Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Corn flour for tortillas

Corn (maize) is native to Mexico and tortillas made of corn flour have been eaten as bread since ancient times. The flour for tortillas can be made of white, yellow or blue corn. It is probably the most colourful flour ever, just like Mexico is.
Before corn is ground it is soaked in lime water, which gives it a special character and taste, so it is completely different from European type of corn flour (polenta & Co.). I get my corn flour from Mexico and this is how white, yellow and blue corn flour looks like:

It was just recently I found out about yellow corn flour for tortillas (the white and blue tortillas are the most common one). To make tortillas you only need to add water and salt, mix and voilà:

To make beautiful round tortillas it is best to use tortilla machine, but of course rolling pin works as well. And after couple of minutes in a cast iron pan tortillas are ready!

There is a small difference in taste between the colors; blue and yellow one are a bit stronger in taste and white ones are milder. My favourite are blue ones, taste is great and they look so cool.
The tortilla basket is called tortillero and it keeps tortillas warm. The one I have doesn't only look cute but it is also isolated with styropor, keeps tortillas warm perfectly.

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