Ape Island Quesadilla!

We have a great local Farmer's Market, and I try to make it there each Saturday morning as there always seems to be something new. The last couple of weeks were no exception with the arrival of Vini aka "Vini Volcano" - the hot sauce guy. I'm always up for adding a new hotsauce to my collection so I had to check it out. He had 2 sauces available: Volcano Sauce and Fire Monkey. Over conversation, I learned that another sauce of his: Voodoo Sauce, was recently voted best overall in a Food Network competition. So why no Voodoo? Vini related that as he makes his sauce in small batches of 6 bottles, it's very hard to keep up with demand. Well, someday I hope to share in his misery.

Unfortunately, Vini wasn't sampling that day. I would have to take my purchases home and begin my explorations there. The Volcano Sauce appears to be the base recipe and Vini keeps it simple: Serrano peppers, cask vinegar, a unique local garlic variety called "Purple Haze" (never heard of it) and the usual assorted spices. I love Serrano peppers for their elevated heat level and flavor. Given the simple list of ingredients, Volcano delivers exactly what you'd expect - Serrano heat/flavor, a hint of garlic and good acidity. An approachable, well balanced sauce. Then there's Fire Monkey, which Vini explains came about when he ran out of ingredients for a batch of sauce and grabbed some banana. Good thing, for this was the most interesting of the two. It also uses Serrano peppers but is milder in heat than the Volcano Sauce, but it's the layers of flavor that result from the banana that make this sauce unique. The banana is up front, but the sauce finishes with good acidity. However, the banana does present something of a challenge when coming up with a recipe to pair this sauce with but something came to mind almost immediately: the Ape Island Quesadilla!

While attending last year's over the top Bacchanalia of Passport Weekend in Dry Creek Valley, our party ran across a killer snack - a quesadilla with crushed pineapple and carmelized onions. We couldn't get enough. This recipe is my take on that same dish.

Ingredients:
4 tbsp olive oil
2 medium to large yellow onions
2 8oz can of crushed pineapple
1 lb pepperjack Cheese, grated
6 tbsp Fire Monkey hotsauce
Flour tortillas

Preparation:
Cut the onion into sections about 1/4 inch thick - separate individual rings. Carmelize onion in the olive oil in pan set to low/med heat until golden brown and very soft - about 1 hour
Combine the crushed pineapple and Fire Monkey sauce
To assemble:
On one tortilla, spread 1/4 of the pineapple/Fire Monkey sauce mixture evenly
Layer on 1/4 of carmelized onions and 1/4 of grated pepperjack cheese
Top with 2nd flour tortilla
Grill on lightly oiled skillet set to medium heat for about 1 minute on each side or until the tortillas have browned slightly and the cheese is melted.
Cut into 6 slices and consume in mass quantities.
Makes 4 quesadillas.

You can check out Vini's full line of sauces at http://www.piratesauce.com