Mmmm, do we ever love taco night around here. I grew up eating my mom's soft corn tortillas and for me, nothing beats them. Flour tortillas are too...floury, too much starchiness. Hard corn tortillas are yummy, but they break when you try to eat them.
Soft corn tortillas are very easy to make. If you can make crepes than you'll breeze through this. If not...then it will be a fun adventure! Remember, the cook has to eat the broken ones! Mmmmmm....
Ingredients (about 12 shells):
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 cup flour*
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
*all-purpose is what we usually use, but I tried WW pastry flour to whole grain it up, worked well. It had a bit of a more wheaty flavour and I had to add a bit more water, which made the tortillas just a touch more fragile. Still I will be doing it with the WW pastry flour from now on.
Directions:
1) Mix all ingredients together to form a smooth batter.
2) Heat an 8 inch skillet over medium heat until hot. Grease lightly (I used clarified butter and a pastry brush). It's best to have good crepe pan. I do not, I have a crap Teflon number. Oh well. I don't recommend using cast iron as it's too heavy.
3) Pour 1/4-1/2 cup batter into skillet. Immediately rotate the skillet so that the batter forms a thin tortilla, about six inches across. If it seems too thick, add some water to your batter.
4)Cook until the tortilla is dry around the edges (about 2 minutes)
5) Flip (carefully with a flipper, or just use your fingers...I usually do) and cook other side until golden (about 2 minutes)
(this is me trying to rotate the pan as fast as possible...which apparently makes me look like a crazy person)Taco Meat:
1) Brown about 1 lb of ground meat.
2) Add 1 small onion or one large shallot, diced, cook for a couple minutes.
3) Add: 1 can (or pint jar) black beans with juice, at least two gloves garlic minced and chili powder, cumin and salt to taste. I don't even know how to measure this, but it takes a fair bit of chili powder and a bit less cumin. Add a dash of cayenne if you are in the mood.
4) Let it cook down until all the juice is evaporated. If you are still making tortillas, add some more water and let it cook down some more.
(Note the manly hands, I can never get the pit out like that.)
We top our tacos with cheddar, sour cream, diced tomato, spinach or lettuce (lettuce this time of year, I can't get local spinach). And sometimes for a special treat, we get an avocado.
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