Corn tortillas - heeeeelp!!!

[miltonkeynesmum]

Hello there! Boy did I have a disaster cooking last night. Really wanted to make homemade corn tortillas with lots of lovely veggies as the filling but they turned out appallingly! Recipe was 1 and 3/4 cups masa harina and 1 and 1/8 cup hot water to make the dough. Well, I am not sure what masa harina is because I have never ever seen it in any shops here. I was using fine corn meal (or highly finely ground polenta). It didn't work at all and the 'dough' (well, it never turned into a dough) was totally non-pliable and couldn't be gotten into the pan in one piece. What IS masa harina and can anyone help???? Thanks!

[Bruce Paine]

miltonkeynesmum,

Try as you must, your cornmeal (or polenta will never turn into masa or masa harina).

You would be smart to make a porridge, or add this wet cornmeal to a soup, sauce or other dish.

Masa harina http://www.coolchile.co.uk/Merchant2...ory_Code=StCup http://www.fronterakitchens.com/cook...ntry_masa.html is corn flour that is mixed with slaked lime.

Other than the commercial masa, you can also make an organic masa by first making nixtamal http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/masanixtamal.htm which is made by cooking white (dent) corn in water with (the alkalizing agent) lime, wood ashes (free of paint, chemicals, etc), or ground sea shells, and in the process the hard corn skins are removed.

Though the hard skins contains many nutrients including niacin, many of the nutrients including niacin, calcium, and magnesium as well as some lysine are replaced by the use of the alkalizing agent. Wood ash apparently produces more protein in the corn.

After the nixtamal is made, it is ground to make masa or posole (or pozole) or hominy http://www.sallys-place.com/food/col...ell/hominy.htm

My guess is that, besides at the American Embassy, you don't have any clusters of Americans in a town or neighborhood to warrant have American food restaurants to eat at, so you might have very few Mexican or Mesoamerican restaurants to go to, to sample tortillas, sopas, chalupas, tiacoyos, gorditas, picadas, papatzules, taquitos, tostadas, enchiladas, enfrijoladas, chilaquiles, and tamales.

Also, my guess is that your local macrobiotic group is probably not large enough to support an organic masa production facility, so you might be interested in making your own for personal use.

I might be able to get Ignacio and Lorretto Beaumonte Wayas (located in Ensenada, Mexico) permission to put their Man of Corn cookbook, online (or if not that, make the cookbook available to persons who wish to own a copy), so all of us can benefit from the inclusion of macrobiotic mesoamerican cooking and foods in our varied diets.

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

[miltonkeynesmum]

Cripes! Ok, so it looks that without hours and hours of work, the delights of corn tortillas freshly made at home are denied to me (shame, shame!!!). Is there anywhere I can order it (already made) through the internet - any ideas??? Thanks a million.

[Bruce Paine]

miltonkeynesmum,

You ever wonder, who it is that you are talking to?

Maybe I should shut up, which would be one kind of mum, but I believe the kind of mum that you are, is someone's mommy (or two someones' mommies), for that matter!).

Milton Keynes is a place very few of us has been to and at first glance, I said, "who does she think she is? She can't possibly be old enough to be Milton Keynes (read 'British economist John Maynard Keynes['s]') mother!" (ha ha ha! ;-)

Today, I've found out that Milton Keynes is someplace in the middle of England, somewhat west of Cambridge, somewhat north of London http://www.mapblast.com/UK/(vkwnpy55ep2wrgy10gl0no55)/map.aspx?L=USA&C=52.02301%2c-0.74368&A=215.00000&P=%7C990629%7C&TI=Milton+Keynes%2c+England%2c+United+Kingdom .

You better hope that not very many mommies from Milton Keynes comes on this list or you might have to give us a new name ;-) .

About that expression, "Cripes!", we don't hear it much, stateside, but here's a blog http://suzette.typepad.com/suzette/ that uses the word as part of it's title and you might enjoy reading it, as well.

Do you know how to search for things on the World Wide Web?

Here are three bunches of sites that I found on Google http://www.google.com/ , employing the words organic, tortillas, Milton Keynes, and UK in several combinations:

http://www.google.com/search?q=organ...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

http://www.google.com/search?q=organ...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

http://www.google.com/search?q=Milto...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Regarding those organic tortillas in Milton Keynes or thereabouts, my guess is that if you can't find any organic tortillas nearby then you might need to find some Milton Keynes daddies, single blokes or lassies to form a macrobiotic dinner club with you, and start producing them together!.

Otherwise, you will have to do all of that organic masa harina making, yourself!

Good luck!

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine