Tortillas

One of the things I am going to pride myself in will be cooking for our guests. I know it will be just breakfast, hors’ de voures and a few dinners thrown in, but I have to learn to cook “Mexican” if I want to provide guests with a proper Mexican experience. I mean how can you serve breakfast without offering Hueves Rancheros??....and how can you offer Hueves Rancheros without knowing how to make tortillas from scratch!!

Well today Rosa, a woman who on occasion helps Keith and Sharon, taught us all how to make tortillas! These were flour, not corn, which are our favorite. For all of you wanting to try this at home you need an apron, a kilo of Surena, 250 grams of Inca, 2 tbls of salt, very hot water and of course the tortilla press and the flat iron skillet to cook them on.

First you mix all the ingredients together, without the water, then you slowly add the water constantly kneading with your hands until you can form dough spheres that you pop off into one inch balls. You then flatten these balls, put them in a bowl and cover them for about 10 minutes, or more. When they are ready you squish them between two pieces of plastic wrap, inside the tortilla press. Then you throw this “disc” back and forth between your palms until it is thin, kind of like you see people do with pizza dough. At this time it is placed on an extremely hot iron skillet and “fried” on one side, turned over by hand (which burns like h*ll) and then you flattened out by pressing a cloth on top. You have to turn it a couple of times, flattening it with the cloth. If you don’t bubbles form and the tortilla swells.

We made about 30 of them and it was so fun!!!....and they were yummy! Next week she is teaching us how to make frijoles. When she asked what type of frijoles I said the kind that look like baby poo. She got a smile out of that...she then used the Spanish word that meant pureed...and I said yes.

Arriba de la Roca....experience the magic of home made tortillas!