Any way to enjoy a meal with my hands, I’m into it. Loaded zesty tacos rank second on the experience list! Driven by a bag of 15 limes on sale, tonight’s dinner included homemade tacos– tortillas included. I lugged a 2-kilogram bag of maseca corn flour home from Walmart about a year ago, and it was proper time that I made use of it. Beyond tortillas, maseca can be utilized for empanadas, gorditas, sopes & pupusas as well!
To create tortillas, add 1 cup of corn flour, 3/4 cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Blend together with a fork, it quickly becomes manageable to work with by hand. Split into 6-8 and roll into balls. To flatten into tortillas, use either two stacked flat-bottomed dishes, or a tortilla press. Set burner onto med-high, and heat up tortilla for 3 minutes on either side, flip 3 times.
*Note: With the same ratio, all-purpose flour can be an option. But I vote for the cornflour for its subtle flavour addition of corn. The tortilla isn’t my fave way to enjoy a taco, I still prefer the processed soft flour tortillas, but this is a healthier vehicle to get taco meat into my mouth.
For the beef mince filling. you really can’t go wrong with any combination of spices. Go the pre-packaged taco el paso seasoning route (i don’t judge), or a balance of my favourite: sautee onion with cumin, add beef, then seasonings.
- 1 pound beef
- half of an onion
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon thai chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
For toppings, add a squeeze of lime, raw white onion (even pickled red onion if you have it), fried shallots, parsley and green onion.
I made two batches of tortillas to test out the sizing and cooked them all. If there’s a length of time between making the tortilla dough and cooking, rest a damp towel over it. After tortillas were cooked, I enjoyed it a few days later and found it was even tastier after microwaving as they become slightly soft.
