The other side of the Tortilla

“Tortillas de Colores”

Makes about 12 tortillas

Flavored Tortillas, are original and delicious and making fresh homemade tortillas at home its easy!

We all know corn tortillas are accompanied by almost all meals in Mexico, made from nixtamalized corn, a preparation where the corn is cooked with lime to potentiate its nutrients, normally all you need is 2 cups of masa corn flour, ½ teaspoon of salt and 1 ½ cups of water to make the masa dough.

But what about if we center the spotlight and attention to the corn tortilla and add flavors and ingredients creating colors and bring the tortilla as the main dish? Fun, right?

The colors and flavors are endless as you can create your favorite flavors, look at it as ice-cream, you need “cream and flavors” to make ice-cream, right? well, in this case is the same, all you need is masa corn harina and the flavors to make your flavored tortillas.

Below are some ingredient ideas you will need to make the colored flavored masa to make your tortillas.

Ingredients:

2 cups of Masa Corn Flour

Enough water to liquefy:

Fresh blenched Cilantro or Spinach – for green masa

Soaked Sundry Peppers “Guajillo or Ancho” - for red masa

Cooked beets - for purple masa

Cooked Black beans - for brown masa

Turmeric Powder - for yellow masa

Directions:

1- Create the flavored liquid by liquefying desired ingredient in water.

2 -Mix masa flour with 1 ½ - 2 cups of desired flavored liquid in a large bowl and let sit for 5 minutes or so.

(follow to the directions on the package of the corn flour, some brands may call for different amounts of liquid).

Knead the dough and begin working the masa with your hands to make the dough. Work the dough for several minutes.

3- Press the dough with your fingers and the palms of your hands as if you were kneading bread dough. The dough will be a little gritty at first, but should become more pliable as you kneed it. If at any point through the tortilla making process the dough seems too dry or too wet, add a little more flavored liquid or masa flour to the dough.

4- Dived the dough into 12-16 pieces, size of a plum or slightly large golf ball, rub it between your hands to shape it into balls of dough.

5- Press the masa balls with a tortilla presser to make the tortillas and cook them on a hot pan for 30 seconds to a minute on each side. The tortilla should be lightly toasted and little air pockets forming.

Happy tortilla making!

Chef Martin Lopez

www.ChefMartinLopez.com