The art of making tortillas
November 15, 2019flour tortillas
“You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.”
Leticia and Angela are two amazing Mexican ladies from Mexicali, who taught me how to make proper homemade tortillas. With only essential tools and being creative with what is available to you, including a wine bottle which served as a rolling pin and a beverage, and a lot of knowledge, we spend the afternoon mixing dough, rolling it and frying it on the fire to make delicious flour tortillas.
I wished I could share with you the love, laughter, smells and warmth but I can at least share this recipe with you:
A little less than a kilo of flour
A little salt and a little sugar
2 to 3 tsp baking powder
1/2cup to 3/4 cup of oil or fat of some kind
Warm water
And lots and lots of love
Add in a mixing bowl flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and oil
Add warm water and mix with your hands, then knead until a soft dough forms.
Cover with a tea towel and let rest for 20 minutes.
Punch down and form small balls ( squeeze between thumb and point finger, this was Leticia`s technic). Cover and let rest again
Heat up your bbq, stove or hotplate. Get your frying pan smoking hot
press the small ball with your palm of your hand with lots of flour until you have a disc
Roll the disc out with lots of flour until you have a paper-thin circle or like me some odd shape, but this makes it homemade.
Carefully move the thin dough between your two hands and transfer onto the hot frying pan. After a couple of minutes, depending on your heat the dough will bubble. Flip the tortilla and cook the other side – Note its important that your tortilla is fully cooked but not too crispy
Keep refrigerated and reheat as needed.
Muchos Gracias Leticia et Angela! Ustedes son las mejores maestras
Wow!! What an amazing post! What a wonderful experience! And just as the ladies’ most important ingredient is LOVE..so too, this is the essence of this whole post!
We are so happy for both of you, and our buttons are popping yet again.