The corn-chip adventure began well. Most YouTube videos about how to make corn tortillas all follow the same rough template: mix about a cup of masa harina (corn flour made from pre-cooked corn, which I have), a half-teaspoon of salt, and 3/4 cup of very hot water. Knead the dough until it's about the consistency of Play-Doh. Let sit covered for about 15-20 minutes to let the masa harina hydrate. Uncover and form the dough into tortillas by any of a number of methods: tortilla press, rolling pin, the bottom of a frying pan, etc.
Here's how all that went for me.
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| I begin forming dough balls. |
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| Dough balls complete! |
My method for making the tortillas was a combination of frying-pan bottom and rolling pin.
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| The tortillas are jagged and uneven and kind of small. I should have made bigger balls. |
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| Fry at super-high heat, about 70 seconds per side. |
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| When done, store your still-hot tortillas inside a towel. Let tortillas steam and soften as they sit in the towel. |
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| My yield was 10 little tortillas. More like tortillitas. |
After forming my tortillas, I was about 90% of the way through the process. I knew the next step would be the dangerous one: timing was of the essence. Alas, after cutting the tortillas into wedges and deep-frying the pieces, I never got the timing down right.
Below, you can see the sad result:
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| They look nothing like Doritos or Tostitos. |
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| The excellent salsa, though, elevated the chips. |
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| a second dip: once more unto the breach |
So I fucked everything up in the final step. The chips actually ended up tasting pretty good, despite their suntan, but there was no way I was going to serve those to my boss and coworkers. Luckily, I've already bought two bags of Tostitos, so there won't be a problem on Thursday. And I've made my queso as well. That, at least, turned out the way I wanted it to. All that's left to do is to buy some lettuce and tomatoes, cut the veggies up, make guacamole with avocados that I hope will be ripe by Wednesday night, containerize everything that needs to be containerized, and tote the whole thing to work.
Chip-making was a learning experience, and I now have more respect for companies that make chips in quantity. They've dialed in the process to a degree of precision that is practically inhuman. Their chips come out light but totally crispy, with bubbled surfaces that tell me there's something else going on in the chip-making assembly-line process than just making corn tortillas and frying them. I'll look around YouTube for one of those How It's Made videos to see and understand the process better.
I do want to try making these tortillas again. In fact, I've ordered a tortilla press to make the process a little easier. After I get good with corn tortillas, I'll move on to flour. As for corn chips... I don't know. I think I need to study the process more before I try that again.
Happy, Charles? You told me so.
Oh, I forgot: I'm making another loaf of my no-knead for Thursday. Just because.
I was actually hoping you would succeed and prove me wrong. Saying "I told you so" is never really as fun as people think it is.
ReplyDeleteIt was that final step that killed me. Timing is important, but so is even oil coverage. Some of my chips ended up overcooked on the edges but still soft in the middle. I'll be curious to see how Doritos are made.
ReplyDeleteYour cooking adventures are like those long-ass walks you take--I enjoy observing from a distance, but I don't want to participate directly. The thought of making tortilla chips never even occurred to me. It was fascinating seeing what all was involved. You certainly deserve an "A" for effort!
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