Tortillas, Frijoles Refritos, and Other Basics of Mexican Cooking

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And if you really want to feel self-sufficient, you can even whip up your own tortilla press out of wood as we did. So far our do-it-yourself press has worked like a charm, and the accompanying drawing will show you how we accomplished this amazing feat of workshop dexterity.

ON TO THE TORTILLAS!

Two cups of your fresh masa will make about a dozen six-inch tortillas. Or, if you're going the Masa Harina route, you can start with two cups of the prepared and dried flour mixed together with one and a third cups of water and rolled into one large ball. Either way, the big lump of masa dough is then divided into 12 small lumps . . . each about the size of a large apricot.

If you have no tortilla press, place one of the small balls of dough on a slightly dampened cloth and pat it lightly. Then spread another damp cloth over the lump and—working from the center outward—roll the dough into a flat cake, one-sixteenth of an inch thick and six or more inches across.

The idea, then, is to gently roll back the top cloth and deftly trim the flattened tortilla into a perfect circle. For me, however, that always turns out to be easier said than done. But what the heck! Long experience has shown that square or lopsided tortillas taste just as good as round ones anyway. Trim yours the best you can, keep each one intact as you replace both layers of cloth with wax paper, and then set the rolled-out cakes aside for cooking.

This whole process, as might be expected, is a lot easier and faster when you have some kind of tortilla press: Just sandwich a glob of dough in the center of the machine between two sheets of wax paper . . . and bear down. Voila (or whatever its Mexican equivalent might be) . . . a perfect tortilla every time!

A VARIATION ON THE THEME

Up until now, of course, we've been talking about tortillas made from nothing but ground-up hominy (corn). You should know, however, that you can also make the flattened cakes from wheat flour. Combine one teaspoon of salt with two cups of flour and work in a quarter cup of lard with a pastry blender until all the particles of shortening are chopped quite fine. Then gradually stir in one-half cup of lukewarm water, roll the dough into a ball, and refrigerate (which will make it easier to work with later) overnight.

Allow the dough to return to room temperature the next day and then divide it into 10 balls. Flatten the blobs into tortillas the same way you would flatten the cakes if they were made of corn.

COOKING THE BASIC TORTILLA

Corn or wheat, the actual cooking of a tortilla is the same: Carefully peel the wax paper from one side of the cake, invert it onto a medium-hot (380°F), ungreased griddle, remove the other sheet of paper, and turn and cook the tortilla until it becomes dry and speckled.

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