Yo hago tortillas de Masa. Con picturas.

[Howard Beale]

Yes, Howard (not my real name) does not digest wheat products as I once did and therefor try to avoid eating them. It's not that I can't but if I do I have to take an Alka-Seltzer and suffer thereafter. This meant that I couldn't eat sandwiches which was a real loss. I tried the gluten-free breads from the health food store (even though I don't have the condition where a person MUST avoid glutens) but they are horrible. Then I got the bright idea of buying corn tortillas at the supermarket to use as a bread substitute but the list of additives turned me off to them. That's when I decided to find a recipe and cook them myself.

Masa (corn flour) can be found in the hispanic section of the market and at first I tried that. When they say 'hispanic' they really mean Mexican (at least in Arizona) and (for those of you in places like Sweden, Korea and Idaho) THIS is a Mexican:



(if they all looked like her I say we should let them ALL in)

Here are the things that I use to make my corn tortillas:



That Masa Harina is from a health food store and is MUCH better than the Masa I got at the supermarket. There's a mixing bowl, a measuring cup, a genuine 'hecho en Mexico' tortilla press w/ a ziploc bag w/ 3 sides cut off. Now I reveal my secret ingredient. That is 'rich and tasty' olive oil that my mom bought by mistake. It's horrible on salads but I decided to try it in my corn tortillas. The recipe calls for 2 parts Masa, 1 part water w/ either 2 tablespoons of water or corn oil. I use 4 cups Masa, 2 cups water and 6 tablespoons of the olive oil. It all goes into the mixing bowl where it gets squished up good using clean hands. I'm supposed to make a ball and divide it up into 20 equal parts, but who can do that? So I just go by feel.

Here is what the pre-cooked tortillas look like:



As you can see a ball of dough is made, placed in between the plastic sheets on the press and then laid on a plate.

I cook them in 2 cast iron pans. I used to have just 1 and cooking took forever. Now it takes 1/2 forever so I'd like to get a 3rd one but mom would beat me w/ it so I don't. I cook them for about 30 seconds/side.

Here are some of the finished tortillas:



They are so warm, soft and delicious right now that I could proudly enter them in any tortilla contest (at least in the 'made by a Gringo' division) but the truth is that it is all downhill from here. When they cool off I'll store them in a ziploc bag and refrigerate them and since they don't have any of that factory added goop they will start to get more dry and crumbly as the 4-5 days it takes me to eat them. Still, they are healthier and serve the purpose.

As an additional bonus here is a delicious sandwich recipe that I use the tortillas with:

Mix one can tuna w/ mayo. Fry 2 eggs over medium. Melt cheese of choice on top of eggs. Spread tuna, cover w/ layer of tomato and add eggs w/ melted cheese on top. Onion is optional but if you do frying them first is better.

[edfurlong]

Nice! Next time you should leave a couple tortillas uncooked and put some of your delicious mixture in the center and fold it in half, squishing the edges together so everything stays inside. Then fry, or I guess bake [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img].

Fresh tortillas are so friggen good though.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I always wondered how these were made. Cool.

[Howard Beale]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice! Next time you should leave a couple tortillas uncooked and put some of your delicious mixture in the center and fold it in half, squishing the edges together so everything stays inside. Then fry, or I guess bake [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img].

Fresh tortillas are so friggen good though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oooooooo......That's sounds great! Gonna try it for sure. Tx for the idea! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[arh1]

Excellent! Olive oil is the best. Very very healthy. You should have some every day.

[Mike Pemulis]

HB--

Your threads always deliver. Good read & good ideas. Now that I'm doing the NYC-bachelor thing I might give it a shot.

--"Mike"

[Lottery Larry]

Looks really good.

How do they freeze/rethaw? Probably badly.

[stabn]

Nice. Have you tried freezing a couple and seeing if they reheat ok? If they don't you might be able to freeze the dough pressed but pre-cooked and fry them later.

[SpaceAce]

Those look great, and they make me sad that the Frontier has closed down and taken Margarita's with it [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I always have tons of bread flour, wheat flour and all-purpose flour on hand because I make my own pizza dough, flat breads, challah loaf, pancakes, crepes, sugar cookies and so on. Warm, fresh bread right out of the oven (or my bread machine, depending on what I am making) kicks ass.

My pizza dough owns.

Edit: Haha, I have that same giant mixing bowl. I bet it came with several others stacked one inside the other, didn't it? Also, I need to get a press like yours for making nice bread rounds. I do it all by hand, right now.

SpaceAce

[NhlNut]

Howard:
does the dough mixture hold for a length of time? (A couple of days)
might be worth it to make tortillas as needed.