Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A Lesson in Flour Tortilla Making

On Sunday afternoon I was talking to the pastors' wife and her sister and mother, and they began to ask me what Mexican foods I am learning to cook. I mentioned several things I make, but then confessed that making flour tortillas just seems to not go well for me. "No me salen bien" - or they don't turn out well for me.
With a little smile, they asked if I would like to have a lesson in tortilla making. Of course, I happily agreed and we got started. They gave me the "receta" as we went, but the best part was getting to watch Pastor Alejandro's wife actually do it, step by step. And I tried to help as she showed me the steps.
Trying to do exactly what she does....
Hermano Daniel - he's a big tease - came through the kitchen about the time I was rolling one out and said "Ah, la hermana hace mapas" - she's making maps! It's a great joke with them that when the tortillas aren't rolled out perfectly round, then they look like maps. So we named each of my tortillas....Kansas, Maryland, Ohio etc...it was funny! I did do a few perfect ones, but mostly I made maps. I will say though - those maps tasted good!
You can obviously tell which one is mine!
You should watch them rolling out the tortillas, giving them a half turn, rolling again....as fast as greased lightning! I may have to buy a tortilla press and forget the rolling out. :)
Muchas gracias, hermana, por la leccion de como hacer tortillas de harina! Thank you so much, ladies, for the tortilla making lesson!


13 comments:

Kim M. said...

I tried making home-made tortillas not too long ago and yours look much better than mine!

Springer Family said...

Hey! They look GREAT!! You should have seen my first corn ones our friends in PA showed me to make...BAD!!! But we all had a good laugh over them.

The Going Blog said...

Do they ship to the USA? Those look so good. Maybe you could incorporate a demo on your next deputation tour :-) By then you will be excellent at making them. ha

Beth said...

those look good.
Could I get the recipe for them?

mama2ryleigh said...

Your tortillas look a lot less like maps than mine! Mine are almost never perfectly round - even after lots of practice. But...there's just nothing like a flour tortilla fresh from the griddle. Mmmmm!

Holdens said...

They look delicious!!

Missy said...

OH my goodness...those look delicious. Gerald and I are big fans of authentic tortillas. Don't get them very often, but enjoy them when we can. So...when you are here in the summer...! Love you and am so proud of how you are being such a friend to the ladies there. I am sure they wonder what they ever did without you!!!

Tamra said...

Very neat! I think your maps look fine. Who cares what shape they are, as long as they taste good!

Carrie said...

So I couldn't pass off my perfectly round tortillas from Krogers as homemade? :)

I'll have to admit, your map-shaped tortillas look much more tasty than my perfectly round Kroger ones!

REJunod said...

Can you use a press for the flour ones? I heard it didn't work as well, but have never tried it. I tried making tortillas a couple of times, but they not only didn't look too good, they didn't taste quite like we thought they should. They weren't bad, just different then the homemade ones we'd had before. I haven't tried it for awhile, but maybe I'll get a different recipe and try again!!

Donna "Durfee" Fogle said...

Wow, brings back so many fond memories of being a missionary child in Haiti, West Indies (Rev. John Durfee's daughter). We had so much fun with the nationals. It was so hard for me to believe I wasn't one of them. I still miss my friends. God Bless you as you ministier to those around you!

collette said...

Hey, Melodie, your tortillas look great....and you had an excellent teacher, looks like! You can't use the regular tortilla press with the flour ones, but there is an electric press made for them. You still have to roll them out pretty much, but it pre-cooks them so that you can heat them up later just like fresh. Ask Isela about one of those machines--I think she uses one.

Looks like your next deputation tour could be funded by tortilla-making!

The Arender's said...

These look wonderful! This is something I have wanted to learn how to do for a long time...