While I am in general grateful for Mexican food, it would be pretentious to claim that’s what I make. I’m grateful for the hodgepodge meals I make that are inspired by Mexican cuisine. I’m grateful to finally be getting the hang of homemade tortillas. They’re a quick and easy base for almost any kind of toppings. Yesterday I had a hankering for something like huevos rancheros to try my homemade salsa verde on, but no tortillas; so I whipped up a batch with masa and warm water. But first I had to cook something like refried beans, so I mixed up an onion, garlic cloves and spices, a dried paprika pepper, and the last of the garden tomatoes with two cans of black beans, and cooked the mush down while I made corn tortillas.
Though I only had a supermarket egg and broke the yellow yolk trying the trendy method of cracking it flat on the counter instead of on the side of the pan, I approximated a semblance of classic huevos rancheros that satisfied my craving. The meal could have been improved only with a ripe avocado.
Philip delivered avocados, more sour cream, and a couple of other groceries this afternoon, and I enjoyed bean tacos for lunch. So simple, so delicious! I’m grateful today for Philip’s kindness, the luxury of simple, hearty food, the treasure of avocados in winter, and homemade corn tortillas.
Your tortillas are beautiful. ¿Recipe? ¿Techniques?
Thanks, Tara. I used one cup of masa and almost a cup of warm water, mixed with a large fork until I could work it with my hands. I added too much water and the first couple I pressed were so thin I couldn’t get them off the parchment paper, so I added a bit more masa. It’s trial and error. Like with pancakes 😆. But the good thing is, I could scrape that dough off and mix it back in. The second time, I just pulled off the right size ball each time I was ready to press, rather than making them all ahead and having the consistency not quite right. I read that even the humidity in the room could affect the amount of water needed, so it’s not an exact ratio.
Once it was soft but held together, I let it rest covered for about fifteen minutes. Then I rolled into smaller-than-golfball size. I bought a Victoria cast-iron tortilla press. Any press will do but I like this one. I put a ball between two small sheets of parchment paper and pressed, then peeled off the paper gently and lowered into a hot skillet. It took longer than the recipe said but I just watched for a minute or two, then used tongs to turn it gently over, and watched til it started to puff. Some of them I turned over a few times. Meanwhile, as one cooked, I pressed the next one. It was that easy! However, I’ll add, that at one point
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