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Tortilla Chips

Yesterday's tortillas cut in wedges and fried — and they have to be yesterday's, because a fresh one fries limp.

Vegan.

Ingredients

Method

  1. THE TORTILLAS MUST BE DRIED OUT A DAY BEFORE THEY ARE CUT. A fresh tortilla is full of water. Dropped in oil it spends the whole fry boiling that water off, soaks fat while it does, and comes out heavy and limp with a leathery middle. One left out overnight has lost most of that water already, so the oil can get on with crisping it: twenty seconds a side instead of a minute, and a chip that snaps. If there is no day-old stack, ten minutes spread on a tray in a 150°C oven does the same job.
  2. THEY ARE CUT IN SIX AND THE CUTS GO THROUGH THE STACK. Four tortillas at a time, stacked and quartered and then halved again with a heavy knife, gives even wedges in a fraction of the time. Torn by hand the pieces vary wildly and the small ones burn while the big ones are still pale.
  3. THE OIL IS HOTTER THAN FOR MOST FRYING AND THEY GO IN IN SMALL HANDFULS. A wedge should bubble hard the moment it lands and be done in well under a minute. A big handful drops the temperature, the chips stew rather than fry, and they come out greasy. Two handfuls per batch, no more.
  4. THEY ARE SALTED THE SECOND THEY COME OUT. Salt sticks to hot oil on the surface and nothing else. Scattered on a minute later it slides straight off into the bottom of the bowl, and the chips taste of nothing while the last mouthful is inedible.
  5. THEY STOP BUBBLING BEFORE THEY GO BROWN, and the bubbling is the better signal. The noise falls away when the water has gone, which is the moment they are done; colour comes a little after that, and a chip taken out on colour alone is usually a shade past its best and tastes faintly burnt.
  6. The tortillas spread out on a rack or a board, uncovered, and left OVERNIGHT to dry. Or spread on a tray and dried 10 minutes in a 150°C oven, then cooled.
  7. Stacked four at a time and cut into 6 WEDGES through the whole stack with a heavy knife.
  8. The oil heated in a deep pan to 3 cm, over a medium-high heat. A wedge dropped in should bubble HARD at once.
  9. A small handful added -- no more than two layers deep -- and fried 20 to 30 SECONDS, stirred once with a slotted spoon.
  10. Fried until the BUBBLING DIES DOWN and the wedges are pale gold. Lifted out before they colour properly.
  11. Tipped onto paper and SALTED AT ONCE, while glossy with oil, and tossed.
  12. The oil brought back up to heat before the next handful.
  13. Served warm, with lime. They keep 2 days in a tin and are never as good as on the day.

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