chorizo and manchego cheese quesadilla

The last time I was at the market, herbs were on sale (and they're the organic ones too!), so I got some chives and thyme. After a couple of days in my fridge, the chives started to wilt, even though I put then in a cup of water. So I had to find a recipe from the book to use it up. Decided to go for these quesadillas.

Chives were simple enough to find, but the chorizo and manchego cheese were whole different stories.
The recipe called for cured chorizo which could be sliced like a sausage, but the only chorizo I found was the raw kind. I ended up removing the casing (which wasn't edible anyways) and browning the meat in a frying pan like ground pork. As for the manchego cheese, I had to go to another market to find it. There was a very limited selection, basically one brand, and to make it worse, it was $8. $8 for cheese? This better be awesome!

These were simple enough to make: just layered shaved manchego, browned chorizo, sauteed red onions, and chives over a small circle tortilla cut with a cookie cutter, then topped it with a bit more shaved manchego and another tortilla. These were toasted on a clean frying pan over medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side until warmed through.

I served these plain and also with a chipotle salsa which added a nice kick. If you don't have a cookie cutter, or pressed for time, you could just quarter the toasted quesadilla. I thought they looked perfectly great fanned out.

So that $8 cheese...was it worth it? I didn't think so, at least not for this purpose. It melted very nicely, as it should for its price. However, in terms of flavor, it just tasted a bit gamy, which made sense since it is a sheep's milk cheese. I'm not a big fan of gaminess. Growing up in a Chinese household, you learn that gaminess is something you try to remove from the dish. The Chinese in me made me pile on more chipotle salsa to cover the odor, making the manchego completely irrelevant. Could've used any other firm cheese in its place. Well, now I know.

Besides the disappointment in the manchego, these were quite delicious. The onions and chives added a great textural contrast to the soft chorizo and cheese. Tasted the best right off the pan when the tortilla was still hot and slightly crispy to the bite.