. When the Spanish arrived, they brought olive oil, ail and wheat— and abruptly food was being fried, stewed and served with sauces that smelled suspiciously similar a monk’s meal party.

Korea’s kimchi offers a crisp spirit illustration that stands retired erstwhile paired with Mexican cuisine. (Jeremy Keith/CC 2.0)

And that’s the thing: Mexican nutrient has ever been fusion food. It’s ne'er been static. Veracruz built full culinary traditions astir Mediterranean flavors. Baja took battered fish, a conception apt inspired by English and Asian techniques and turned it into the Baja food taco, that glorious messiness of crunch, cream, acerb and spice. Mexico takes the world’s flavors and teaches them however to marque caller friends.

So what happens erstwhile pungent, spicy, unapologetic kimchi meets the warm, gooey clasp of a quesadilla? Magic. Fermentation has agelong been portion of Mexico’s culinary DNA: pulque, tepache, adjacent the tangy sourdough notes successful past maize masa. Kimchi doesn’t clash: it thrives with Mexican ingredients. It brings a sharpness that cuts done the richness of cheese, overmuch similar pickled jalapeños person done for generations. But bolder. Louder. Kimchi is the mariachi opus successful the room.

Then we adhd anchovies. Not to marque things much complicated, but to necktie the communicative together. Mexican cooking has agelong utilized food condiment equivalents — dried shrimp, salted fish, that 5th spirit hiding successful a mole oregon caldo that you can’t rather sanction but crave endlessly. The anchovy disappears into the cookware but leaves down a savory echo. It’s the ocean’s signature connected the recipe.

A kimchi quesadilla with anchovy is not fusion for fusion’s sake. It’s a reminder that borders are drawn connected maps, not connected meal plates. It’s comfortableness nutrient for a satellite that’s perpetually colliding, changing, and remixing itself. It’s salty, spicy, cheesy, tangy — a wound that feels some past and brand-new.

The lone mode a tortilla could beryllium much Mexican is if it was filled with grilled cheese…wait a minute. (Unsplash)

And if anyone asks, “Is that authentic?” conscionable smile. Authenticity is simply a communicative we archer ourselves to consciousness safe. Deliciousness, connected the different hand, is real. It’s hot, messy, dripping down your fingers, and making you scope for different bite.

In the end, Mexico’s culinary genius has ever been this: instrumentality what the satellite gives you, emotion it, alteration it, marque it better. Kimchi and cheese, conscionable tortilla and anchovy. Now beryllium down, devour and fto maine cognize what you deliberation successful the comments.

Kimchi quesadillas with anchovy 

Ingredients

• 2 ample flour tortillas
• ½ cupful crisp cheddar cheese, grated
• ½ cupful mozzarella, grated
• 1 cupful well-fermented kimchi, chopped
• 1 ail clove, minced
• 2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped (or 1 tsp anchovy paste)
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp gochujang (optional but recommended)
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced
• Butter oregon neutral lipid for frying
• Optional garnish: sesame seeds, other scallions, lime wedges

Instructions

1. Make the spirit base: Heat a tiny cookware implicit mean heat, adhd a splash of oil, the minced garlic, and the chopped anchovies. Stir until the anchovies dissolve into the garlic, astir 30 seconds. Add the chopped kimchi, sesame lipid and gochujang. Stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes until it smells truthful bully you see eating it consecutive from the pan. Turn disconnected the vigor and acceptable aside.
2. Assemble: Lay retired 1 tortilla. Sprinkle fractional the cheese, dispersed the lukewarm kimchi-anchovy substance evenly connected top, past scatter the scallions. Add the remainder of the food and apical with the 2nd tortilla.
3. Cook: Heat a cookware implicit mean heat, adhd a small food oregon oil. Slide successful the quesadilla and navigator for astir 2-3 minutes connected each broadside until aureate brownish and crisp and the food is melting retired the sides.
4. Slice and serve: Transfer to a cutting board, portion into wedges, sprinkle with sesame seeds, possibly a compression of lime, and much scallions if you’re feeling fancy.

Stephen Randall has lived successful Mexico since 2018 by mode of Kentucky, and earlier that, Germany. He’s an enthusiastic amateur cook who takes inspiration from galore antithetic cuisines, with favorites including Mexican and Mediterranean.