I've had a life-altering experience, a surprise realization, a food epiphany really.
The homemade tortilla.
Yes, this simple little culinary treat that takes mere minutes to make is seriously a happy hello in my life. Who knew that in mere minutes, you can replace those rubbery cardboard corn tortillas with homemade ones? These fresh ones are not even a distant relative of what you buy at the grocery store.
I'd watched tortillas being made on Food Network. You'll always lose me the minute the word lard is thrown out. Sadly I didn't realize that flour and corn tortillas were completely two different beasts when it came to ingredients.
There is no lard in corn tortillas. Nada. Zip. Zilch. The ingredient list is as simple as masa (not to be confused with cornmeal), salt and water and the preparation is as easy as mix, roll, press, cook. I had fresh homemade tortillas in less than 10 minutes.
You can buy a tortilla press and I did because I was told they are absolutely essential. Truthfully though, I got the same exact result by placing a large baking sheet over the plastic and dough and placing all my weight on it. If you envision making these often, it might be worth the kitchen space. If not, the baking sheet got them just as thin.
Homemade tortillas have a subtle corn flavor, almost reminiscent of fresh tamales and they are soft and rather than rubbery. I especially love them with fresh grilled fish tacos, but when I finished up the mahi mahi, I tried them with a chipotle beef barbacoa. Not too shabby either. All that just to say homemade tortillas are awesome and definitely worth a try. They are so ridiculously easy and delish, that you may find yourself trying to make taco filling out of everything like I did.
Chipotle Beef Barbacoa can be found here.
Homemade Tortillas
Ingredients:
2 cups Masa Harina
1+ cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Dissolve salt in warm water.
- Measure out masa into a medium bowl. Pour warm water into masa, stirring and kneading until dough comes together. Dough should be soft but not sticky.
- Preheat griddle or pan to medium heat.
- Toll dough into golf size balls Place between two pieces of parchment paper or half gallon size baggie split up the sides, and flatten out with tortillas press.
- Cook for 1-3 minutes on each side. Cover done tortillas with a damp towel and place in oven, or place in a tortilla warmer to keep warm.
Our favorite restaurant makes homemade tortillas both flour and corn and they are sooooo good. I thought they'd be harder to make than this so am glad to hear they are easy. I think I will make these!
ReplyDeleteI love corn tortilla fish tacos with a little guacamole on top. I didn't know these would be so easy to make and am very, very excited to try these out! Yumm!
ReplyDeleteThese looks so delicious! We like to head over the border once a month for some fresh mexiliciousness and now we might try making some at home more often!
ReplyDeleteI made fresh tortillas for the first time last year and was so surprised that it was both easy and so delicious! I completel forgotten about them until now. I think it's time to whip up a batch to go with the beef barbacoa. I love shredded long cooked meat and that looks too good to pass up trying!
ReplyDeleteI made flour tortillas for the first time and didn't use lard. They were pretty good but I think I would add salt next time. I've never tried corn tortillas but they look easier than the flour ones!
ReplyDeleteMy husband is a mexican food fanatic so I"m always looking for recipes. In all the things I've made, I've never considered making homemade tortillas though. It makes sense that this would change the whole meal though because the torilla is a big part of it. I'm definitely trying these!
ReplyDeleteI tried making these for our shrimp tacos last night and only used the baking sheet. I had to push all of my weight on it but it worked like dream and they were so delicious!
ReplyDeleteThese look outrageous!!
ReplyDeleteHomemade tortillas are soooo good. My friend makes them for grilled fish tacos and has us over and we litteraly die! Yummy but I always thought they'd be really hard to make. I'm excited to see they are not!
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