Monthly Archives: August 2009

Homemade corn tortillas

lunch, supper, tools 3 Comments

I have a new toy! After doing a few batches of flour tortillas rolled out by hand, I realized that, um, I’m not very good at rolling out an actual circle. I bought this cast iron tortilla press from Amazon and I love it! I went with cast iron rather than lighter weight aluminum because the weight of the press does a lot of the work for me, and because I just have a thing for cast iron. It makes me happy.

I started by watching this clip — Alton Brown making tortillas. The step of lining the tortilla press with a ziploc bag is not one to be skipped! The negative reviews of the tortilla press on Amazon were folks complaining that the masa sticks to the press, but the dough should actually never come in direct contact with the press. Issue solved!

I used the recipe on the back of the Maseca bag The Cousin bought when she was here for salsapalooza — for four tortillas:

  • 1/2 cup Maseca
  • 1/3 cup water
  • pinch of salt

Really, could that be any easier? Mix the ingredients for about 2 minutes to form a soft dough, then divide into four equal portions.

After lightly pressing the tortillas (the first time I pressed too hard and ended up with paper-thin tortillas — not good!), I slapped them on a hot griddle for about 45 seconds on each side. Since these tortillas were destined for quesadillas I didn’t want to cook them all the way through, since they’d be meeting the heat again:

See how they’re just barely cooked? And already yummy?

Then I added last night’s leftover steak, sliced thin against the grain, with some tomatoes from the garden and some cheese. Sandwiched between two tortillas, this all went in the quesadilla maker (which gets a ridiculous amount of use in our house).

End result:

Love it! Crispy outsides, warm gooey/cheesy insides. Served with sliced tomatoes, this was fantastic. And quick. And easy! Definitely give this one a try.

Crispy oven roasted potatoes

lunch, sides, supper 24 Comments

Can you tell how crispy these are? This is one of our very favorite side dishes.  And all you need is a potato, some butter, some olive oil and some spices. Yay for simple! We’ll start with a soak in hot water to remove some of the starch from the potatoes, which will allow them to to really crisp up in the oven  Here’s how to whip these up:

  1. Cut a baking potato or a few red potatoes into bite size pieces and put the pieces in a bowl of hot tap water to soak. Let them soak at least 20 minutes, but mine sat in the water for a good 40 minutes last night and were fantastic
  2. Preheat the oven to 400F, and put your potatoes in a single layer on a couple paper towels to dry
  3. In a large cast iron pan melt a pat or two of butter over medium heat and add a Tbsp. or two of olive oil; adjust amounts for how much potato you’re using — you want enough butter/olive oil mixture to thoroughly coat all the potatoes
  4. Pat your potatoes dry one more time and toss them into the skillet. Stir to coat with butter and olive oil, then liberally sprinkle on the spice(s) of your choice — I used Miracle Blend last night, but it’s also great with Lawry’s or dry ranch seasoning or…? Make it your own!
  5. Roast at 400F for about 30 minutes, stirring or shaking around halfway through to ensure even browning. They’re done when a fork goes in easily and the edges are starting to brown

If you don’t have a cast iron pan (go get one! They’re cheap!) you can mix the potatoes, butter, olive oil and spices in a bowl, then roast on a cookie sheet. Couldn’t be easier!