There’s nothing better than a fresh homemade tortilla hot off the comal!
I was so blessed to grow up surrounded by wonderful women who were passionate about food. Their kitchens were always well stocked and they would spend whatever spare time they had preparing wonderful meals for their families.
When I was a young girl, my family would routinely make the six hour drive from Houston, Texas to Laredo, Texas to visit my grandparents; my Ula and Papa Grande.
My grandmother was a big influence on my love for home cooking. She routinely prepared three hot meals a day and always set a perfect table including table linens and her light blue Fiestware dinner plates. At the time, I was too young to understand or appreciate the effort and work involved in providing those meals. Fifty years later, I have a very different perspective and appreciation for all the meals she, along with my own Mom, so lovingly prepared for her family. One of her kitchen staples, and that of many Hispanic families, was tortillas de harina.
Now days, tortillas are served everywhere. Packaged tortillas are found in any supermarket or corner store. While you can find a decent packaged tortilla, I find most packaged tortillas are spongy, chewy, rubbery and have little flavor. It is quite easy to make fresh tortillas at home and with a little practice you’ll be quickly rolling out fresh tortillas in no time.
Tortillas de Harina
There’s nothing better than fresh homemade tortilla hot off the comal, and, with the use of a kitchen scale, it couldn’t be faster to pull this dough together .
- 16 Ounces All purpose flour
- 4 Ounces Pork Lard or Shortening
- 1 C Boiling water
- 2 t Salt
- In a large bowl add flour and shortening. Using your hands or a pastry blender, work the shortening onto he flour until the mixture resembles wet sand.
Bring to boil a cup of water. Remove from heat and add salt, stir until the salt dissolves.
Stir in hot water to the dry ingredients until just combined. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until a smooth ball forms. About three minutes. Wrap dough in plastic a set aside to rest for a minimum of two hours. Do not refrigerate.
Separate the dough into small round balls. Roughly 1.5 ounces makes a nice size tortilla.
Flatten the ball on a lightly floured surface and roll once, turn 1/4 turn and roll again, repeat a few more times and continue to roll out until paper thin. Roll out all the dough.
Heat a cast iron comal or griddle to medium heat. Splash a bit of water to check if the comal is at the proper temp. The water will sizzle and quickly evaporate when ready.
Place a tortilla on the comal and cook until it just begins to get tiny bubbles, flip and cook until light golden, flip to finish cooling.
Lay out the hot tortillas onto a clean kitchen cloth to cool flat. Stack the tortillas and store in a plastic bag. They will keep refrigerated for several days or frozen.