Why do you eat? To fill your stomach only? To keep your health only? No, that’s not everything. If that so then there would not be so many delicious and mouth-watering foods that are found everywhere. Apart from the source of living, foods are made to satisfy your taste buds that are eagerly waiting to relish the flavor of something special always. No matter if it is a celebration or a weekend, you always expect to have something tasty and delicious. Even in your regular diet you never compromise with the taste of the foods. One such food is a tortilla that is preferred by enormous people across the world.
What is Tortilla?
The tortilla is a kind of flat pancake made with wheat flour or cornmeal. It is just like bread that can be packed with heavy filling like, ground beef, mixed vegetables, or cheese. Though ready tortillas are found in shops, if you want to prepare this dish at your home then it is not quite tough to make. Unlike the commercial tortillas, you may not add any kind of harmful additives or preservatives while preparing this dish to make it safe and hygienic for everyone.
As I have told that it is not quite difficult to prepare tortillas at home. There are tortilla makers available to make your work easy. Besides, tortillas require some very simple kind of ingredients that can be easily collected from your nearest grocery shops. So now, let’s start preparing this tasty and wonderful dish for your family and guests.
How to Make Homemade Tortillas Using Tortilla Maker
Tortilla maker a unique flat kind of device is used for preparing tortilla quite simply. It works to flatten the dough and further heats up and cooks the tortillas one after another within a very short time.
Ingredients
- ¾ kg all-purpose flour.
- 2 teaspoon of veggie oil.
- ½ teaspoon of baking powder.
- A pinch of salt.
- Some lukewarm water.
Preparing Dough
To prepare perfect dough for tortillas you need to take a food processor and add flour, salt, oil, and water turn on the machine. Let the whole process continue until the dough comes together and forms a ball. Now cover the dough with a towel and let it rest for 15 mins.
Let’s Use The Tortilla Maker
Now, place the dough towards the back of the tortilla maker since it gets pushed a little forward if it is pressed down. While pressing down you have to go slow unless you may find cracks around the edges. Before doing this you need to rub little dry flour with the dough so that the pieces will not stick with the maker.
Cooking Process
If you want to make tortillas using tortilla maker then the machine will cook them until they are lightly brown on both sides. But sometimes you have to flip them to get the best finish of your product.
Preparing Corn Tortillas Using Tortilla Press
Tortilla Press is a machine made of either cast-aluminum or cast-iron, even you can find the electric version of it also. As usually, you have to prepare dough first using all the ingredients (Corn flour or Masa Harina) one after another and kneading them well to make a smooth dough. After dividing the dough into some equal pieces, place the pieces one after another in the press which flatten them and also cook them without taking too much time.
How to Keep Your Tortillas Warm?
After preparing tortillas sometimes it is not possible to serve them immediately. In that case, you need to keep them warm at least for an hour or two. To make this possible, you have to take a wet dishcloth to keep all the preheated or fresh-made tortillas at the center of the cloth and wrap the edges from all sides of the cloth. Then place them in a crock-pot and set low heat and allow the tortillas to keep warm for as long as you require.
How to Freeze Tortillas?
Once you start making tortillas you can’t count the limit. You’ll be certainly going to make enough to freeze for later. Now you need to know how to freeze the tortillas. They can be kept in the freezer for a week or two and once you defrost and cook them, I can assure you that you’ll get the same taste as they are freshly made. For freezing, you need to wrap them in a layer of foil and then put it into a plastic zipper bag. But never freeze warm ones, chill them in a refrigerator before put them into a freezer, unless the quality of food deteriorates and you may get the unpleasant taste out of it.
How to Heat Up Tortillas?
Once you draw out the tortillas from the freezer and defrost them, the next thing that you have to do to reheat them. Because the tortillas have already lost their moisture and become dry and stiff. So they need to be steamed before cooking. Firstly, preheat the oven to 250°F and wrap the tortillas in a damp dishcloth and keep them in a casserole of the required size and finally cover the lid.
Now, place the casserole in the oven for at least 20 minutes to get them at your desired condition. If you have a microwave then you have to reheat them one after another keeping on a plate with a damp paper towel cover. You have to use a new paper towel for each tortilla.
How to Keep Tortillas Soft?
No matter if you have flour or corn tortillas, it is necessary to keep them soft until you start eating them. Because it tends to lose the moisture and become stiff after sometimes. The only way you have to keep them soft and that is reheating. If you have flour tortillas then you have to keep them in the microwave for 30 sec. to 1 min. depending on the number of tortillas you’re going to reheat.
There is one more way where you have to wrap the tortillas in a damp dishtowel and place them in a casserole dish and cover the lid. Now you need to place the dish in a preheated oven for 20 minutes. As for corn tortillas, you have to place them in a griddle or skillet and reheat them in low or medium temperature for 30 seconds. All these processes will certainly help you to keep your tortillas soft even after a few hours.
Conclusion
So, I hope you have collected enough ideas and gained enough confident about how to prepare and how to maintain tortillas all by yourself. Now, go and enjoy your tortillas with your kins and pals.
John DiBella is a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, a cooking enthuthiast and a writer. When he’s not writing blogs about home kitchenware, he enjoys hiking, camping, sailing and cooking.