Tuesday, October 23, 2007
How to make Mexican Tortillas
Having to return to short of money circumstances, I am returning to a student diet. The diet would be very boring and bland - so I would try to jazz things up a bit by exploring cheapo foods from around the world. I would make lentil and veg curries and complement them with home made chapati - baked from a pan bought from my local Indian store. The flour was cheap and the chapati was easy to make.
I would get a bit fed up with Indian food and diverted my attention to Mexican. I would go to my local library to check out recipes that would be within my crappy credit rating. I checked out Mexican food on various occasions, some of the recipes looked impossible as the ingredients were not available - such as chipotle chilis, maiza harina. There was one recipe that attracted my attention - Mexican Tortillas - for this , you needed Maiza Harina. Did not have that, so I bought some corn meal - the corn meal would not turn into a dough. It got binned. Resorted to Maize meal, that was a close resemblance - this went the same way as the corn meal.
I gave this some further thought - I bought some corn meal again and after a few experiments - I found the only way of making decent tortillas this side of the Atlantic. It goes like this - soak the Maize meal in water, I prefer corn, for around twenty four hours - this softens the meal. Drain off the water, as much you can - the technique is a little panning for gold - edging the water out, leaving the meal in bowl. Start adding gradually adding chapati flour, kneading as you go along - when the dough starts to become elastic and pliant, stop adding more flour and knead the meal with flour. Leave it to stand for around 15 minutes - let it brew; then knead again, you may need to add more flour at this stage as the dough can get rather sticky. Make little dough balls and then flatten them out into tortillas with a rolling pin. Put them to bake on the chapati pan - let them puff out, turn over to cook the other side and lo, you have an approximation of a Mexican tortilla.
I've had tortillas in Mexico, nothing like the above - but at least you have a flat bread made with corn or maize.
Come to think of it, authentic Mexican food really does my guts in - it's powerful and very pungent. The nearest culinary style I can think of is southern Indian food - this cookery is very powerful and takes no prisoners, but prepare yourself for a remarkable meal
I would get a bit fed up with Indian food and diverted my attention to Mexican. I would go to my local library to check out recipes that would be within my crappy credit rating. I checked out Mexican food on various occasions, some of the recipes looked impossible as the ingredients were not available - such as chipotle chilis, maiza harina. There was one recipe that attracted my attention - Mexican Tortillas - for this , you needed Maiza Harina. Did not have that, so I bought some corn meal - the corn meal would not turn into a dough. It got binned. Resorted to Maize meal, that was a close resemblance - this went the same way as the corn meal.
I gave this some further thought - I bought some corn meal again and after a few experiments - I found the only way of making decent tortillas this side of the Atlantic. It goes like this - soak the Maize meal in water, I prefer corn, for around twenty four hours - this softens the meal. Drain off the water, as much you can - the technique is a little panning for gold - edging the water out, leaving the meal in bowl. Start adding gradually adding chapati flour, kneading as you go along - when the dough starts to become elastic and pliant, stop adding more flour and knead the meal with flour. Leave it to stand for around 15 minutes - let it brew; then knead again, you may need to add more flour at this stage as the dough can get rather sticky. Make little dough balls and then flatten them out into tortillas with a rolling pin. Put them to bake on the chapati pan - let them puff out, turn over to cook the other side and lo, you have an approximation of a Mexican tortilla.
I've had tortillas in Mexico, nothing like the above - but at least you have a flat bread made with corn or maize.
Come to think of it, authentic Mexican food really does my guts in - it's powerful and very pungent. The nearest culinary style I can think of is southern Indian food - this cookery is very powerful and takes no prisoners, but prepare yourself for a remarkable meal
Labels: cookery, Food, mexican, tortilllas
