Sweetened Quesadillas

Two years ago, my friends got me an awesome gift for my birthday - tickets to see Jason Mraz in LA. Before going to the show, we wanted to have dinner and I called my friend who lives in LA to ask her what restaurant we should check out. She mentioned this cute little place called Cha Cha Chas. This place is known for its sangrias and interesting twist on Latin foods. While browsing the menu there, Daniel and I saw something that we just had to try. It sounded so different, so interesting and a little bit weird. It was their guava and goat cheese quesadilla. It was SO tasty! I loved the combination of the tart- like cheese with something so sweet - the guavas. The combination was like heaven on your pallet. So there is a reason why I'm talking about this quesadilla that I ate about two years ago. I went to the Irvine farmer's market this weekend and bought myself some fresh goat cheese that traveled all the way from Mojave, CA. The vendors infused the goat cheese with garlic, chives and different flavors but we ended up taking home the cucumber flavored one. It's so refreshing you can just eat it by the spoonful! Anyway, I had plenty of tortillas left over and goat cheese that I thought "Hey why not make some of the those fruity little quesadillas?" I went to Bristol Farms and bought figs. I couldn't remember that Cha Cha Chas actually used guavas and kept thinking I ate fig and goat cheese. Well, as I went online to see if there was a recipe I could use, I found out that the ingredient was indeed guava and not fig but I had three figs now so I had to use them. No biggie! I've come to terms with substituting things in recipes because sometimes everything is not available (guavas are not in season right now anyway). Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
- Goat cheese (I used fresh goat cheese but you can use those prepackaged logs in the store)
- Flour tortillas
- Figs or guavas

Directions
- Take the back of your spoon and spread the goat cheese evenly onto one half of the tortilla.
- Cut open the figs and scoop out the flesh and spread it with the back of your spoon on top of the goat cheese. It will become mushy together but that's how you want it.
- Fold the tortilla in half and place it on the skillet. Heat it to your liking. I like it crispy and slightly brown.

That's it! Even though I didn't use guavas, the figs were still sweet enough to give it a lightly sweetened taste. I think next time I'll have to scoop more of the flesh out and make my tortilla more pink on the inside. Since guavas have a bit of a stronger taste than figs, I would highly recommended doing the guava version since it'll give a sweeter fruitier taste. In one tortilla, I use whole cut figs, the other I squished the figs into jam. :)

So the quesadillas were just an appetizer for my dinner last night. The main course was mahi mahi and whole wheat cous cous. I marinated the mahi mahi with a pesto and garlic chili paste that I bought at another farmer's market so I didn't make it myself (therefore no recipe). It was so tasty! I tried just one fish fillet with the marinade and the other I left plain with just some pepper and lime juice. I placed it on the grill and in the mean time, I made this aioli sauce that was on the fish package from Trader Joe's. I really like garlic and sometimes mayo, even though it's not healthy, so this was something nice to try on the fish. I can't entirely remember the recipe but I believe it was one part mayo (tbsp), one part lemon juice, some pepper and small piece of garlic (chopped up). Use a spoon and just really whip up the mayo with the liquid and then add the two last ingredients. Make sure that the garlic is chopped up finely or else you'll be biting into big chunks. Bon appetit!