Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Tortillas 6 Lisa 0

I have tried to make tortillas about 5 or 6 times, I'm guessing.  A few times just "soaked" whole wheat, and a few times with sourdough starter.  I have never been really successful at it.  Sometimes, like the last batch I had, the dough is so sticky or fragile that if I try to roll it thin enough it ends up falling apart on the way to the pan.  Sometimes the dough was great, but the end product was not pliable at all.  And every time, whether I've fried them in oil or used a dry pan, the oil that ends up in the air while I'm cooking them gives me a headache.
This picture really does not do justice to the disaster that was my latest attempt at making tortillas.  The batch on the left was thin enough, however, they were falling apart in the pan & had holes.  I was getting so frustrated with them that I decided I had to leave them thicker & that is the batch on the right.  They actually ended up reminding me of the flat bread eaten in Rwanda, called chapati.

What do you do when you end up with strange fat tortillas?  You go ahead & make easy chicken enchiladas from the Musings of a Housewife blog anyway!  We actually make enchiladas in Rwanda using chapati & it's one of our favorite meals.
They don't look pretty but they taste just fine!  This is a great recipe to use some of the chicken meat after you've roasted a chicken & pulled the meat off before (or after) making your bone broth.  (By the way, the nice thing about making the crock pot roast chicken I told you about last week is that the meat is already falling off the bones, so I got most of the meat off the bird before I boiled it.)  I didn't have any cream for this recipe, so I used some creme fraiche instead.

All's you have to do is just mix the meat with some salsa (and I like to add sour cream or creme fraiche and this time I threw in some black beans too), dip your tortilla in the cream, roll it up around some of the meat mixture, throw a bunch of shredded cheese on top & bake.  Super easy & good (even with crazy tortillas)!

What else can you do with crazy too thick tortillas?  Make them into individual pizzas & warm in a 425 oven til cheese melts.  It's a soft "pizza" but it works & is especially great in a pinch for another quick dinner.

So, at least for a while now, I am done with my attempts at making homemade tortillas.  I bought some sprouted tortillas from the Ezekiel bread company & we'll have to see how those are.  My husband also really likes the sprouted bread I bought from Nature Bake bakery (their bakery store is only about 30 minutes away & you can buy frozen bread in bulk for about $2.50 a loaf).  I still have my sourdough starter going though, so I have not completely thrown the towel in...  stay tuned!

Here's hoping all your kitchen adventures today are successful!
Enjoy-
Lisa

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

9 comments:

  1. We had sourdough tortillas for dinner. It was Lulu's turn to be kitchen helper and they were a little thicker than usual, like a flat bread. Joe said they were 'the best ever'. I like them much thinner but they were still good. I use the same recipe each time but depending on which of us rolls them determines whether it will be thin and crispy tortillas, flat bread or somewhere in between. Keeps things interesting
    :-)
    That's great to have a source like that for bread!

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  2. @ Millie- way to go, I will forever have much respect for anyone who can make decent tortillas (and I know they're out there- they're the blogs I got the recipes I used, but for some reason the tortillas are against me!) :)

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  3. I respect anyone for even attempting to make tortillas! I have yet to tackle that one.

    Thanks for stopping by the Cellulite Investigation and answering that tricky uestion about kefir and baking. Good stuff!

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  4. I've always wanted to try making tortillas! Impressive. And the prettiest food doesn't always taste the best, anyway! Welcome to the Foodie Blogroll.

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  5. @Melissa & Abby- thanks for stopping by!

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  6. I had to take up this challenge. Here is my tortilla tutorial:

    http://simplyhomemaking60.blogspot.com/2010/05/soaked-tortillas-long-winded-success.html

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  7. Congratulations on the foodie blog roll. Most of the food I make arent always pretty but they sure taste great!Love your blog!

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  8. @ Alisa- that's right & I think part of why it tastes great is because we know that real food is so good for us! Yum nourishment!
    @ loves2spin- more power to you! :)

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  9. Kind of you, Lisa. I've been making our tortillas since 1976! (Yep, I'm THAT old.) A friend, who was Hispanic, told me just to make a biscuit dough and roll them out and bake them in a hot cast iron pan. I did it and it worked wonderfully, and have been playing around with it ever since.

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