Cactus Tortillas (de Nopal) – Who Knew?

Jul 11, 2012

Seriously?! I had no idea there was such a thing! Bueno, maybe I’m just behind the times. That’s very likely, considering most of the time I’m all on the late show trying to tell somebody about something “new” they’ve already known about “forever.” Whatever the case, you have to admit whoever came up with this recipe for nopal tortillas has to be a genius! How else could one explain such obvious brilliance?

They’re pretty cheap too!

I mean, we all know how good tacos de nopales taste, right? Tell me you don’t agree. Well now, you only need one ingredient to make them happen!

Growing up, whenever we didn’t have anything else to eat, nothing could compare to some nopales con huevos, nopales with beans, nopales with chile, and so forth, and so on. They’re such a versatile food. Not to mention quite healthy. Supposedly, each cactus tortilla only contains 19 calories, compared to close to 100 calories in each of the regular corn or flour tortillas. No wonder their such a huge hit around the globe, and especially with those suffering from Diabetes and other illnesses.

The cactus tortillas pictured here were found by Anjelica at our local Fiesta Super Market. They are, apparently, a new item for the Texas grocery store chain. However, if you can’t find them at a store near you, there are a lot of online vendors who sell them too. If you’re a bit more the adventurous type, Maseca also offers a pretty “simple-sounding” recipe you can try.

¡Ahora sí! ¡A entrarle a la Vitamina T! ¡Tacos! ¡Tacos! ¡Y más tacos!

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Changing Times & The All Mighty Tortilla

Mar 19, 2012

Illustration by Luis Amendolla, for La Fonda Restaurant, Lafayette, La.

So apparently making tortillas a mano isn’t what it used to be. At the very least it’s a dying art form in Hispanic kitchens across the country… or so it seems as fewer and fewer people are actually taking the time to make fresh tortillas, of any kind, from scratch on a regular basis. Hell, even in our ranchito in Mexico there’s a tortilla truck that drives around every day offering fresh handmade tortillas, made by someone else, for a couple of pesos. If you’re smart, and a little sneaky, nobody even has to know those tortillas you’re serving weren’t prepared by you!

Growing up, though, we couldn’t sit down for one single meal without my mom making handmade tortillas de harina or the masa. Sometimes even both. Every day she would make a pile of flour tortillas for us kids and another pile of corn tortillas for her and my father. You could say we were spoiled. It’s okay. We’ll admit it. Our meals just weren’t meals without tortillas. In a lot of ways they still aren’t today! Only now we’re all okay with the store bought variety as well.

Even mamá, while we were having this discussion at her house last night, had to admit that nowadays even she doesn’t feel like making tortillas all that often. It’s definitely a lot of work that requires mad skillz in the kitchen!

Which made me recall something else tortilla-related: ¡tacos de sal!

TACOS DE SAL

No meat. No pico. No guacamole. No lemon. No cheese. NO CHILE! Just a freshly made corn tortilla, slightly dampened with water, sprinkled with salt, squished together by bare hands to look like a small colorless churro. When money was tight that’s what we’d eat along with Quelite from our personal harvest of edible plants, built more out of necessity than personal choice. But it was better than having to string a single piece of meat through several tortillas to make the flavor last…which is what my parents had to do as children in each of their homes in Mexico when hunger was more abundant than the almighty peso. I guess in a way we were moving on up!

Some history about the tortilla

From Wikipedia: According to Mayan legend, tortillas were invented by a peasant for his hungry king in ancient times. The first tortillas discovered, which date back to approximately 10,000 BC, were made of native maize with dried kernel. The Aztecs used a lot of maize, both eaten straight from the cob and in recipes. They ground the maize, and used the cornmeal to make a dough called masa.

On 22 April 1519, Spaniards led by Hernán Cortés, also known as Hernando Cortez, arrived in what is now Mexico. They found that the inhabitants (Aztecs and other native Mexican peoples) made flat maize bread. The native Nahuatl name for this was tlaxcalli. This bread made from maize was later given the name tortilla (little cake) by the Spanish.

For more on the tortilla visit Wikipedia.

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¡No Te Rajes! Don’t Give Up

Apr 18, 2011

Echandole ganas

This is not a sob story. We were young. We were poor. And we were frugal. We knew how to stretch a dollar. And how to make a few dollars out of a dozen or so tortillas, tacos or tamales. A little effort. A little dose of creativity. And most importantly our seeming innate sense of ingenuity. If there was one thing we all walked away with, from the doors and memories of our childhood, it was the inability to ever truly give up.

In all honesty, we didn’t know any better. We were bumpkins. Country bumpkins. In the truest form. Too blinded by our ignorance. Coming from a world of nothing but dirt roads and imagination. Where all we knew was como salir adelante con el sudor de la frente… and by the occasional generosity of complete strangers. No street cred. Just wild curiosity and bewilderment well beneath our years. Everything was new. Every opportunity a chance to be amazed.

I’d like to say we were more sophisticated, but we weren’t.

We didn’t know how to give up. Even now, though we’ve gotten much better at it, when it really counts, we just can’t seem to be able to lie down and take whatever comes in our direction. Maybe it’s just human nature, not anything exclusive to our family of nine. But every time I’m at the brink, right there about to give in, wanting to let go… wanting to not care anymore, I can’t. I’m eight, nine and ten again, trailing door to door behind my mother, selling her tortillas, offering to clean houses, anything to make a few extra bucks. I’m in the parking lots of Fiesta and Wal-Mart: tamales… ¿no quiere tamales? Would you like to buy tamales?, over and over again despite the dirty looks and rejection of our hard work.

And I’m reminded of just who I am and where I come from.

Mis padres nunca se han rajado. I’m hoping to do the same.