Homemade Tortillas

We’ve had some unseasonably warm and humid weather lately here in the Pacific Northwest. That is great for the flowers and veggies growing outside, but not so much for food in the house. I bought strawberries Thursday night and by Friday morning they were moldy beyond recognition. A couple weeks ago I bought flour tortillas, and usually they will last a couple months (if they manage to go uneaten for that long, which is rare) on the baker’s rack inside the bin I keep bread items. It is not uncommon for us to go through a dozen tortillas a week, with the sheer amount of Mexican and Tex-Mex food we eat in our house, but apparently the last eight tortillas in the bag were simply not meant to be eaten, as when they were opened to make a quesadilla for lunch, were all covered in the familiar bluish-green mold.

So when it came time to think about dinner, I couldn’t get my mind off of making shrimp fajitas with baby portabella mushrooms mingling with red bell peppers, onions, jalapeños and garlic. The only problem was the lack of tortillas. Now, I’ve made corn tortillas many times, but I was in the mood for a warm flour tortilla or three with the fajitas. A quick search led to a multitude of recipes, so I settled on one that had pretty pictures (what can I say, I’m shallow like that) and made the dough in the food processor, kneaded it by hand until no longer sticky, allowed the dough to rest under a towel for half an hour, pinched off and rolled ping-pong sized balls, let those rest for another ten minutes while I preheated my cast iron skillet, rolled out the balls one at a time as thin as possible, tossed them onto the cast iron skillet for thirty seconds each side and stacked them in a towel lined tortilla warmer until dinner was ready. They were amazing! So soft and pliable and delicious, I can’t believe I hadn’t ever made them before. I guarantee I will be making them again.

The recipe I used can be found here: http://sharedappetite.com/how-to-make-flour-tortillas