What do I do with my tortillas (Mexican cooking for dummies...)?

[AlexR]

My wife has celiac disease (severe gluten intolerance).
On a recent trip to the States, I was able to buy some 100% corn tortillas and bring them back. You can only find the flour ones in Europe.

While it may have been thoughtful of me to bring these back, I'm not exactly sure what to do with them!

Is there a "Dummy's Guide to Mexican Cooking"?

I suppose my main question is this: do you generally fry the tortillas, or do you stuff them and bake them directly to make burritos?

I was thinking of stuffing them with a mix of red beans, chopped pepper and onion, salsa, and ground beef. Is that vaguely Mexican?

Having folded the tortilla, how do you close the ends?
Or is it normal if they flow out of the sides?

Any help on how to use my tortiallas would be much appreciated.

Best regards,
Alex R.

 

[Half Baked]

Ortega is a large manufacturer of Mexican products in the USA. They offer many recipes on the site that you can check out to see if you have the spices and if your wife would like them.

Ortega | Help From Mama - Tips

RECIPE
Seafood Recipes
Selecting and Cooking Fresh Corn
Shaping Meatballs
Shredding Pork
Spicy Tuna
Stuffing Chiles
Summer Group Party
Tamale Filling
Tostados
Warming Taco Shells

If you are looking for books, Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless
have very authentic recipes.

 

[GB]

Everything you mentioned you can do. Tortillas can be used in so many ways. With the corn ones the ends are usually left open (in my experiece anyway) and stuff does sometimes fall out.

 

[abjcooking]

Wrap them in a damp paper towl and microwave for about 20 seconds. This will make them softer and a little easier to work with.

I like to chop into strips and fry in canola oil to make corn chips for tortilla soup. You can also fry whole to make tostadas.

You can do a search and find many recipes for these. Just pick the ones you like.

Chicken flautas
Huevos Rancheros
Mexican/Tortilla lasagna
Chicken Enchiladas
Aztec pudding
chimichanga

 

[urmaniac13]

Enchiladas, in a sense they are like "Mexican style cannelloni", using corn tortillas instead of pasta sheet, typically they are filled with beans, cheese, mince etc. with typical mexican type sauce, however once you get the basics down, you can play around with variations which are practically limitless... you can try seafood, all vegetarian, different type of cheeses, creamy sauce etc etc. to name a few. Take a look around the below pages, you may get some helpful ideas!!

Mexican Recipes - enchiladas

Chicken Enchilada Recipes, delicious and easy

 

[pdswife]

This may sound weird.... It does sound weird but.. it's really good.

As you know Paul and I are in Mexico right now. A few nights ago we ate at a street venders. BBQ beef in a tortilla topped with lots of salsa. I never would have thought of doing this at home but...it was delish.

 

[Half Baked]

After reading through the recipes, I want some Mexican food!

 

[pdswife]

Hop on a plane Jan! Join me for dinner!

 

[Half Baked]

Why thank you very much!

Hola!

 

[pdswife]

You're very welcome! Yesterday... I was standing by the window and a whole flock of pelicans flew by. WOW!!!! It was so cool.

 

[Half Baked]

I haven't been to Mexico in 10 years and I sure loved our last trip!

 

[pdswife]

What part of Mexico were you in? I'm here in Mazatlan. We were here last year and it
has grown a lot since then. Many Many more condos and hotels.

 

[Half Baked]

One trip was to Mexico City and we saw all the sites w/i 100 miles.

The second trip was on the west coast and we were at Mazatlan, Cozumel, Playa de ____ . Darned brain, I can't remember the other 2 places.

I can't remember if it was Mazatlan or Cozumel that had the HUGE waves. Back then all the mansions for rich Americans were in the process of being built and we were able to stroll through them. OMG, the kitchens and bedrooms were bigger than my entire house, and way back then I had a huge house. This house would prob fit in one of the bathrooms.

As a matter of fact, OJ had a house being built there back then.

 

[Katie H]

You can use them to make quesadillas, too. Sort of a Mexican sandwich. Put your desired filling (chicken, beef, etc.) along with some salsa, cheese between two tortillas and cook them like a grilled cheese sandwich in a fry pan. We have a quesadilla maker we like to use. I've also used my cast-iron skillet with another skillet weighing down on the "sandwich."

You could also cut the tortillas into wedges and fry them to make your own tortilla chips. Really good, too.

 

[Half Baked]

I don't have a quesadilla maker but we'll put a tortilla on the pan, sprinkle leftovers over the tortillas, cheese, jalapenos - whatever. Top with another tortilla and flip when the innards begin to heat up and the bottom tortilla is a bit brown. These make the best dinner, appys, snacks etc.

We've topped them with guacamole, sour cream, onions and salsa.

 

[StirBlue]

My wife has celiac disease (severe gluten intolerance).
On a recent trip to the States, I was able to buy some 100% corn tortillas and bring them back. You can only find the flour ones in Europe.

While it may have been thoughtful of me to bring these back, I'm not exactly sure what to do with them!

Is there a "Dummy's Guide to Mexican Cooking"?

I suppose my main question is this: do you generally fry the tortillas, or do you stuff them and bake them directly to make burritos?

I was thinking of stuffing them with a mix of red beans, chopped pepper and onion, salsa, and ground beef. Is that vaguely Mexican?

Having folded the tortilla, how do you close the ends?
Or is it normal if they flow out of the sides?

Any help on how to use my tortiallas would be much appreciated.

Best regards,
Alex R.

We generally use refried beans and a corn tortilla is best used as a taco rather than a burrito. The corn tortilla is just simply folded over into a semi-circle. It is also used in enchiladas. It can be baked by folding it over a rod or even the side of a pan to have a "hard shell" which is dried crisp. It is simply a form of Mexican bread. You can use it as you would use pita bread. It can be a substitue for a breakfast biscuit filled with sausage, eggs, & cheese.