The Homemade Tortilla Diaries, Part 1

My friend Rose brought back homemade tortillas from a recent Arizona trip, and invited me and Izzy over for tacos.  I did a little research and found out that it's pretty easy to make your own tortillas.  I bought a cast iron tortilla press at Sur La Table for $20 and a bag of Bob's Red Mills Masa Harina at The Garden in Greenpoint for less than $4.  Izzy has made these when he lived in Mexico, but I did it mostly by myself.  He provided some guidance as he watched over my shoulder and helped at the final stage by toasting the tortillas on the stove.

I'm not very good at following other people's recipes verbatim.  My technique is to research many recipes, eliminate anything that is too complicated, or any extra ingredients that don't seem necessary that I don't feel like buying.  I usually splice and re-combine 2 or more recipes.  This cut and paste technique is actually very close to how I design textiles, LOL.

I found a very simple recipe that did not require my cut and paste technique: 

2 cups Masa Harina 

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 warm water

Mix it in a bowl (use your hands), then roll it into a log, cut into 12 pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, flatten and arranged on cutting board.  Cover the cutting board with plastic for 15 min.

To prevent the tortilla from sticking to the cast iron, there needs to be plastic between the dough and the press.  I found suggestions like covering each plate with a plastic bag, or using wax paper.  Izzy saw me struggling to cover each plate with plastic wrap, my plan was to tape the plastic wrap with blue tape (LOVE that stuff!). He stopped me and showed me his way, which is to lay down a big piece of plastic wrap, then the dough, the fold the plastic wrap over.  Then press!  After a couple of tortillas, I figured out how much space I had to leave to the fold of the plastic wrap so that my tortilla was not misshaped.

Izzy and I had an assembly line going...  I pressed the tortillas, and he toasted them on pans on the stove.  He had 3 pans going at once on medium heat, and used a spatula to flip the tortillas periodically.  As each tortilla was finished, he put them in a folded towel to keep warm, then he would start another tortilla.  Also inspired by Rose, I ordered a Day of the Dead tortilla cozy from Amazon, which I have not yet received.  When I post one of the other tortilla recipes that I am going to try, I will include a photo of the cozy.

Our first batch of corn tortillas was a huge success!  We dipped these in Izzy's homemade tomatillo green sauce, so we weren't so particular about the size and shape of the tortillas.  These tortillas were thicker than what I am accustomed to, and had much more of an earthy corn flavor.  Masa harina comes in golden, blue, and white varieties, we used the golden this time.  All of Bon's Red Mills products are made with non-GMO products only, but i am disappointed that their masa harina is not organic.

Bob's Red Mills offers a gluten-free version of masa harina.  The difference, at least as far as I can tell, is that the GF version is made in a factory that is not contaminated by products made with wheat. I would have bought the GF masa harina if it was available at the store that I went to, just because why not?  FYI, in NYC the Westerly Market in Hell's Kitchen has a much more extensive selection of Bob's products.  Amazon has a great selection of Bob's Red Mill products organic and gluten-free masa harina.

If anyone has ideas or experience pre-making and storing homemade tortillas, please leave a comment.