Homemade Corn Tortillas

A few months ago I went to Chicago to visit a good friend of mine.  She loves to cook as much as I do and we spent several days in her kitchen cooking, enjoying a cocktail or 3 and listening to our "cooking music."  All in all, a wonderful few days.  When it was my turn to cook, we had what we affectionately referred to as.... Mexican Monday.  We spent all day in the kitchen cooking various Mexican dishes that she wanted to learn to make.  We made Red Chile Sauce and Salsa Verde, Albondigas, Guisado de Chile Verde (green chile stew), Chile Colorado, Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas and Tortillas.  With all the yummy food we made, you want to know what the big hit was????  The homemade tortillas.  TGIM wasn't surprised at all when I told him.  He thinks there are few things better than homemade tortillas.  While in Chicago we made flour ones (we'll get to those soon) I'm going to show you how to make corn tortillas. 

 Here's what you need.  Masa Harina, salt and water.  What is Masa Harina you ask?  Literally translated it means "dough flour."  The corn is soaked in lime before it's dried and ground into a flour.  This is what you use to make corn torillas, tamales, and other dishes.  Generally you can find it in the grocery store.

You need 2 cups of masa harina

 and a pinch of salt

 Then slowly add 1.5 cups of water to the bowl.   The child in the background playing with the tortilla press is optional.

 Mix it until it's firm yet springy.  If its too wet, add a little more masa, if too dry more water.  I know it's hard to tell what too wet/dry is.  You're going to have to test it

It should look like this.  Let it rest for 30 minutes or an hour if you have to referee screaming children.

 Line your tortilla press with wax paper.  You don't actually NEED a press, a rolling pin will work fine.  I just couldn't resist a pink tortilla press.  It was less that $20 from the Mexican Grocery store.

 Grab a golf ball size piece of dough.  Roll it into a ball.  Forget to take a picture of that.

 Place it on your tortilla press.  You REALLY need the wax paper or it will stick.

 Give up and let children push the press.  It's just easier to let them do it.  For the purposes of this blog, this is Robin, as in Robin Hood.  He and his little brother are obsessed with Robin Hood and run around most of the day stealing from the tax collectors.  At least they have imaginations, right????

 Here's Little John, shoving his face in front of the camera.

When you open the press, you'll have this little beauty!  Carefully peel the wax paper from the top and then lay it across your hand.

and peel the other piece of wax paper off.  Replace the wax paper on the press.

 I use a comal which is pretty much a cast iron skillet without sides.  If you don't have one, you can use a skillet.  Although if you're going to make tortillas a lot, or quesadillas, grilled cheese etc.  I suggest you invest in one.  This one is mine via marriage, TGIM brought it to the relationship, but I've taken it over.   Cook them on a hot UNOILED comal/skillet for about a minute on each side and either eat immediately, or wrap them up and reheat when you're ready. 

 This made 19 tortillas.

We had chicken tacos a la King Taco.  Just some chicken, onions, cilantro and salsa verde.  I did add a dollop of sour cream.  After all, even though I have a Hispanic last name, I'm not actually Mexican.  LOL!  TGIM said these tacos were almost as good as King Taco.  If you've ever been to Los Angeles and had one, you know what he's saying.  If you haven't, I suggest you get one ASAP! 

My Essential Kitchen Tools

Another topic of discussion is my essential kitchen tools list.  Of course I have the standard measuring cups and spoons, whisk, spatula, wooden spoon, ladle, graters etc there are a few things I can't live without and use almost daily.  Here they are in no random order....

 My mixer.  I love this mixer.  TGIM LOVES this mixer.  In fact, he told me last week (after the Rosemary bread) that of all the things he's bought me for the kitchen, this was by far his best investment.  While many of you might not need one this big, it was on sale and worth every extra penny.  It's got a 6 quart mixing bowl for my large batches of dough making.  It's awsome.  So awsome I'm tempted to get another one to have in reserve.

 My cast iron skillet.  This skillet was my beloved poppa's skillet.  This thing is almost as old as my mom and well when I was in kindergarten (200 years ago) she was 106 years old.  You get the picture.  Seriously this thing is something like 50+ years old and I use it all the time. 

 My 4 quart All-Clad Saute pan.  Oh how I love my All-Clad pots and pans.  I love them all but this one hands down is my favorite.  I can put a whole cut up chicken in this thing, brown it on the stove and then stick it in the oven to finish.  Remember the other day when I said everyone needs a pan that can go in the stove?????  Also, I only have a few pots and pans.  You really don't need a lot of them.  I have this All-Clad set and it's pretty much all I need.  I still have a few (3) random pots from before I got my All-Clad.  I know it's pricey but is worth every penny.  This stuff is so sturdy, distributes heat perfectly and most of all is made in the USA.  I want to be buried with my All-Clad but somehow I think one of the boys will pry them out of my cold dead hands.

 My Pampered Chef pizza stone.  I really love the Pampered Chef stoneware.  In fact, I have almost every piece they have but pretty much use this one almost every day.  I bake most of my breads (boules, batards, couronnes) on it since there are no sides and I can just slide the loaf on it.

 The other 3 pieces of stoneware I use all the time is the loaf pan (again I don't buy bread from a store so I bake a lot of bread, almost a loaf a day), rectangle baker and deep dish covered baker.  The deep dish baker can hold a whole chicken and it comes out superb.

 My Wusthof Chef knife.  I have a set of knifes and pretty much only use 3 of them, my chef's knife, a small knife for boning and paring, and a bread knife.  I also love this cutting board.  It's large and has a groove on the edge to catch all the juice from whatever I'm cutting up.  The other side has a well for carving meats.  The well catches all the juice from the meat.

 My blender and food processor.  You "really" don't need both but there are times when it's nice.  My rolling pin, or should I say TGIM's rolling pin.  There's a story behind it that I won't get into now, but I love this rolling pin.  And that pink thing on top is a tortilla press.  I don't use it a lot but it's handy when I make tortillas.

 Stainless Steel mixing bowls.  I have a lot of bowls as you will see below, but a good set of metal ones are a necessity.  They don't have to be as fancy as these Pampered Chef ones.  Yes I have a lot of Pampered Chef stuff, at one point I had 4 friends that were consultants so I spent lots of money being a good friend.  These have an ergonomic thumb grip so you really get a good hold while you're mixing.  They also have a slip resistant bottom.

 Here's what in my small island cabinet.  Mainly my bowls (the plastic ones are for holding all the stuff I'm canning) and stoneware.

Here are all my pots and pans.  My large stockpot is being used right now.  That empty space on the top right shelf is where it goes.

This also is by no means everything I have in my kitchen, just the things I can't live without.  Here's a list of essentials from Cooks Illustrated I found on line. 

Save money, save time - Meal Plan!

Oh my gosh!  TGIM is going to be home in 10 minutes, he's going to be starving and I have no idea what we're having for dinner!  I used to say that a lot.

Oh crap!  The green beans (or whatever vegetable) are moldy.  I used to say that a lot too.

How the heck did our grocery bill get this high?  You guessed it, I said that a lot too.

How did I stop saying all the above?  Meal planning!  Not only does meal planning save time, and money it helps you plan/build a well balanced meal.  There are many ways to go about meal planning and what works for me may not (and probably won't) work for you, but I thought I'd share some tips with you.

Most people plan anywhere from 1 week to 1 month.  I do 1 week.  This is because we subscribe to a weekly produce co-op that we pick up on Saturdays.  They usually post the contents 3 or 4 days in advance so we know what we're getting.  Usually on Wednesdays I sit down and plan for the following week.  During the school year, Thurs are my shopping days but right now TGIM generally picks up the few things I need because he meets his vanpool in the grocery store parking lot.

Some people have high tech spreadsheets and meal planner sites they use.  Not me.  I have a lovely composition book that a good friend of mine altered (decorated) and gave me.  I use that to plan my meals.  It's easy and works well for me.

Although I'm fairly organized in life (I did NOT clean up the cabinets for the pictures in past posts, that's how the always look) I'm not so strict with my meals.  Just because it says on Monday we're having grilled chicken and Wednesday we're having Chile Verde, sometimes I switch it around, as long as I still make the things on the list.

On Saturday we're getting - watermelon, green beans, jalapenos, lettuce, sweet peppers, potatoes, sorrel, tomatoes, cucumbers, and summer squash.  Recently we purchased 1/4 side of beef so I've got plenty of beef in the freezer and I pretty much always have some chicken in there.  One of Grimway Farms organic farm sites is literally a mile away from my house and during the summer they have an organic produce stand where we can get fresh, local, organic produce for really reasonable prices

Here's what my meal plan for next week looks like

• Sat 8/13 - green chile hamburgers, grilled sweet peppers and summer squash (the day before we're having chile verde stew so I'm saving some of the chile verde for my burger.
• Sun 8/14 - spaghetti and meatballs.  It's Robin's (my older son) birthday and his current favorite meal
• Mon 8/15 - Steak Salad (using the lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes)
• Tues 8/16 - Grilled chicken with quinoa risotto (using carrots and spinach from the Stand)
• Wed 8/17 - Roast chicken with sorrel and onions and potatoes (the onions are leftover from last week)
• Thurs 8/18 - potstickers, sesame green beans and ramen noodles
• Fri 8/19 - quinoa cakes, cucumber salad and tomato zucchini gratin (cucumbers and tomatoes from the basket and zucchini from the garden

Lots of times I'll "cook once, eat twice" but I didn't do so well with that this week, except for cooking extra quinoa on Tuesday for the quinoa cakes on Friday.  I'm hoping we'll have some leftover roast chicken and I can make soup or enchiladas from the leftovers.  It used to be that I could get 3 meals off 1 chicken but the boys have discovered chicken and love it.  I will make stock out of the carcass though.  And TGIM will get lunch the next day.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.  If you have any meal planning tips, I'd love to hear them. 

How to have a well stocked pantry

I've had numerous requests about the contents of my pantry. Ok, actually only one person has inquired about the contents of my pantry, but she's done it several times! So I thought I'd take a few pictures and tell you about them.   You might not need or want the things that I do and that's fine, it's all about what you like and want.  A well stocked pantry is essential.  With the right essentials you can whip up a meal in no time at all.  Plus, having the essentials in your cabinet will save you money.  How many times have you run to the store for 1 thing and come out with 10?  TGIM does it every time I send him.  LOL!

For me, I always have pasta/noodles and several different varieties i.e  Penne, Rigatoni, Spaghetti, Soba, Rice Sticks.   I also always have Mac and Cheese for my boys.  What can I say, they are 4 and 6.  I also have tomato sauce and paste because that's just more convenient than making my own.  The one thing you will notice is there are no commercially canned foods in my pantry.  We don't eat canned foods (except the last few cans of olives, then I'll get them in glass jars) because there is bpa in the linings.  I'm not going to preach to you about the evils of bpa.  You can google it yourself. 

I always have different typs of beans (pinto, black, garbanzo, kidney etc.) rice (wild, brown, white) and lentils and whole grains (quinoa, barley)

The bottom shelf in the picture (the real bottom shelf currently has some empty canning jars) has various bbq sauces, hot sauces, jams and jellys, green chile peppers and things like that.

 This is my "spice" cabinet.  It has my various herbs, spices, oils and vinegars

 And my baking cabinet with flours, extracts, nuts etc.  It also has my coffee because my coffee maker is underneath this cabinet and it's just easier this way.

My kitchen doesn't have a lot of space for the stockpile of foods I had after I started canning so TGIM went to Ikea and got me this cabinet.  In here are my canned tomatoes, salsas, pickles and stock (chicken, beef and turkey)

Some things I use a lot of like flour (whole wheat and all-purpose), rice, quinoa, sugar.  Those I have on this little shelf in the cabinet TGIM got me. 

For a printable list of what I use most often click here.  Remember that you don't have to go out and purchase everything on the list at once, or ever.  These are what I use most and generally always have on hand.  It's by no means comprehensive of what other things may randomly be in my pantry, just what normally is. 

I didn't even go into what's in my fridge and freezer.  I'll save that for another time.

Crispy Chicken Thighs

When I was first learning how to cook I'd bug Sister Chef constantly with...."how do you make....?" questions.  Finally she told me if you like garlic, use garlic!  If you like rosemary, use rosemary!  I think she was a little annoyed.  The funny thing is now if someone asks me how I did something, my usual response is.... I threw in a little of this and a little of that.  Man, turnaround is fair play and all that, right?  One of the reasons I started posting recipes and how I do things is for a certain friend (or two) of mine who wanted more detail on how to do things.  So here goes something I just messed around with using things in my fridge and pantry.

 Chicken thighs (I've recently discovered the joys of chicken thighs), panko flakes, lemon, rosemary, Parmesan and the "needs for breading the thighs.

 I put some panko flakes in a bowl, maybe about 1/2 cup.  I didn't measure.

 I minced up some rosemary and added that to the panko

 sprinkled in some Parmesan

 and some lemon zest

 some salt and pepper

 in a separate bowl I put 1 egg

 and the juice of half a lemon

 gave that a little mix

put some olive oil in my cast iron skillet

 Then added some of this Watkins Liquid Spice Garlic.

 Got a little frustrated because it only comes out by the drop and I swear I could bathe in it.  It's that stinking good!

 take one of your lovely chicken thighs

 and dip it in the egg wash

 then roll it around in your seasoned panko flakes

 add it to your hot skillet to brown

 as you can see, I ran out of breading, oops.  I guess I should have used more.

 At first I was just going to cook them on the stove top but I had something in the oven so I decided to just brown them on the stove and finish them in the oven.  A little tip, you should have a few pots/pans that can go in the oven... meaning no plastic handles.  It saves a lot of time and cleanup.

This is what they looked like when they were done.  They were crispy yet not greasy and had just enough "something" in the breading to be yummy different.