I’ve been having a craving for Mexican food as of late. It was likely spurred by my recent trip to Chicago where I dined at Rick Bayless’ Xoco twice. Toronto isn’t known for its Mexican food so when I have a craving I usually crack open my cookbooks.
I knew that I wanted to make something involving tortillas which is when I got the idea to make them myself. The whole thing didn’t seem to daunting because my friend Shea over at Hungry in Brooklyn made them and pretty much said they totally change your tortilla game. Sold.
I did some research to see if I really needed to buy a tortilla press. I was reluctant at first to buy a tortilla press because really it only has one use and I hate buying kitchen gadgets that only do one job. The Kitchn had a good post about alternatives to using a tortilla press. I ended up deciding in favour of a tortilla press thinking that once I bought a big bag of Maseca (masa harina) I would need an excuse to use it up.
For those of you that have no clue what I’m talking about, here’s a link to a tortilla press.
I honestly had never really thought about what goes into making corn tortillas. Sure I knew there was some sort of corn floury stuff and water. I assumed there would be lard or salt or something else. Nope. This is a two ingredient thing – just water and masa harina.
The process to make them isn’t that complicated either. You mix the masa harina with water and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then you grab clumps of the mixture and roll into balls. From there you take out your handy dandy tortilla press and flatten the balls. All you do from there is throw them onto a hot griddle or pan and cook them for a few minutes. As Ina would say, “how easy is that?”
I still need some practice making tortillas because as you can see they are on the thick side but regardless these were delicious. Whenever I buy packaged tortillas they are always so mediocre and they end up sitting in the back of my fridge. By making my own I can make a few at a time for literally pennies.
So now that I’ve realized that making tortillas is so easy I’ve been looking for excuses to make them all the time. I think I may just make some quesadillas in the next few days.
For detailed instructions on how to make tortillas click here.
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i’ve made flour tortillas before, but haven’t tried corn yet. do you feel like the tortilla press was worth it? did you try rolling one out with a rolling pin just to see how it would go?
I didn’t try using a rolling pin but the dough does feel like it could be troublesome. The tortilla press was only $20 which felt like a good price for a random investment that would bring joy