Monday, January 8, 2007

Tortilla Making?

Yesterday for Sunday Company dinner, I decided to commit a sin and prepare a couple of recipes I've never made before. Usually when I do this, it's a recipe I've had before, but normally, I'm not a huge fan of testing recipes on company. The whole affair started Saturday when I asked Andy what we should make for company dinner. He started rattling stuff off that didn't make sense to me. Plus, he's been off of work for two weeks now (going on 3) so I also kind of wanted something that utilized the pantry. We're rubbing nickles together these days. I pulled out a beef roast that I'd bought a few months back- when we'd eaten it's better I was really unhappy with how tough it was, so I needed something to tenderize it. I decided that I would make carnitas. A long slow braising ought to do the trick with this beef, plus leave me with shredded beef to do what I like with it. The beef was cooked Saturday with this recipe from Cooking Light, and went in the fridge overnight.

During church I decided enchiladas were my answer, and when I debated stopping off at the store for some corn tortillas on the way home, I decided that I could try making my own, that would be fun. Enter recipe book number one. 1,000 Mexican Recipes by Marge Poore has brought some winners into my kitchen, so I was confident it would have tortillas in it. It did, but I wasn't too confident of my abilities to press tortillas flat without a press. So I decided on a different treatment- Corn Crepes. The crepes worked really well for enchiladas, and I will use them again in a heartbeat. They gave that corn flavor I love, without drying out like tortillas do. The beef carnitas though. Meh. I'm on the fence, that cut of roast before just was bland and tough, so I will blame that on the cut of meat- it did make pretty good enchiladas.

I'll try and be back later with the second recipe I made yesterday in the crock-pot, using another one of my books. That one turned out okay too.

5 comments:

Jenn said...

Okay that was weird. I made a comment, but when I came back it didn't have it. If it shows up after I comment again that would be why there are two of them.

Anyway what I commented Erika is, I have almost the same recipe. Mine has less ingredent, but for the most part the same. Mine does not use milk, sugar, or butter. I'll have to try your recipe once to see which one I like better.

They are pretty good aren't they?!?

Erika W. said...

Sounds like your recipe is more for actual tortillas Jenn. This one is definitely a crepe- in fact, I took the ones I screwed up and put them on a plate with some syrup, and they were really good that way. I wouldn't use these crepes for tacos or anything- I think mostly enchiladas or for a chilequiles casserole or something like that.

The flavors are really good though. :-) And after the first couple, they are super easy to make.

Erika W. said...

Oh, and Jenn, I found your comment. :-p I post my recipes on a separate blog, and you commented on the recipe for the crepes. So you weren't imagining things, it's still there. :-)

Unknown said...

Sounds yummy. I've never made my own tortillas before. Not too difficult, huh?

Erika W. said...

Well, as I mentioned, these technically are not tortillas, but corn flavored crepes. Still delicious though.

I've only ever made flour tortillas for tortillas, and it was a lot of work for the few tortillas produced, but I understand corn tortillas are really easy to make if you have a press.