Red Chile Corn Tortillas

Makes 8 – 10 six inch tortillas (using a 6″ press)*
Prep and Cook time: less than 45 minutes

Supplies

Tortilla press
Plastic wrap
Plate and damp paper towel
Tortilla warmer with paper towel
1 two burner griddle or 2 single burner griddles

Ingredients

1 cup Masa Harina
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup red chile sauce (see below)
½ cup hot water

Instructions

Warning: If your red chile sauce is HOT, it might be a good idea to use gloves when mixing and kneading the dough. The capsaicin from the red chile can be absorb while kneading the dough and cause your hands to burn.

Mix together the dry ingredients – masa harina and salt.
Mix together the wet ingredients – water and red chile sauce.

Slowly add 3/4 cup of the liquid to the masa while you work the dough with your hands. Consistency for tortilla dough for masa. Continue to work the dough for at least 5 minutes until you have a smooth, soft dough. If the dough seems too dry, add 1 tablespoon of liquid at a time until you get a smooth, but not sticky, consistency.

Create eight or more 1.5″ diameter balls of dough*. Roll in your hands until smooth. Set on a plate and cover with a damp paper towel.

Heat one side of the griddle over a medium heat. Heat the other side over a medium-low heat.
Cut a piece of plastic wrap the width of the press, then cut this in half. Place one of the halves on the bottom of the press.

Place one of the balls of dough on the press and cover with the other half of plastic. With your hand, flatten a little bit, and straighten the plastic wrap if needed.

Close the press and press one of the dough balls about half way. Open the press and turn the tortilla with plastic 90° and press again.

Remove the top piece of plastic. Flip the tortilla over onto your palm and carefully remove the other piece of plastic.

How to make corn tortillas:
Flip the tortilla onto the hotter part of the griddle. Let cook for 15-25 seconds, then flip. Let cook for 1 -2 minutes until the tortilla starts to darker on the grill side or get brown spots, then flip again. The tortilla should start to puff up. If it doesn’t, tap the center gently with the spatula. Once puffed and starting to brown, flip onto cooler side of the griddle for another 30 – 60 seconds.

Place a paper towel in a tortilla warmer. As the tortillas finish cooking, transfer to the tortilla warmer and cover. The tortillas will continue to steam and soften.
Continue until all of the tortillas are cooked.

New Mexico Red Chile Sauce Recipe

This is MJ’s adaptation of New Mexico Red Chile

Yields 3 to 4 cups
Prep, cook and processing time: 1 hour

Ingredients

About 20 pods of dried red chile, washed, stems and seeds removed (just shake out the seeds once you remove the stem)Place all ingredients in a large pot and simmer for about 20 minutes.
3 cloves garlic, smashed
½ small onion, coarsely chopped
3 cups water or stock*
½ tsp. cumin seed*, toasted and ground in a spice grinder
½ tsp. dried oregano (Mexican oregano if you have it)
1 tsp. salt

Red Chile Sauce:

Instructions

Rinse the chile pods. Break into pieces discarding stems and seeds.

In a large pot, add the water, chiles, onion, garlic, and oregano. Bring the water to a boil and reduce heat for a simmer. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or longer until the pods are rehydrated. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for another 10 minutes.

Purée – I usually purée in 3 batches in order to get a smooth texture.

Fill the blender with about 1/3 of the chiles, onion and garlic and some of the water. Add about 1/3 of the ground cumin. Purée.

Continue to purée until you have a smooth texture. Add more water if you need to. Once you get a smooth texture, pour into a bowl and finish off the rest of the chile in two batches.

To get a even smoother sauce, blend again after the sauce sits for 20 minutes.

Divide the sauce into 1 to 2 cup servings. Freeze what you can’t use in 3 to 4 days.

From mjskitchen.com