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I attempted the Gordito recipe off Mayo Clinic last week, and it required some tinkering. I added an egg, and I’d say that was the very least it required. It worked well enough for our purposes making mini quesadillas that were interesting and at least on par with those made using off the shelf corn tortillas. I’ll invest more effort in finding masa harina next time or at least add more fat.

Our version of theFonda mushroom quesadillas was:
5 leaves of epazote, finely chopped (I rinse, then holding the wad of leaves tightly between my index finger and thumb, snip fine shreds from the wad using scissors)
2.5 c chopped assorted mushrooms (oyster, crimini, woodear, … whatever is reasonably priced balanced with the cheap white button mushrooms)
1 tbs butter
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1 c grated monterrey jack
8 corn tortillas (either store bought or made adapting the Mayo Clinic Gordito recipe recipe by adding an egg)

If you are making your own corn tortillas, start that recipe first, as you’ll need all the quesadilla ingredients on hand when you start to assemble them. The Mayo Clinic gorditas performed best when I made them into tortillas and then topped them with quesadilla ingredients. If you intend to make pie-like, filled gorditas, do not cook the gordita mixture until you add the quesadilla filling described below.

Heat the butter in a large skillet until melted, add the garlic, epazote and mushrooms. I don’t saute the garlic first as I prefer my garlic cooked as little as possible. Saute the mushrooms until they have wilted and slightly browned. They’ll lose their sponginess and become firmer and meatier when they have sufficiently wilted. ~2-5 minutes depending on the mushroom variety. Salt and pepper to taste.

Prepare the cheese.

To assemble, (if using store bought tortillas) heat 2 tortillas until they bend, but do not break and have not begun to brown. Place ~1/4 c of cheese and mushroom mixture on top of one tortilla, top this with the second tortilla. Cook until the cheese has melted (~1-2 minutes per side). If you are using the homemade gorditas, I cooked those until lightly browned on both sides, then topped with cheese and mushrooms and placed them on a cookie sheet in the broiler until the cheese has melted. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

Serve with: Herdes tomatilla salsa, black beans and slivers of avocado.