Homemade Tortillas

When we moved from California to our little town in Pennsylvania 22 years ago, I went to the local market to buy some tortillas for dinner. To my shock, they did not carry any! For a Californian who loves Mexican food, this was a catastrophe. Burritos and tacos were staples in our menu, so I knew I needed to find out how to make tortillas myself.

Here is the recipe I used back then. I'm not sure where it came from, and let me tell you, it took a few tries before I got the "feel" of how moist the dough should be to be just right for rolling. I did not have a tortilla press, so I had to roll them out by hand to get them thin enough for burritos, but I made many a tortilla by this recipe until our local store finally started carrying packaged tortillas.

TORTILLAS

4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. Crisco
14 oz. boiling water

Instructions:
Mix dry ingred. together; cut in Crisco. Add boiling water all at once, and mix with spoon until smooth. Knead dough with hands until elastic. Pinch off balls of dough one at a time and roll out on lightly floured board. Keep remainder of dough covered with damp cloth while working. Bake in non-stick ungreased skillet or on griddle, on med. high heat. Makes abt 18 med size flour tortillas.

BBQing Mexican Style

Last night my sister took me to the most wonderful little Spanish tienda in Nipomo CA. They had a great selection of local ranch meats, along with a Spanish food bar and lots of fresh ingredients for cooking. I would have loved to get some cactus to try, or the tamale husks, or some of the beautiful hot peppers. But we were BBQing last night, so we bought beef short ribs cut across the bones, not between them, making the meat cuts look like long, thin strips of beef bacon with tiny oval bones holding the strip together. The meat counter man put them in a bag and added a special Mexican marinade made with orange juice and a fabulous tasting blend of spices. It was hard to tease out exactly what was in it, other than an overall feel of smokiness, mild heat and some sweetness that was well-balanced. It was truly delicious and so simple to cook! She used oakwood chunks in her Weber grill to cook over, laid the short rib strips on the hot fire, and gave them a few minutes on each side. Wonderful! You'll see them grilling in the photos here, and on the finished plate with some yummy refried beans, a Chorizo sausage we bought at the store and BBQed as well, plus rice, salad and the store's homemade pico de gallo salsa that was perfect as well. Now, to figure out how to make a marinade like that at home, and to find a butcher who will cut some ribs for me that way!