Nixtamal / masa / tacos from Masienda Oaxacan corn

[tekobo]

Ooooh.  I pre-ordered that book months ago.  Here's hoping it arrives soon.  Fingers crossed for that puff @PVPAUL!

Glad to hear you got the adaptation to the grinder working well for you. 

[Syzygies]

I'm emptying my New York apartment so I can retire to California. I have the standard version of this grinder in New York, upgraded with chocolatier hardware to the equivalent of my preferred model in California.

This thread gives a good idea as to how one would use this to grind masa.

Does anyone want it? It's yours for the shipping from New York.

I'm retiring so I can spend more time with this Corgi / Border Collie lovable monster.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Syzygies

[PVPAUL]

Yes, I’ll buy it. Please send me a email!

Thanks

[tekobo]

On 10/25/2023 at 1:46 AM, PVPAUL said:

Yes, I’ll buy it. Please send me a email!

Thanks

I have the standard grinder and it works really well for me.  You won't regret this choice.  Wet masa is the way to go!  Don't forget though, that when you grind wet, it is usually too wet to use and you need some dry masa to firm it up.  

[Syzygies]

18 hours ago, tekobo said:

You won't regret this choice.  Wet masa is the way to go!  Don't forget though,

Oh, he's ahead of all of us. This will be his second masa grinder!

[tekobo]

 

On 10/27/2023 at 3:10 AM, Syzygies said:

Oh, he's ahead of all of us. This will be his second masa grinder!

Yeah, after I posted I thought, "hey, you've got cheek, telling a man with Mexican heritage how to use wet masa!"  That'll teach me.  

[PVPAUL]

So, I decided to try my hand at making sweet tamales. I have been making traditional tamales for years and upped my game once @Syzygies turned me on to nixtamilized Heirloom corn. I took our family recipe for masa and modified it for sweet tamales and added additional ingredients based on my research and taste I was looking for. Today was my second run at this after making a 1 pound Bach with a number of variables about 3 weeks ago. For this recipe I used Rosado Heirloom corn for the base masa. I added whipped butter crisco with powder sugar, cinnamon, cayenne and baking powder. Then I cooked some rice and added some milk to it after cooking and puréed it and added this to the masa and then blended it until it floats in tepid water. For the filling I whipped up some cream cheese and added maple syrup to it. I also fried up some home make KK bacon until crisp. After spreading the masa on the Hoja I added the cream cheese mixture, 4 blueberries and 2-3 pieces of bacon. I steamed in my steam over for about 1 hour and 20 minutes……….I think I have a winner and am looking forward to sharing with family and friends this Christmas!!!

All the best,

Paul

[MacKenzie]

Lovely, PVPAUL.👍👍 

[C6Bill]

Looks great !!!!!

[tekobo]

Calling all tortilla afficionados.  I need some help please.  I am cooking for about 50 people on New Years Eve and have decided to go the taco route.  Key to this is being able to prepare the corn tortillas in advance (probably earlier in the day on New Years Eve) and then heat them up quickly and easily in the evening.  Any tips about how best to hold and store the tortillas and also on how to heat them up so that they are close to the texture that one would normally want?  I will of course experiment a few days before to be sure that I have a winning solution as I cannot afford to disappoint on the day!  

[Syzygies]

In California we have many Mexican restaurants / grocery stores, and the bigger ones include tortilla factories on premises. There are two within ten minutes of my house. Tortillas are sold in bags of fifty, often still warm, and it's a common sight while waiting in line to see a Mexican leave with two to four bags.

My next door neighbor (the master woodworker) throws parties this way. For his birthday some years back his family bought him an outdoor griddle, a cart with a propane tank, about the size of a typical gas grill, with instead a restaurant-style griddle on top. I hid this for them till his birthday, and borrowed it back to serve tacos for 50 at a wedding rehearsal dinner. (I made pork butt in the KK, and Rancho Gordo beans, and bought the tortillas, guacamole, chips, and salsas.)

French fries are twice cooked. So are commercial tortillas. They are usable as sold warm in the bag, but everyone always heats them on a griddle for serving. Think "buy sliced bread, make toast."

Our tortillas from homemade masa can be more substantial, but the same principles could apply.

What one might overlook if one has never seen this: Commercial tortillas are grilled, and often served, in pairs. This of course wouldn't work for the first cook, which for us is usually the only cook, but it works for the second. This has the effect of grilling one surface of each tortilla while the inside surfaces of the pair steam each other. One flips the pair. One could reverse the pair to grill all surfaces or leave this alone, a matter of taste. For a party, the point here is one can do twice as many tortillas at once, grilling in pairs.

For thin commercial tortillas, it is usually the case that one builds a taco leaving the pair alone. Why is a subject of debate, and it's largely custom, I'm not sure one can believe any single answer. One theory is that individual tortillas are fragile, but both tortillas in a pair are unlikely to split in the same location. A different theory is that one can then separate the two tortillas to make two tacos from one. I've tried this and they don't always separate that easily, suggesting a competing theory that the pair is to provide more food, and the vendor doesn't want to try separating them either.

For us, if they're cooked sufficiently on pass one, they'll grill just fine in pairs and separate easily for serving. I press mine thick enough that one wouldn't want to use pairs to make tacos.

So this is what I'd do for your party. You don't even really need a practice run if there isn't time; good judgment should keep you out of trouble, first try.

[PVPAUL]

@tekobo, this is a conundrum!!! We are having a family gathering with a Mexican meal on Christmas (only about 20 people) and I offered to make blue masa corn tortillas…….the thing is after thinking it out I wasn’t sure that I wanted to hand press and cook when all the last minute prep is also going on. So needless to say I’m in the same boat as you. As Syz pointed out fresh corn tortillas are available in many metropolitan areas, however they are also heated up right before serving. Our family has always reheated up tortillas directly over the gas flame on a cook top. Needless to say we would never entertain any stove / cooktop other than gas for this very reason. We do cook our tortillas….corn or homemade flour/cornmeal type on a comal / flattop but reheating is always directly over a flame. Many of our family prefer reheated tortillas with a little burn to them. 

Maybe consider keeping them warm after pressing and cooking on comal and then consider reheating once again last minute on comal or directly over a gas flame. As Syz pointed out it’s common to double up on corn tortillas for taco’s. 

A couple of years ago I came across a review of tortilla warmers and the winners were these pretty inexpensive fabric sleeve types they sell on Amazon. I did end buying a couple of these and concur these are the best I came across for keeping tortillas hot for a long time. I have some other ceramic ones with lids and they trap in too much moisture. 

Good Luck, I’m sure your Taco Fiesta will be a smashing success !!!

Feliz Navidad!!!

[Syzygies]

1 hour ago, PVPAUL said:

A couple of years ago I came across a review of tortilla warmers and the winners were these pretty inexpensive fabric sleeve types

Towels! You probably already have some.

[tekobo]

Feliz Navidad indeed!

The challenge here is wanting to be "authentic" while not chaining myself to the stove and keeping people waiting on the night.  Both of the options that you describe - two by two and/or re-heating directly over a gas flame - are less work than starting tortillas from scratch but still require a lot of activity at point of service.  I was hoping for a towel saviour.  Maybe one where I wrapped a stack of tortillas in a towel and heated them up either in an oven or, horror of horrors, in a microwave.  When I serve tortillas normally I store them in a heated bowl with a lid.  They become a bit more pliable than when they come direct off the heat and work well for filling and rolling. Thinking floppy not crispy?

[tekobo]

Tee hee.  I am thinking of christening @Syzygies's method the Noah's Ark.  Fillings are easy by comparison - chicken skin, cubed chicken thigh and pork Al Pastor.  We have a couple of vegetarians and will have beans, squash and avocado to satisfy them and accompany the meat protein.  Looking forward to the jeopardy!

[Syzygies]

1 hour ago, tekobo said:

Tee hee.  I am thinking of christening @Syzygies's method the Noah's Ark.

took me a moment...

[PVPAUL]

@tekobo    This looks like what you maybe looking for.

cheers

[tekobo]

Oooh.  Thank you @PVPAUL!  Both methods look good and reasonably fast.  Will try both and report back.  

[Syzygies]

The first Rick Bayless method is how I've always rescued stale artisan bread, but I then want to toast the bread. He's good, but my younger attempts at learning to cook Mexican based on his books floundered. Diana Kennedy got me past restaurant Mex to regional surprises, and Bricia Lopez unlocked an ingredient one could do better than restaurants (tortillas from homemade masa), freeing various of us here to then improvise to our heart's content.

I like his second method. I'd be tempted to instead set up a @PVPAUL pipeline, passing fresh tortillas through an actual steamer then do-like-Paul onto open flame briefly to restore some character, then into the warming basket.

Despite my best efforts to free my New York apartment to the four winds (My second masa wet grinder in NY became Paul's second masa wet grinder, and you wouldn't believe the Mexican goodies freezer care package he sent us as thanks) there were many casualties, including a Brazilian soapstone pot. It was too small, and I've cracked others, but even cracked they would make phenomenal tortilla warmers for occasions like this, as they hold heat for hours. Sturdy clay would work well for shorter waits.

[tekobo]

Thank you for all the input on tortilla warming.  We tried re-heating three ways last night.  There were willing testers, particularly as we had a whole deboned and KK roasted chicken as taco filling.

Mathod 1 - Steam the tortillas and then heat, two by two per @Syzygies,, on my metal "comal".  

Method 2 - As per Rick Bayless' second method, start with a pair of tortillas, heat one side on the comal, turn over, stack another tortialla on top, turn over, repeat until you have a stack of about ten and one side of each tortilla has seen some heat.

Method 3 - Go full @PVPAUL and heat on open flame, two by two.  

 

Method 2 won the comp.  Method 1 restored some pliability to the tortillas but also a slightly unpleaseant dampness.  Extra step of steaming also introduced more work so it quickly lost favour.  Method 3 is speedy but risky on the fingers and, without the resting stage in a warmer, the tortillas were more brittle and liable to break if you made up a tortilla straight away.  

As for the Rick Bayless v Diana Kennedy debate raised by @Syzygies?  Thanks to recommendations from the forum I bought both books when I started my Mexican food journey.  I have cooked recipes from both but I generally end up reaching for my two tacos books - Tacos: Recipes and Provocations and Breddos Tacos.  The possibilities with tacos seem endless and these two books include interesting salsas and roasts, enough to keep me occupied until I die (eventually) or get fed up of tacos (unlikely).