Masa Harina Tortillas
This dough for homemade corn tortillas is my favourite smell in the world. It might sound odd, especially as I’ve not even been to Mexico (yet), but my mother has always made them for us to remind herself of her childhood in Mexico and the nostalgia has been transferred to my senses. These are the soft tortillas, made using Masa Harina, that I use to in my recipe for Vibrant Vegetarian Tacos and I thought it would be nice to show how easy (and fun) they are to make as opposed to buying them. Of course this process is made far easier with the help of a tortilla press, but it’s quite a niche object to own, so these images show how to roll them by hand!
Masa Harina is an essential ingredient in Mexican cooking. To produce the flour, dried corn is “nixtamalized” in order to release the abundance of niacin (vitamin B3) from other molecules, making it nutritionally complete and able to be absorbed and digested by the human body. During the process of nixtamalization the corn is first boiled in water with calcium hydroxide and then left to soak in the liquid overnight. The corn, which as this stage is called Nixtamal, is then rinsed and milled into flour the next morning. The origins of this process isn’t fully documented, but it’s exciting to think that someone must have added limestone or wood ash to boiling corn and learnt that it made it softer to use.
Of course, the nixtamalization process take far more time and is labour intensive, and so in the case of many industrial producers it is often left out, which produces an instant corn flour called “Maseca” that has very little nutritional value. This sub-par flour is commonly imported into Mexico from America as a cheaper alternative, and is sadly contributing to a deterioration in the health of the Mexican population. Because Masa Harina is such a prevalent ingredient in the Mexican diet, over-using corn that has been prepared without the alkaline treatment can cause a niacin deficiency, directly linked to the disease “Pellagra”. There are enterprises who are striving to provide funding and support for Mexican corn producers who are growing and milling corn in the traditional fashion, helping them to sustain their livelihoods and make healthier Masa Harina more readily available. You can read more about this in this article on the Modern Farmer.
For 6 tacos
Ingredients
1 tin of 400g black beans in water (make sure there’s no added salt or sugar. We buy the Biona brand as they are softer once cooked, whereas other brands tend to stay hard because they have the salt and sugar in them)
65g Masa Harina with 90ml hot (not boiling) water
Tools
Baking paper
Rolling pin
Cookie cutter with around a 10cm diameter
Method
With your hands, mix the masa harina and hot water together to form a soft dough. Don’t overwork it.
Cover and leave for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, uncover the dough. It should be soft to touch, and not crack when you press your finger into it.
Weigh the dough into 5 pieces of 30g each. The 6th piece will come from the remains once the tortillas are cut.
Roll the pieces into round balls.
Take one dough ball and place between two sheets of baking paper.
Using the rolling pin, roll the dough gently, moving the dough in various directions to make it as circular as possible until the dough is about 2mm thick.
Before you peel back the baking paper, put your cookie cutter on top to check that you can cut a full circle.
Then peel back the baking paper and press your cookie cutter into the dough gently.
Carefully remove the “offcuts” and collect them into a ball on the side - this will be used to make the 6th (or 7th) tortilla once you have 30g.
Set the round tortilla aside onto a sheet of baking paper dusted with a little corn flour to stop them sticking.
Repeat steps 6 - 11 for each tortilla.
Once you have all of your tortillas cut, heat a dry non-stick pan (you can also add oil to a pan that isn’t non-stick, but this will change the texture of the tortilla) for about 1 minute.
Place a couple of tortillas on the pan at a time and toast them on the first side for about 30 seconds. Then flip them over and toast the second side for another 30 seconds. It should puff up at this stage, and when it does, flip it back to the first side and toast until slightly golden. Continue to toast until both sides are a little golden, but no longer than 3 minutes or the tortillas will be too dry!
Wrap your cooked tortillas in a clean tea towel to keep them warm while you cook the rest!
If you would like to see a visual of how I cook them, you can watch my recent Instagram Live video here.
