Tortillas, Frijoles Refritos, and Other Basics of Mexican Cooking

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It's summer! A great time to learn about . . .

Maybe it's because I'm from southern California (which sometimes seems more Mexican than Mexico Itself). And maybe it's just because I'm onto a good thing. But, whatever the reason, I don't think anything beats the taste of genuine, homemade tortillas (tore-TEE-yahs) hot off the griddle and served with all the fixin's.

Sure, sure . . . in this age of the mass-produced this and the factory-stamped-out that, you can buy your tortillas "ready made" down at the supermarket. Or, if you happen to reside in a city that's big enough to have a "Little Mexico" section, you might even shop occasionally in a small, ethnic grocery that sells freshly mixed, moist mass (moss-ah) dough which you can bake up into tortillas yourself. And, even if you live way out in the country somewhere, there's still a chance that your local crossroads store stocks "Mass Harina" . . . which is a dried version of masa made (in this country) by the Quaker Oats Company.

But when I say that "genuine, homemade tortillas" taste best of all, that's exactly what I mean. And, at least for the purist, "homemade" really starts in only one place: out in the garden or down in the lower forty.

TORTILLAS BEGIN WITH CORN
. . . BUT NOT SWEET CORN

The important thing to remember when you set out to make tortillas "from the ground up" . . . is that you simply cannot produce any kind of masa worthy of the name from sweet corn. Sweet corn contains so much sugary starch that it just turns into a sticky goo when you try to grind it. What you want to plant is hominy corn (the seeds are readily available here In California) or, for that matter, almost any kind of field corn.

(Editor's note: Some modern varieties of hybrid field corn produce tremendous yields, but their kernels also contain a great deal of starch and very little protein. In addition, the ears shucked from such hybrids are almost impossible to dry for storage with anything less than very energy-intensive, specialized shelling and drying equipment. If you can't find hominy seed corn to plant, try "old-fashioned" dent or flint corn. After all, that's what native Americans grew in the first place . . . and that's what all Mexican cooks based their original tortilla recipes on anyway!)

HOW TO DRY AND
PROCESS TORTILLA CORN

Since this is an article about tortillas and not about gardening, we will now flash forward to the fall . . . when your hominy, dent, flint, or—in some cases—hybrid field corn (make sure you've planted one with a high protein and low starch content) is mature.