Flour and Fat.

…and a little bit of hot water and salt.

After months of owning a tortilla press, I finally pushed myself into making a batch of flour tortillas this weekend. While there is a dough involved, it’s probably the easiest dough you’ll ever throw together. (This recipe is, again, courtesy of chef Rick Bayless. He’s kind of our Mexican cuisine guru.)

Ingredients:

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

5 tbs lard or vegetable shortening (I used shortening)

1 ¼ cups “very warm” water

1 ¼ tsp table salt

In a bowl, combine flour and shortening with your hands until the shortening is well integrated and there are no big lumps. Combine the water and salt, and pour about ¾ of it over the flour and shortening. Mix with a fork – the mixture will be clumpy. If all of the flour isn’t moistened, add more of the water. When dough basically holds together, turn on to a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth. This doesn’t take long – a few minutes, maybe. It’ll be a medium consistency – not crumbly, but stiffer than bread dough. Divide into 12 pieces and form into balls – they’ll be about the size of a golf ball. Let rest, lightly covered with plastic wrap, for about 30 minutes.

Then, you can either roll them to the desired thickness with a rolling pin, or, if you’re like me and have neglected kitchen gadgets collecting dust beneath your kitchen counter, you can drag one of those out and use it for the first time since you absolutely had to have it when you saw it at the Mexican market this summer.

After you have your tortillas formed, cook them in a well-heated non-stick skillet (cast-iron would probably be best) over medium-high heat for 30-45 seconds a side. You’ll know they’re ready to flip when bubbles start appearing on the surface and the underside is white and speckled with brown.

It took a few to figure out what I was doing, but it’s a pretty gentle learning curve and I have to say it’s worth the effort.

This recipe makes 12 tortillas. We used them (in part) to make fish tacos Sunday night. We simmered some pollock in the remainder of that chipotle sauce I mentioned a couple of days ago, then combined that with some mashed black beans, fresh cilantro, and – In my case, anyway – pickled onion.

Delicious!

Sauced!

Chipotle Shrimp with soft polenta and steamed collard greens.

Although this was my first time preparing collard greens, this entry - obviously - is about the chipotle sauce pictured above. It’s super easy and would also be good with… anything. Seriously, from eggplant to steak, I think this sauce would work with it.

The recipe (courtesy of chef Rick Bayless) calls for a 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained, but I never have that, so I just use half of a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes. Combine in a blender with 2-3 chipotle chilies canned in adobo (available in your friendly supermarket International isle), along with a teaspoon or so of the canning “liquid.” I used 3 chilies and 2 tsp of liquid/sauce this time. Process in a blender until smooth. Then you sauté about 3 chopped cloves of garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. When the garlic’s nice and golden, add the blended mixture and a splash of water or stock to get it to a “thin tomato sauce” consistency. Taste and season with a good amount of salt (recipe calls for around a teaspoon).

It is so amazing! Complex and smoky and spicy. Really spicy, actually, so consider yourself warned.

… Maybe I should take that back.

It is just the right amount of spicy.

It’s just the right amount of everything.

For the dish above, the shrimp were cooked right in the sauce. Throw them in and stir them around for about four minutes and they should be just about perfect.