Robot Journal : It's true - you all need a tortilla press

7/8/2008

You’ll have to pardon my writing
I just had entirely too much ice cream and will probably fall out of my chair due to a dairy overdose any
minute
now

Yes, this weekend. It was the good.

It is true: we went to visit Lisa of Lisa Says fame. She and her lovely family (husband and small offspring) live in sweet little Connecticut and are alledgely neighbors with many troublesome bears. We saw no bears.

It is also true that we played Wii. I am getting better at the Wii machine. The bowling? I like that. Tennis, too. Baseball? I think I like that, but I need more practice.

Lisa’s small offspring, Ella, was bouncy and cute and seemed to enjoy having more adults around to fuss over her.
We went bike riding one night and I took the bike with Ella on the back. Yow. Sticking an extra human on the back of a bike makes it all wonky. Next time I see a parent riding up my street with a toddler on the back, I will run out and give them a push. That’s a tough ride.
My goal was to teach Ella something funny to say, so while we were riding I had her yelling, “Hurry up driver!” with the goal that one day she will use that on Lisa. We’ll see.
Also, Ella had her first taste of Champagne. It was Krug. She said, “yum”.
That is a good sign.

Evan of Picture Monkey asked about the tortilla press...

Tortilla Press
First, you all need a tortilla press. Our pals in LA turned us on to making your own tortillas.

It is very simple.
You buy a tortilla press.
Then you buy some masa, which is basically a fine corn meal that is soaked in lime (no, the other kind of lime).
Usually the bag of masa has the instructions on the side, but basically you just add water and a dash of salt. Mix it all together until you have a nice ball of dough.
Take a little bit of the dough and roll it into a golf ball sized… ball.

Now, the next step is that you press the dough. The trick is that the dough shouldn’t touch the actual press so you can use cling wrap, parchment paper, or some sort of plastic sheeting (like a cut-up Ziploc bag) between the press and the ball of dough.

After it is pressed and flattened out, you throw the raw tortilla into a hot pan. There is no oil needed. If the planets align, your little tortilla will poof up a bit. After a minute or so in the pan slide them out and put them somewhere warm - I make a little aluminum foil nest for them and keep them covered and/or throw them in a warm oven.

Granted
I am just winging it and I am sure there are tortilla pros who are guffawing at my lack of skills. As with most things, the internet is a fine place to get more information.

Oh, how do they taste?
Homemade tortillas pretty much kick the butt of a store bought tortilla. I suspect you would have assumed that.
I guess the only issue is time. You can’t throw together tacos in a couple of minutes like you can if you have store bought ones.

Where do you buy them?
We bought ours in a fun Mexican grocery store in East Los Angeles. I assume they are easy to find in NYC, but I have never actually looked.
Feel free to holler on the comments if you come across places that have them here.

[UPDATE!]
Amazon has them. I'd go for the heavy, cast iron version: Cast Iron Tortilla Press, 8 Inch

comments[12] | 7/8/2008 | perma-link

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