Tortilla Press

Popular Mexican dishes are now available in multi-cuisine restaurants across the globe. Though real Mexican food is quite unlike the dishes found in most Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants in other countries, but you can create your own Mexican cuisines at home rather than going to restaurants that offers “authentic” Mexican food that are often overpriced and not of high standard.

Making Mexican cuisines are generally easy if you have the right stuffs and ingredients along with strong stomach and fiery palate.

One of the common Mexican foods is tortilla. The word tortilla comes from the Spanish “torta” or “round cake” and means “small torta”. It is an unleavened flat bread made out of wheat or corn flour, water and salt and is a staple food in Mexico, Central and South America just as white bread is a staple in the US and Canada. The readymade commercial varieties are usually made of refined flour but specialty Mexican grocery stores stock the healthier and more nourishing whole wheat and maize varieties. However, “healthier” is a relative term because all store-bought tortillas have chemicals and preservatives to maximize shelf life, another major reason to use homemade.

To make a homemade tortilla, just stir together flour, baking powder and salt while gradually whisking vegetable oil and milk into the flour mixture and work it into sticky dough. Once you have dough, you can divide it into small balls of same size.

Traditionally, tortilla is shaped by dexterously slapping the round ball of dough rapidly between the palms of the hand while simultaneously rotating it to form a thin, flat circle which is then either roasted, baked or fried to cook. However, that takes a lot of practice and the modern way is to use a wooden, metal or plastic press which simplifies the process. The tortilla press is one of the few kitchen appliances that quickly becomes indispensable and pays for itself in more ways than one.

The preferred material for a flour tortilla press is cast iron because the weight of it makes pressing the dough easier. However, they can be expensive and are quite heavy so many are made of cast aluminum or plastic instead which are cheaper and lighter but need more muscle to use. Wooden presses are common in Mexico and the better ones are made of hardwoods like mesquite. It is quite easy to make a wooden tortilla press ourselves if we wanted to.