Sunday, March 21, 2010

Tortillas, yay!

Bought a tortilla press and a tortilla warmer at a mercado (Mexican grocery) today, had corn tortillas topped with beans, cheese, lettuce, and salsa for supper. The tortilla press sure makes things easier than whacking the masa ball with a heavy skillet! There's nothing like fresh corn tortillas right off your griddle.

Hints for best tortillas: Make sure you coat your hands with oil before kneading the masa flour to keep it from sticking, but wipe off excess (no need to make your corn tortillas oily!). Wax paper works fine to keep the masa balls from sticking to the press. Use a heavy cast iron griddle, and get it *hot*. As in, at the point of smoking the oil you brushed on it before putting it on the burner. Toss your tortilla on it, wait 30 seconds, flip (with a *metal* spatula -- you'll melt one of those spatulas intended for a "non-stick" pot), wait 30 seconds, flip out into the tortilla warmer. Repeat until all your tortillas are made. 1/2 cup of masa flour and 1/3rd cup of water will make four tortillas, you do the math for more tortillas or usually the corn flour has the recipe on it. Corn tortillas are low in fat, relatively low-calorie (around 80 calories apiece), they're gluten-free if you're gluten-sensitive, and they're ridiculously easy to make -- and fresh off the griddle, they are just so, so good. Or if you want to make corn chips without the oily greasy taste of the supermarket ones in order to eat with your salsa, just bake'em and there you are :).

-- Badtux the Food Penguin

3 comments:

  1. We have quite a large Hispanic population here in the Northern Atlanta burbs and can get very good 'store bought' tortillas (La Preferida) but making your own at home is even better. They are great for any meal and beans wrapped in a fresh tortilla is one of my regular breakfasts. They are even better if you have some fresh roasted jalapeno peppers to bring to the party. Stick them on a cooking fork and hold them over the gas flame for a few minutes until the just begin to blacken...mighty fine.

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  2. Is it easier to mix the masa in smaller amounts?

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  3. Well, I'm single, so I've only done the 1/2 cup masa + 1/3 cup water thing myself. It's pretty easy to mix, and easy to quarter out into four balls for four tortillas. I guess it'd be easier than mixing a huge ball of masa, hmm.

    - Badtux the Food Penguin

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