Mama K's Mexican Food Magic!!!

If I could only eat one kind of food for the rest of my life, I'm firmly convinced it's MEXICAN!  I love it all!!!  The queso & chips, fresh flour tortillas soaked in butter, rice, fajitas, and oh let's not forget margaritas!!!!  MMmmm!  Excuse me while I go wipe my slobber! LOL!  Anyway, we feasted on mexican food ALL weekend.... needless to say I think the results of my detox are a thing of the past!  Ha!  Oh well... everyone's got to have a challenge right? 

So, after many requests I've decided to share my recipes for homemade flour tortillas and spanish rice.  They are both really easy and taste 1,000,000 times better than the store bought stuff!  Not to mention your kitchen smells a-MAZ-ing when you're whipping this all together.  Trust me!  Okay, here we go....

SPANISH RICE

My mother-in-law shared this recipe with me.  It came from one of those small town cookbooks!  Gotta LOVE those, they always have the best recipes!  So good!

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp. cumin

1/4 - 1/2 tsp. jalepeno peppers, chopped (optional)

1 & 1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. long grain rice, uncooked

2 Tblsp. vegetable oil

2 med. tomatoes, chopped (can substitute 1 can tomato sauce)

1/4 c. onion, chopped

1.4 c. green bell pepper, chopped

2 & 1/2 c. boiling water

In a small bowl combine garlic, cumin, salt & jalepenos.  Mash together and add a small amount (appx. 1 tsp) of water and set aside.  If you're really fancy or "authentic," you can do this in a "mocajete", aka Mexican grinder.

In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add rice and stir periodically until it starts to turn golden, about 5-7 minutes.  Add bowl of spices & garlic, tomatoes (or tomato sauce), bell pepper, onion and boiling water.  Boil uncovered for 5 minutes.

Simmer with lid for about 20 additional minutes.  Take off burner, let sit in a barely warm oven for approximately 20 minutes and FIESTA!!

(I rarely remember to do the oven part, but it does add a nice crunch.)

FLOUR TORTILLAS

(and now on to the really good part! Mmmmm!  My favorite!)  I've made these for about the past 6 years.  They are a good amount of work, but worth every minute!  And the best part is all that rolling out of the dough burns off some serious calories, so why not have 2 or 3 tortillas!!!  LOL!

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

1 & 1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

4 - 5 Tblsp. lard or shortening (Crisco)

1 & 1/3 c. warm water

Using a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, and salt; mix well.  Work lard or shortening into flour mixture with your fingers until it resembles coarse meal.  Add warm water; stir until a soft dough forms.  Turn dough out onto a floured surface; knead 15-20 times.  Cover with bowl and set aside for 10 minutes.

To make 6 inch tortillas, divide dough into 16 balls; roll out onto floured surface into 7 inch circles.  To make 12 inch tortillas; divide dough into 8 balls; roll out dough into 13 inch circles. 

Heat a large dry cast-iron skillet over medium heat until hot. Cook tortillas, one at a time, until blistered and charred in spots; 1-2 minutes per side. Wrap in a clean dish towl or foil to keep warm. Enjoy!

Mama K's "Tortilla Tips"

• If you don't need all the tortillas right away, I have formed the balls, and placed them on wax paper with a couple of inches spacing and frozen them in gallon freezer bags.  You can usually make 2 layers of wax paper.  You just thaw the dough when ready to use and cook as directed.
•  I've made these for almost 6 years and I'm just NOW starting to get my tortillas to not look like various states of the United States!  LOL!  It's definitely a learned art!  And trust me, your family wont even care once they taste them.
• I will confess I normally use lard, however; last night I tried shortening for the first time.  Not a huge difference, and grosses me out about 1000 times less! LOL!
• I don't really stick to the number guidelines on how many it makes.  I just break off a good size piece of dough, bigger than a golf ball, but smaller than a tennis ball.  LOL!
• Supposedly you're never supposed to eat the first tortilla... the pan is so hot it almost always turns out funny, and one of my hispanic friends told me it's "bad luck".  Sorry, guess I'm scarred... I usually sacrifice it to lots of yummy butter.  Mmmmm!