Corn Tortillas

Masa pressed thin and cooked on a dry griddle, turned three times, the third turn being the one that makes it puff.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 500 g masa, as on its own page, or 400 g masa harina mixed with 500 ml warm water
• a pinch of salt (optional, and traditionally absent)

Method

1. IT IS TURNED THREE TIMES AND THE THIRD TURN IS WHEN IT PUFFS. First side down about fifteen seconds, barely long enough to set; turned, and given forty-five seconds, which is where most of the cooking happens; turned BACK onto the first side, and within a few seconds it balloons up in the middle. That puff is steam trapped between two sealed skins, and it is the whole test: a tortilla that puffs is cooked through and will stay soft and foldable, and one that never puffs has been pressed too thick, cooked too cool, or turned too late.
2. THE GRIDDLE IS DRY AND IT IS HOT. No oil, no butter, no wiping with a greasy cloth. Fat between the masa and the iron fries the surface instead of drying it, the skin never seals, and nothing puffs. Hot enough that a drop of water skitters and vanishes in two or three seconds -- cooler than that and the tortilla stiffens and goes dry before it has cooked.
3. THEY ARE PRESSED BETWEEN PLASTIC, NOT ROLLED. Masa has no gluten and nothing holding it together but the starch freed by the cal, so a rolling pin drags it and tears it. Two squares cut from a freezer bag, a ball of masa between them, and the flat bottom of a heavy pan leaned on hard will do what a tortilla press does.
4. THEY GO STRAIGHT INTO A CLOTH AND STAY THERE. Stacked on a plate in the open air they go leathery in minutes. Piled inside a folded tea towel they steam each other soft, and the stack is better after ten minutes than it was at the start.
5. The masa kneaded smooth and divided into 12 balls the size of a golf ball, kept under a damp cloth.
6. A griddle or heavy frying pan set over a medium-high heat, DRY, and left 5 minutes to come up to temperature.
7. A ball placed between two squares of plastic and pressed to a disc about 15 cm across and 2 mm thick.
8. The plastic peeled off the top, the disc flipped onto the flat of the hand, and the second sheet peeled away.
9. Laid on the dry griddle and given 15 SECONDS, no more.
10. TURNED, and given 45 SECONDS. The surface will dry and go matt and a few brown freckles will appear.
11. TURNED BACK onto the first side. Within 5 to 10 seconds it should PUFF UP in the middle. A gentle press with a cloth on the edge encourages it.
12. Lifted straight into a folded tea towel and the next one pressed while it cooks.
13. Served warm from the cloth. Reheated on the dry griddle 20 seconds a side; they will not puff a second time.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes