More recently, Mexican cuisine was a distant exotic for us. Today, the national dishes of Mexico can not only be found in various cafes and restaurants, but also easy to cook at home. And many of them are based on tortilla cakes.
Basic principles for making mexican tortilla cakes
Such cakes are baked from two types of flour: corn or wheat, as well as from a mixture thereof. The traditional recipe is based on special cornmeal. Elastic dough comes out of it. It’s difficult to find such flour in our country, but it’s difficult to work with dough from ordinary corn. Therefore, at home it is easier to bake tortilla with white flour or take corn and wheat one to one. The recipe also includes water, salt, butter or vegetable oil.
In Mexico, tortilla is the basis of many foods. Various fillings are wrapped in it, added to the soup with slices, used instead of cutlery, scooping up such sauce with, for example, sauce. The traditional components of the filling are meat or chicken, tomatoes, beans, hot and sweet peppers, cheese, corn.
Mexican tortilla cakes - a basic cornmeal recipe
Ingredients
A glass of cornmeal;
half a glass of wheat flour;
a pinch of salt;
a glass of hot water.
Cooking method
Pour corn flour into a bowl, add wheat flour, put salt.
Pour hot water. Knead, adding water or flour as necessary - we need to get a dense dough. Cut it into a dozen pieces. Everyone rolls into a ball. We put the kolobok from the dough onto a sheet of parchment, cover the second with the top and roll out the rolling pin into a thin cake.
We do not lubricate the pan. Fry quickly until golden. You can’t let the tortilla burn, it’s also not worth it to dry it. Ready-made corn tortillas can be used for various Mexican dishes or just like bread with soups and salads.
Mexican tortilla cakes - a basic wheat flour recipe
Ingredients
Two glasses of wheat flour;
a teaspoon of salt;
a quarter packet of butter;
half a glass of warm water.
Cooking method
Sift the flour. Then add butter to it and start rubbing it with your hands. The result is crumb.
Next, pour water, pour salt. Now you need to knead the dough. It will turn out smooth and elastic.
Put it in a bowl, cover, put in heat, where it will stand for half an hour.
Divide the settled dough into eight identical pieces. From each we form a ball. Roll out. The blanks should be about two millimeters thick.
We frying pan properly. Oil is not required, fry the cakes dry. Enough minutes or two on one side, the same amount on the other.
Mexican tortilla tortilla burrito
A simple and satisfying dish, in fact, a kind of fast food. As the filling, you can take chicken, finely chopped beef or minced meat with the addition of beans, sweet and hot peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic. The sharpness characteristic of Mexican cuisine can be adjusted to your liking, for example, do not put chili.
Ingredients
300 grams of meat (beef);
two cloves of garlic;
200 grams of canned beans;
one bell pepper;
two tomatoes;
green chilli pod;
bulb;
cheese - eight slices;
tortillas - four pieces;
½ teaspoon coriander (grind);
fresh cilantro;
50 ml of vegetable oil.
Cooking method
Finely chop the beef. Also, onions, chili, garlic, tomatoes, sweet pepper should be cut into small pieces.
Stew meat pieces until soft, previously lightly frying them in vegetable oil. If necessary, add a little water, salt.
When the beef is ready, take it out on a plate and set it aside for now.
After the meat, the juice will remain in the pan. Fry the onion in it first. Then add the peppers - hot and sweet. Fry a couple more minutes.
Now we return the meat to the pan, season with garlic and chopped coriander. After a couple of minutes, tomatoes go there too.
We take the beans out of the can, a little bit of it with a fork. Spread to the rest of the filling. It remains to add finely chopped cilantro and put out the fire.
In a frying pan without oil, slightly heat the cakes. You can form a burrito: put two slices of cheese, on top of the filling, still hot. Wrap a roll, quite tightly. You can serve! A traditional Mexican sauce, salsa, is good for burritos.
Mexican tortilla tortillas enchiladas
For this dish, the meat filling is also wrapped in a tortilla, but then the obtained rolls are also baked with a delicious sauce.
Ingredients
Half a bell pepper;
one fresh tomato;
100 grams of canned tomatoes (in their own juice);
two cloves of garlic;
bulb;
five tortilla cakes;
250 grams of chicken breast;
chili pepper - optional;
70 grams of cheese.
Cooking method
Cook chicken until cooked.
Let’s do the sauce for now. We cut tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, lightly fry them in a pan with the addition of vegetable oil, there we also send canned tomatoes.
Cover with a lid. Stew for about seven minutes. Now you can salt. If you use chili, now is the time to add it. Using a blender, we turn our vegetables into a thick sauce.
Dice the boiled chicken fillet. Mix it with a portion of the sauce. We distribute this filling on tortillas, twist each roll. We shift in a suitable form, on top - sauce and grated cheese. It's time to put in the oven - 180 degrees, to a beautiful golden brown. Eating this dish is better when hot.
Mexican tortilla quesadillas
This appetizer is also prepared very simply - between two flat cakes, meat or vegetable filling is laid, always with cheese. Then the dish is fried until golden brown, cut into pieces and served with sauce.
Ingredients
Ten tortilla cakes;
two bell peppers;
several cloves of garlic (to taste);
one chicken breast;
canned corn - a can;
200 grams of cheese (hard varieties);
salt;
paprika.
Cooking method
Pickle the chicken fillet. To do this, cut the meat very finely, add salt and paprika, crushed garlic. Let’s stand for an hour so that the chicken is soaked in spices. After fry in olive oil.
Also, chop the pepper very finely, add it to the chicken. We’ll send the corn there, draining all the liquid from it first. Put it out for about ten minutes. Turn off, cool a little. Mix with grated cheese.
We take the second pan, add a little oil. Put the tortilla. Distribute the filling over its entire surface. On top is a second tortilla. Fry on both sides. The cheese will melt and combine the two tortillas. We cut the finished dish into four parts, serve with sour cream.
Mexican tortilla tortillas
For nachos, which are triangular chips with various hot and spicy additives, we need corn tortillas. You can bake them, following the recipe, or purchase ready-made ones. And turning tortillas into nachos is not a big deal.
Ingredients
Six to seven tortilla cakes;
50 grams of cheese;
3-4 tablespoons of vegetable oil;
dried onions and garlic - one teaspoon each;
ground coriander, hot pepper - to taste;
salt;
a dozen olives or olives;
two teaspoons of paprika;
greenery.
Cooking method
Combine the oil with spices: chopped dried onions and garlic, coriander, paprika. With this aromatic oil, we well coat the cakes on each side. Cut into triangular pieces.
Put them on a baking sheet, salt and put in the oven. 200 degrees, hold for a short time, just a few minutes, when we get browned, we get it.
We made corn chips. While they have not cooled, sprinkle with grated cheese on top, you can also add small pieces of olives, chili peppers, as well as fresh herbs. You can nachos with different sauces to your taste.
Mexican tortilla tortilla
This appetizer resembles a burrito, here is the same spicy and spicy filling wrapped in a tortilla. The difference is that the obtained rolls are additionally fried in vegetable oil.
Ingredients
Three chicken fillets;
six tortilla cakes;
chili sauce - two tablespoons;
red and black pepper (ground);
one red and one green bell pepper;
salt;
vegetable oil;
one onion.
Cooking method
We cut the meat into fairly small pieces. Fry it until cooked. In the process, season with salt, pepper and chili sauce.
Cut the onion into half rings, the peppers into thin strips. Add them to the chicken. Fry it all together for several minutes and hold it for another five to seven minutes over low heat. Then let the filling cool slightly.
We put in a portion of the filling for each cake, turn the envelopes. Now it remains only to fry them in hot vegetable oil, we need a beautiful golden crust. Serve with spicy tomato sauce.
Mexican tortilla cakes - secrets and tricks
• Ready-made tortillas are best eaten immediately, hot, but they can also be stored in the refrigerator. To do this, they need to be wrapped with cling film and placed in the freezer. Then just reheat the cakes in the oven before use. You can also fry them again in a skillet.
• Do not fry tortillas for too long - no more than a minute on one side. Otherwise, they will be too dry, and can also quickly burn.
• Acuity - the obligatory quality of dishes using Mexican tortilla. To make them especially hot, spices are added not only to the filling, the tortilla itself can also be pre-sprinkled with ground red pepper.
