Tortilla suggestions

[Deleted]

I just couldn't resist it -- the other day I bought a package of tortillas at Monoprix. The package says "8 wheat tortillas for the preparation of sandwiches and apéritif snacks" (has anybody told the Mexicans about this?).

I don't know if they are made properly. The ingredients are: wheat flour (58%), water, wheat gluten (8%), vegetable oil (palm or canola). Then we get down to the other stuff, emulsifiers, salt, fatty acids, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, sugar... I skipped a lot of stuff, but I'm sure it's all in the tortillas that Bixa makes after pounding the wheat and then taking the flour to her chemical laboratory.

Oh, even though this is Monoprix (French) brand stuff, I saw that it was made in the Mexican ally renegade country called the Netherlands.

So, I want to do something interesting with these 8 tortillas, but what? Frankly, I am not in the mood to make some sort of Mexican travesty (buying these things is already a Mexican travesty), so what other ideas do you have for interesting "wraps" or other such things?

There is no hurry to answer, because the package tells me that they will remain perfectly fresh until April 2010.

[cristina]

K, I would tell you to fill the just like any other sandwich, except then I remembered you don't like sandwiches.

You could make Tortilla Soup. Even though it usually uses corn tortillas, the flour tortillas could be substituted.

I like to make weird quesidillas, like this one:

Layer one tortilla with shredded Monterrey Jack cheese, sliced bananas (yes, bananas!), a few snippets of cilantro and diced, seeded jalapeño pepper. Cover with another tortilla and place in a skillet over medium heat. Cook until the bottom is a bit browned and the cheese starts to melt. Flip and finish the other side. Cut into quarters and eat.

Another one, done more like a wrap, is a filling made from chopped spinach (I use a package of frozen), a can of chopped tomatoes, seasoned with oregano, basil and whatever you like, a handful of dark raisins and a generous handful of coarsely grated Monterrey Jack cheese. Mix well and then spoon it in to the center of a tortilla. Fold the bottom and top over the tortilla, and then fold the sides in. Place seam side down in a lightly oiled pan and heat for about 5 minutes on each side (long enough to seal the seam and heat all the way through).

Note, you could substitute Gouda or similar for the Jack cheese.

[Kimby]

I vote with cristina for quesadillas, only I like cooked chicken (from a rotisserie chicken or a spare breast leftover from grilling), black olives, canned chopped peppers and cheese. I usually heat it in the oven instead of the pan, but cristina's method is more authentic.

Cut into triangles, top with salsa, sour cream, and more cheese.

Save some for me!

[cristina]

While looking for something else, I just came across this tasty sounding idea for for grated manchego and diced membrillo in a tortilla, quesadilla style.

[lagatta]

Is there nowhere you can find real tortillas or masa to make tortillas in Paris? When you are back in the US either in NYC or LA (or many other places) you can find a simple tortilla press and the masa (slaked cornmeal) to make tortillas.

You can make fish tortillas with cheap frozen basa from your Chinese shops - it is fine for that as it is a firm fish. Obviously pick up some fresh coriander leaf (cilantro) there as well.

[Don Cuevas]

" sliced bananas (yes, bananas!)"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best easy use is to fry spicy chorizo, drain, then scramble with eggs, and roll up in a warmed flour tortilla. Cubed potatoes are an option.

A less easy way to use them is to shred beef or pork pot roast, add a spicy salsa, roll up as a "burrito".

K2, I hope that your flour tortillas prove satisfactory, but I greatly fear that they will be krap.

By the way, the majority of machine made corn tortillas in Mexico have all the taste value of a felt shoe insole. (Before wearing.)

[cristina]

Dec 24, 2009 0:59:35 GMT Don Cuevas said:

" sliced bananas (yes, bananas!)"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best easy use is to fry spicy chorizo, drain, then scramble with eggs, and roll up in a warmed flour tortilla. Cubed potatoes are an option.

A less easy way to use them is to shred beef or pork pot roast, add a spicy salsa, roll up as a "burrito".

K2, I hope that your flour tortillas prove satisfactory, but I greatly fear that they will be krap.

By the way, the majority of machine made corn tortillas in Mexico have all the taste value of a felt shoe insole. (Before wearing.)

I was skeptical too, before I tried it. Don't say no quite so soon. And anyway, there are about 1000 different combinations of things that can be rolled, smeared or wrapped in or on a tortilla.

Your recipe sounds like a Spanish tortilla (or omelet), just served in a different form. Very good flavors... (needs a little onion, though, if you don't mind me saying...)

And we already knew that K2's tortilla's would be crap. We were just being polite.

[lagatta]

Don Cuevas, do you make your own tortillas by hand? I buy mine from a little artesanal place - there is a small family restaurant in front, and the baker kneads his masa by hand but then el joven puts them in a little contraption that bakes them. Of course I lack your tortilla knowledge but they are soft and have a nice texture, unlike the cardboardy ones sold in plastic bags (whether these are from Mexico, the US or Canada).

Is Mexican chorizo very different from the Spanish - or the Portuguese - variety more often found in France, or here?

[cristina]

Lagatta,
Although I think your question was intended for Don C, I hope you don't mind me jumping in. My heritage, or at least half of it, is from Spain. My father was a Spaniard and I was born there, although I didn't live there for too many years. I am somewhat familiar with Spanish chorizo, however, as it was something made at home (the old family recipe story). Now, living in Arizona, I have very easy access to Mexican style foods (recognizing that there are regional differences there) so I have had ample opportunity to sample other types.

I will tell you that Spanish chorizo generally is seasoned mainly with paprika or dried red peppers. My uncles swore by Hungarian paprika, believe it or not. Other seasonings can be used at the whim of the maker but I would say that garlic and paprika are usually constant. The other difference is in the type of meat used. I am not sure which cuts are used for either variety, although I do know that the Mexican variety usually has a higher percentage of fat and is more often seasoned with chili derivitaves. Depending on your use, this is not a bad thing. Just something to be aware of.

Also, and Don C or Bixa can chime in here, I have not yet found dry cured Mexican chorizo in my stores. The dry cured Spanish style is one of my favorites for a lot of things, including an old family dish of dried chorizo, lemon and lots of garlic...layered and left to marinate before digging in. The fresca style is the one I would use for a Spanish tortilla, though.

I can't speak to Portuguese chorizo, and am certainly not an authority on Spanish style...just the type my family made.

[lagatta]

cristina, I only asked Don Cuevas because he had posted on chorizo(s). Everyone is welcome to weigh in!

I hope you have your EU as well as your US citizenship! That would be great. At one point (after a nasty breakup) I had a nice young man from Switzerland rooming with me as my flat was way too big for one person - and he had French, Swiss and Canadian citizenships. (His mother was French).

Hungarian paprika is very good indeed, but some of the Spanish paprika is smoked, and that is a lovely flavour. Yes of course the Spanish chorizo - and the similar Portuguese chouriço are not as spicy as the Mexican type; that is pretty much a constant difference.

I've never had the Mexican type - it is only recently that it has turned up here as there wasn't much Mexican immigration before NAFTA.

By the way there will be a Cristina at our réveillon tomorrow, but she is Argentine. Her roots are mostly Basque (Hi, Tilly!) and some Umbrian (central Italian). Argentines prefer mild Spanish/northern Italian spicing... Their fresh chorizo is a mild sausage similar to Spanish fresco or Italian dolce.

[bixaorellana]

*leaps into the fray*

you might find some ideas in this thread

No one has answered yet, so I will ~~ Mexican chorizo is completely different from Spanish chorizo. Mexican chorizo is a fresh (i.e., raw) ground pork product seasoned with fairly mild chiles, cloves, oregano & salt (guessing here), pushed into sausage casing, & tied off into balls. It must be cooked.

At least around Oaxaca, it is easy to find quite decent tortillerias which make their product from the traditional masa of slaked corn.

Wheat tortillas are quite respectable. They were common in S.Texas & many people made them at home. Someone must be eating them in Oaxaca, as they are sold in stores. I recently had an hors d'oeuvre (sp?) made from a wheat tortilla spread with cream cheese, topped with sliced ham, then rolled and sliced into pinwheels.

As I said in the wraps thread, I'll put pretty much anything on a tortilla. Kerouac, you can heat the wheat tortillas on a griddle or in a hot skillet, then put anything you wish on them -- leftover meat, sprouts or herbs, minced onions & oyster sauce is good, for instance. Try bits of cheese & cooked vegetables with maybe some minced chile. Try the bean combo from the OP in the wraps thread. You can also heat them and put them in something to keep warm at the table to serve as bread with your meal. They'd be great as a scooper with any curryish or tajine-ish dish.

[traveler63]

Obviously, and you are right Bixa, Spanish Chorizo is very different from Mexican Chorizo. I have a great site where I buy all of my Spanish products. It is called, La Tienda and here is the site www.tienda.com and it is a very interesting site.

[fumobici]

Mexican chorizo with eggs is indeed among the perfect tortilla fillings.

Hard to beat a simple quesadilla: refritos, tomato, jalapeno, garlic, covered with cheese, all sparingly applied and broiled.

[Don Cuevas]

Dec 24, 2009 1:49:40 GMT lagatta said:

Don Cuevas, do you make your own tortillas by hand? I buy mine from a little artesanal place - there is a small family restaurant in front, and the baker kneads his masa by hand but then el joven puts them in a little contraption that bakes them. Of course I lack your tortilla knowledge but they are soft and have a nice texture, unlike the cardboardy ones sold in plastic bags (whether these are from Mexico, the US or Canada).

Is Mexican chorizo very different from the Spanish - or the Portuguese - variety more often found in France, or here?

Do I <gasp, chortle, wheeze> make my own WHAT? No way; I don't even like most tortillas, the ones made by machines out of dry masa mix that resemble botting paper. (if you're old enough to know what that is.)

When you live in Mexico, you don't need to make no steenkin' tortillas. You buy them. Cheap. However, I don't much care for them, so I almost never buy any.

I will eat a few with my meal in a restaurant. There are a few exceptionally good tortillas, in a very few places, that are worth eating on their own. I can think of two or three I've been to in the 4+ years we've lived here.

About chorizo: some is very good; other, all too often, tastes and smells like what the butcher couldn't sell by its fresh date, ground up with some garlic, paprika and chiles, and stuffed it into a casing. Mexican chorizo must be cooked. Spanish chorizo, at least as I've had it, is harder and dryer and can be eaten without cooking.

(I see now that Cristina has this subject well covered. I haven't seen any dry cured Mexican chorizo, either. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I have had semi-dry Mexican chorizo. I hope to soon write about an amazing little shop that carries that, and a surprising variety of specialty foods, in an upcoming episode on my blog.)
mexkitchen.blogspot.com/
Stay tuned.

[lagatta]

I'm having a couple of pupusas that I got to take away from a small family Salvadoran restaurant a block from my house. Somehow nothing I had appealed to me, and this was a cheap solution to that (spoilt) problem. Pupusas are like a thick, soft tortilla but filled with something: beans, cheese, pork, chicken or a combination of fillings. They are served with curtido, a slightly picked cabbage salad, and a mild tomato-based sauce. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupusa

[Don Cuevas]

I rediscovered this old photo on my hard drive.
Quesadillas "Tlaxcala", corner of Calle Tlaxcala and Calle Manzanillo, Colonia Roma Norte, México, D.F.
These are among the best we've ever had; the tortillas are of maíz, not wheat. Get a fresh fruit juice from the neighboring stand.


Note: all kinds of delicious fillings but not a banana in sight.

[fumobici]

How about sun dried tomato and mimolette quesadillas with chitpotle mango chutney?

;D

(Kidding!!!)

[Deleted]

Sun dried tomatoes are on my no-fly list.

[fumobici]

I was just making a joking laundry list of shallow, trendy pseudo-foodie buzzwords ;D

[cristina]

I'm not feeling the love for my banana suggestion...

[imec]

I've got a bad feeling about this thread. It somehow reminds me of gyro's infamous "Iron Anniversary" thread (for the uninitiated, lots of posters responded to his request for gift ideas for his "Iron" anniversary - very well thought out suggestions I might add - only to have him finally post a pic of a dress he bought for her).

I just can't help get the feeling he's gonna give these damn tortillas to the gypsies one day...

[Deleted]

I still have months to go before the "best before" date arrives!