So I read online that making tortillas yourself is hella easy... so let's do that.
The ingredients are deceptively simple -- masa de harina (corn flour), water, and salt. Masa itself is corn that has been treated with lime and water (not the fruit, like, chemical lime) then washed (lime is totally not edible) and ground into a flour -- you can't substitute starch or meal for it (look near the tortillas/salsa section for it, or barring that the ethnic foods section).
To actually mix the dough, the flour itself will probably have the ratio you are supposed to use on the bag -- it's going to wind up being like a 2:1 flour/water ratio (again, consult the bag or google it). Also it uses salt, nearly forgot (like a pinch, like all doughs).
Ok, so put that in a mixing bowl and work it into a dough (you'll find yourself ditching your spoon or whatever pretty early). Cover the result so it doesn't dry out.
Ok, so now what the hell to do with it. I didn't have a tortilla press handy, so I figure I'll just roll this sucker out. Didn't want to spend an hour picking it out of the grain in my cutting board, so let's roll it out between some plastic wrap.
This turns out to be a total pain. The plastic stretches and bunches, the tortilla itself comes out all scraggly looking around the edges, they turned out way to thin (wafer thin), and they were a pain to cook. I gave this pilot batch a quick spin under the broiler with some cheese (cheese crisps). They tasted good, at least.
Ok, so I should get a tortilla press. That was at least cheap ($12 at a kitchen supply store - not one of those fancy mall places, like a local one). With the press, line it with a couple pieces of plastic (thicker than plastic wrap -- I cut apart a small freezer bag), roll out a golf ball sized piece of the dough (same as before), set it on there, and squish.
This part is fun! The next is not, we have to cook the fuckers. So the idea is to have a hot griddle there, give them a minute or two on each side, and that's it. Sounds easy! I don't have a proper griddle (no matter), and the length of time its gonna be on heat kind of rules out my stainless skillet (you don't want stainless just sitting under heat for long periods of time, shit happens), so I figure the cast iron skillet is perfect for this (I mean, its supposed to be).
So initial problem, you have to work around the sides of the skillet to flip this little guy (this is why they say the griddle is ideal) -- this isn't a deal breaker. What IS, is that halfway through I'd picked up enough of the seasoning on the pan that the tortillas were sticking, at which point the entire enterprise became a pain.
And our end result -- tortillas that taste exactly like any corn tortilla ever made - because they're all the same! There's only 1 ingredient in it! An hour of work for... whatever.
So let's recover from this! I had some 'mediterranian skewers' from the fine folks at Omaha steaks (given to me by accident) that I never knew what to do with. I figure, small cuts of meat, should work for fajitas. So let's run with that. Took the contents of one skewer, cut the 7-8 pieces of meat into 14-16 smaller pieces, then fried that up real quick with some of my frozen bell pepper/onion mix I have for stir fry.
Add in fajita seasoning mix, and bam. Again, it turned out totally ok, just not for the amount of effort involved. I could certainly see myself doing this again once I have a proper griddle (either a griddle pan, or maybe an electric one I could also use for french toast / pancakes). With that I could at least do 2 at a time, wouldn't need to worry about sticking, etc. I could also make chips!
Time: 1.5 Hours
Difficulty: 4/5
Cleanup: 3/5
Taste: 3/5
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