For the love of Seitan

My sister-in-law told me, on my recent visit to her home, that I was silly for buying tortillas when I could make them easily from scratch, costing a fraction of the price. And my husband wanted enchiladas a few days ago, so I decided to give it a whirl. But, there was no recipe I could find quickly for my favorite tortilla – corn AND flour. There’s recipes for corn tortillas and flour tortillas but none that mixed the two. So I made one up based on the flour tortilla recipes I saw, and it turned out delicious. I’m never, ever buying tortillas again. This recipe makes about 12 tortillas, and I highly recommend using a small cast-iron skillet so that the heat is nice and even.

Ingredients:
1 cup of blue corn flour (Other corn flours will work fine. Blue corn has more protein than yellow corn, which is important for vegans)
1 cup of all-purpose unbleached white flour
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
hot water, about 3/4 cup as needed

Method:
1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add vegetable shortening in little chunks, then mix with your hands until it resembles a coarse meal. Gradually add the hot water until the dough is a springy, smooth texture. Knead on a flat surface for a couple of minutes, then divide the dough into 12 parts, rolling each piece in your hands until you have little walnut-sized balls of dough. Cover with a dish cloth and let them sit for 30 minutes.

2. Heat your cast-iron skillet until it’s quite hot. Put just a dab of vegetable oil in the pan; just enough to make sure the pan isn’t dry, about 1 or 2 teaspoons.

3. Roll out one dough ball on a flat surface with a rolling pin until it’s a very thin flat disk. It will get thicker when you cook the tortillas, so make it as thin as you can while maintaining the integrity of the dough. Take the thin tortilla and place it in the heated skillet. Cook it for about 30 – 45 seconds on both sides. It should have “grill marks” but be soft and bendable, not crispy. Set it on a plate and place a sheet of parchment paper on top. Repeat with the other 11 dough balls, one at a time.

Tags: Uncategorized // Add Comment »