Text 14102, 86 rader
Skriven 2011-02-14 15:55:15 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
  Kommentar till text 14089 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Tortillas
=================
12 Feb 11 11:51, Robert Bashe wrote to All Mexican food fans:

 RW>>>> One of my pet peeves is the differences in Mexican food,
 RW>>>> California vs Texas. New Mexican food too, for that matter.

 KW>>> Mexican food seems to alternate across borders between being
 KW>>> traditional, authentic, subtle and flavorful, and hot plates
 KW>>> smothered in refried beans, soggy, tart "spanish" rice, cheddar
 KW>>> cheese and sour cream.

 RB>> My personal peeve is the rise of "flour tortillas", which are about
 RB>> as crappy an imitation of the traditional masa corn flour tortillas
 RB>> as you can find. And taste like oven-dried flour paste.

 RB> And getting back to the subject, I noted this morning at:

Are you still casting that bait?

 RB> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortilla

 RB> "In northern Mexico and much of the United States, "tortillas" mean
 RB> flour tortillas. They are the foundation of Mexican border cooking
 RB> and a relatively recent import. Their popularity was driven by the
 RB> low cost of inferior grades of flour provided to border markets and
 RB> by their ability to keep and ship well.[7]"

 RB> Note "inferior grades of flour". That says everything about "flour
 RB> tortillas.

Actually it doesn't say anything about the quality of the tortilla. It
says a great deal for the reason flour is used instead of corn; Flour is
cheaper to buy than corn meal. Let it be noted that flour tortillas are
pretty much the norm and corn tortillas are not.

When you order TexMex or Mexican food, they always ask you if you want
corn or flour tortillas. My preference is flour, as corn tortillas taste
like crap by comparison. I guess if you like such foods that have corn
tortillas as the basic wrap, you will always prefer corn to flour. However
most people (I asked my fav waitress) prefer and order flour.

In real Mexican restaurants and in at least one of my favorite dishes,
they use both.

Huevos Rancheros; two fried eggs with ranch style sauce which also
includes Mexican rice and Refried beans. Corn tortillas are used in this
dish to insulate the eggs from the plate because the eggs aren't finished
cooking until the ranchero sauce is added. This doesn't apply to TexMex,
unless you specify they be used for that purpose, however most TexMex
ranchero sauce isn't boiling hot.

To clarify, the eggs are semi-cooked (whites are not cooked completely)
and then the (boiling hot) ranchero sauce is ladled on top at assembly
with the corn tortillas on the dish. The hot sauce is used to finish
cooking the top of the egg whites.

To insulate the eggs from a cold dish (or even a warm dish), which I think
is a great use for corn tortillas, they put corn tortillas under each of
the eggs. On the side, they serve two flour tortillas which I use as a dip
for sunny-side-up eggs and then as a scoop to mix eggs, rice and beans.

I never eat the corn tortillas!

I'm probably not alone in that, as in Texas, TexMex doesn't make use of
corn tortillas as described above.

There are plenty of Mexican/TexMex recipes that call for corn tortillas,
but I usually use/ask for flour instead. To me, corn tortillas in
Enchiladas taste horrible and I always ask for flour. I also prefer a soft
flour tortilla used to make tacos, rather than the hard shell corn
tortilla.

                R\%/itt

PS - there is one restaurant in town that makes their tortillas too thick,
flour or corn. Adding too much ingredient to something always makes for a
bad tasting dish. Hand made tortillas are a thing of the past too. Every
Mexican restaurant has a tortilla press and some know how to use it and
others don't (the too thick tortilla as an example). As with most of us,
Mexicans are always looking for a way to get out of work and their use of
the tortilla press is no exception.


  Fox News was not used as a source for information in this message!

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