Cooking
One of my birthday gifts this year was Diana Kennedy’s “From My Mexican Kitchen: Techniques and Ingredients”. It is a beautiful book and fantastic resource loaded with photographs of ingredients, equipment, and techniques. It doesn’t have a great number of recipes, but provides instructions for making things like tortillas, tamales, and even queso fresco (fresh cheese) from scratch.
As I browsed the book, I found that several of the recipes that appealed to me required tortilla masa. Diana Kennedy suggests that you buy the masa at a local tortilla factory, "Or as a last resort, buy the powdered stuff and hope..." She also provides instructions for making it from scratch. It is made from dried corn which is boiled in lime water and then ground. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find a source for the dried corn, but I decided to keep an eye out for it. I checked several stores and finally found it in the international section of a local grocery store.
So I had my corn and I was psyched. I went back to the book and read the recipe carefully. It looked challenging in some ways, but doable. As I read through I mentally checked off each step, “OK – I can do that, and I can do that…” until I got to the last paragraph, “Drain the corn, now nixtamalizado, and take it to a mill (molino), where traditionally it is ground – with no water added – between round, flat grinding stones to give it a smooth, soft texture.” Um… where’s the mill?
Well, I’ve since done a little research on the web and, it turns out, I do have some options. I happened on a website called GourmetSleuth which is sort of a cross between an on-line store and a search engine. It also has some great content – lots of recipes and articles. They sell specialized equipment and quite a few ingredients for Mexican cooking. They also just happen to have an article on making homemade masa which discusses the ways that the corn can be ground. If you’re making tamales you can use your food processor, but for tortillas you need a metate y mano or a molino. Oooooh…so the mill (molino) is a gadget you clamp onto your counter rather than a place where you take your corn.
I think I’m going to get myself a molino – I’ll let you know how it works out!
- Making Tortilla Masa
Have you ever started a recipe not quite sure your skills and/or your patience would be up to the task? When I started making this tortilla masa last night, I was thinking the project could easily turn out to be a disaster. Actually, as I write this I’m...
- Anticipation
Guess where I’m going next April? Actually, our dates aren’t firmed up yet, but the plan is that Bob, Chuck and I will be going to Sicily next spring. Bob and Chuck, knowing that I love the anticipation of a trip almost as much as...
- This Week At The Market
I went to the farmers market again today. Peaches, tomatoes and cucumbers were still plentiful and a few heirloom tomato varieties showed up this week. I bought two beautiful tomatoes: one Purple Cherokee and one Brandywine. ...
- Growing To Like Rhubarb
Rhubarb conserve When I was little, we had a rhubarb plant in our yard and my Mom would frequently prepare some sort of rhubarb sauce or compote. It was the only dessert I didn’t like and it seemed unfair to me at the time that rhubarb...
- Upcoming Heritage Foods Dinner At Chez Panisse
For Bay Areans: Chez Panisse will be hosting a Heritage Foods dinner on September 21. Though Max has pointed out the irony of shipping food across the country to a restaurant that gives lip service to local ingredients, the equivalent meal in June was...
Cooking
Best Laid Plans
One of my birthday gifts this year was Diana Kennedy’s “From My Mexican Kitchen: Techniques and Ingredients”. It is a beautiful book and fantastic resource loaded with photographs of ingredients, equipment, and techniques. It doesn’t have a great number of recipes, but provides instructions for making things like tortillas, tamales, and even queso fresco (fresh cheese) from scratch.
As I browsed the book, I found that several of the recipes that appealed to me required tortilla masa. Diana Kennedy suggests that you buy the masa at a local tortilla factory, "Or as a last resort, buy the powdered stuff and hope..." She also provides instructions for making it from scratch. It is made from dried corn which is boiled in lime water and then ground. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find a source for the dried corn, but I decided to keep an eye out for it. I checked several stores and finally found it in the international section of a local grocery store.
So I had my corn and I was psyched. I went back to the book and read the recipe carefully. It looked challenging in some ways, but doable. As I read through I mentally checked off each step, “OK – I can do that, and I can do that…” until I got to the last paragraph, “Drain the corn, now nixtamalizado, and take it to a mill (molino), where traditionally it is ground – with no water added – between round, flat grinding stones to give it a smooth, soft texture.” Um… where’s the mill?
Well, I’ve since done a little research on the web and, it turns out, I do have some options. I happened on a website called GourmetSleuth which is sort of a cross between an on-line store and a search engine. It also has some great content – lots of recipes and articles. They sell specialized equipment and quite a few ingredients for Mexican cooking. They also just happen to have an article on making homemade masa which discusses the ways that the corn can be ground. If you’re making tamales you can use your food processor, but for tortillas you need a metate y mano or a molino. Oooooh…so the mill (molino) is a gadget you clamp onto your counter rather than a place where you take your corn.
I think I’m going to get myself a molino – I’ll let you know how it works out!
- Making Tortilla Masa
Have you ever started a recipe not quite sure your skills and/or your patience would be up to the task? When I started making this tortilla masa last night, I was thinking the project could easily turn out to be a disaster. Actually, as I write this I’m...
- Anticipation
Guess where I’m going next April? Actually, our dates aren’t firmed up yet, but the plan is that Bob, Chuck and I will be going to Sicily next spring. Bob and Chuck, knowing that I love the anticipation of a trip almost as much as...
- This Week At The Market
I went to the farmers market again today. Peaches, tomatoes and cucumbers were still plentiful and a few heirloom tomato varieties showed up this week. I bought two beautiful tomatoes: one Purple Cherokee and one Brandywine. ...
- Growing To Like Rhubarb
Rhubarb conserve When I was little, we had a rhubarb plant in our yard and my Mom would frequently prepare some sort of rhubarb sauce or compote. It was the only dessert I didn’t like and it seemed unfair to me at the time that rhubarb...
- Upcoming Heritage Foods Dinner At Chez Panisse
For Bay Areans: Chez Panisse will be hosting a Heritage Foods dinner on September 21. Though Max has pointed out the irony of shipping food across the country to a restaurant that gives lip service to local ingredients, the equivalent meal in June was...