Corn tortillas with tomato salsa
Yellow Corn Tortillas Makes 12 corn tortillas
Roasted Jalapeño-Tomato Salsa with Fresh Cilantro
Epicurious | November 1998 by Rick Bayless with JeanMarie Brownson and Deann Groen Bayless
This makes quite a bit of salsa so you might do only half or one-third.
Ingredients
1. You can do the following in the oven or on the stove in a dry frying pan, griddle, or comal. Lay the whole tomatoes and jalapeños in a broiler pan or frying pan. Cook for about 6 minutes, until darkly roasted — even blackened in spots — on one side (the tomato skins will split and curl in places). With a pair of tongs, flip over the tomatoes and chiles and roast the other side for another 6 minutes or so. The goal is not simply to char the tomatoes and chiles, but to cook them through while developing nice, roasty flavors. Set aside to cool. Separate the onions into rings. On a similar pan or baking sheet, combine the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring carefully every couple of minutes, until the onions are beautifully browned and wilted (even have a touch of char on some of the edges) and the garlic is soft and browned in spots, about 15 minutes total. Cool to room temperature. Peel the garlic.
3. For a little less rustic texture or if you're canning the salsa, pull off the peels from the cooled tomatoes and cut out the "cores" where the stems were attached, working over your baking sheet so as not to waste any juices. In a food processor, pulse the jalapeños (no need to peel or seed them) with the onion and garlic until moderately finely chopped, scraping everything down with a spatula as needed to keep it all moving around. Scoop into a big bowl. Without washing the processor, coarsely puree the tomatoes — with all that juice that has accumulated around them — and add them to the bowl. Stir in the cilantro.
4. Taste and season with salt and vinegar, remembering that this condiment should be a little fiesty in its seasoning. If you're planning to use your salsa right away, simply pour it into a bowl and it's ready, or refrigerate it covered and use within 5 days.
Yellow Corn Tortillas Makes 12 corn tortillas
- 1 ½ cups masa harina
- 1 cup hot water
- Mix the masa harina into the water.
- Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead gently just until a dough is formed. Add more water or more flour as needed. The dough should be very soft. -Place the dough in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest for 30 minutes. –
- Divide the dough into 12 pieces.
- Test the consistency of the dough with one piece.
- Flatten it into a small round disc.
- Open a tortilla press, and put a plastic bag in it.
- Place the disc of dough in the bag, setting it just off center near the back hinge of the press.
- Close the press over the dough pushing the handle down hard.
- Open it and remove the tortilla from the bag. Make sure that the tortilla is not dry and crackly around the edges. If it is, combine all of the pieces of dough and add a little water to make a softer dough.
- When the dough is at the right consistency, use or wrap and refrigerate until next class
- Continue shaping the tortillas as described above while cooking those that have been shaped.
- Heat griddle over medium-high heat.
- Peel a tortilla out of the plastic bag and flip it back and forth between your palms a few times to enlarge it slightly.
- Place the tortilla on the griddle and cook for 10- 15 seconds.
- Flip it over and cook for about 45 seconds.
- Flip it one more time on the hot griddle and cook another 45 seconds until both sides of the tortilla are speckled brown and cooked through.
- Remove the tortilla to a basket lined with a towel, and keep covered while pressing and cooking the remaining pieces of dough.
- Stack the tortillas on top of each other as they come off the griddle, and enclose them in the towel to keep them soft.
- For chips: cut into desired shape and deep fry until golden color and crisp. Drain and salt.
Roasted Jalapeño-Tomato Salsa with Fresh Cilantro
Epicurious | November 1998 by Rick Bayless with JeanMarie Brownson and Deann Groen Bayless
This makes quite a bit of salsa so you might do only half or one-third.
Ingredients
- 1 pound +/- ripe tomatoes (about 3-4 medium), preferably plum
- 1 to 2 fresh jalapeño or serrano chiles (1 ounce), stemmed
- 1/4 of a small white onion (1 ounce), sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 1 T chopped fresh cilantro, loosely packed
- 1 generous teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon lime or cider vinegar
1. You can do the following in the oven or on the stove in a dry frying pan, griddle, or comal. Lay the whole tomatoes and jalapeños in a broiler pan or frying pan. Cook for about 6 minutes, until darkly roasted — even blackened in spots — on one side (the tomato skins will split and curl in places). With a pair of tongs, flip over the tomatoes and chiles and roast the other side for another 6 minutes or so. The goal is not simply to char the tomatoes and chiles, but to cook them through while developing nice, roasty flavors. Set aside to cool. Separate the onions into rings. On a similar pan or baking sheet, combine the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring carefully every couple of minutes, until the onions are beautifully browned and wilted (even have a touch of char on some of the edges) and the garlic is soft and browned in spots, about 15 minutes total. Cool to room temperature. Peel the garlic.
3. For a little less rustic texture or if you're canning the salsa, pull off the peels from the cooled tomatoes and cut out the "cores" where the stems were attached, working over your baking sheet so as not to waste any juices. In a food processor, pulse the jalapeños (no need to peel or seed them) with the onion and garlic until moderately finely chopped, scraping everything down with a spatula as needed to keep it all moving around. Scoop into a big bowl. Without washing the processor, coarsely puree the tomatoes — with all that juice that has accumulated around them — and add them to the bowl. Stir in the cilantro.
4. Taste and season with salt and vinegar, remembering that this condiment should be a little fiesty in its seasoning. If you're planning to use your salsa right away, simply pour it into a bowl and it's ready, or refrigerate it covered and use within 5 days.