Servings 12-14 10" torillas
*Disclaimer: I like flat tortillas, like the kind they use at Chipotle. If you like thicker tortillas, you'll want to add 1tsp baking powder to the recipe.
2 cups All Purpose Flour plus a few tablespoons for rolling out the dough
6 tbs Lard (I've used vegetable shortening too, but they just don't come out tasting as good)
1/2 tsp - 1 tsp Kosher Salt
1/2-3/4 cup HOT Water (It depends on the humidity in the air, so I recommend heating up a 1 cup of water and adding it until you get the right consistency)
Directions:
Combine the flour, salt, and lard. The lard should be at room temperature, you don't want "flaky" tortillas, so you don't have to worry about the lard being cold because you want elasticity, not flaky. You want to "cut" the lard into the flour with a pastry cutter, or just "cut" up the lard with your fingers. Using a pinching motion with all of your fingers, rub the lard and flour between your fingers and thumb to break it all up. Make sure to spread the lard out evenly, you don't want any big chunks of it. The flour, salt, lard mixture should hold it's shape when you get a handful, but still be pretty dry. If it is either to dry or to moist, add more flour or more lard to get the right texture.
Once you have that mixture ready, mix in the hot water. The water being hot helps with the elasticity (gluten) of the flour and melts the lard at the same time. Be careful here though, use a spoon to do the initial mixing, slowly adding in the hot water until the dough starts to come together. As you stir, the hot dough should now be cool enough to touch and kneed with your hands. You don't need to put it out on the counter or anything, you can kneed the dough in the bowl. Just work the dough by moving the dough ball around, pushing it onto itself and repeating. (Your dough shouldn't be wet, so if this is the case, add more flour and work the dough a little more. If you don't know if it's to wet, it's better to add the flour after the resting stage, during the rolling out stage ;)
Once the dough stops sticking to your bowl, and to you, and also feels soft and smooth. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 15-30 minutes. After it rests, pinch off little dough balls, (the size should be smaller than a golf ball, but bigger than a large marble.) You should be able to get 12-14 dough balls. Then get your rolling pin and some flour out and start rolling. (I like to get all of the dough balls ready at once and do all of my rolling at once, but you can do whatever makes you happy.)
Put some flour down on the counter, flour your rolling pin and start rolling. I find it the easiest to start rolling from the center of the ball out, but do whatever works for you. I'll also give you a heads up, unless you roll dough all the time into a circular shape, you are going to have some odd shaped tortillas at first. I purposefully took pictures of one of my prettier ones ;) You want to roll them really thin. You'll be surprised how far you can stretch that dough, but you want it to take on a more transparent then opaque look to it. Test a few consistencies and see what you like the best. And don't really worry, if the shape and thickness are a little off, they still taste the same. *grin*
I also heat up my pan to medium while I am rolling out the first tortillas. I'll then do a trade off, roll, check tortilla in pan, roll some more, flip tortilla in pan, roll again, poke bubbles down on the tortilla in the pan, roll some more, and take out cooked tortilla. I'll then place the tortilla I just rolled out into the pan, and start the process again until all of my dough balls are tasty cooked tortillas!
The entire process from start to resting to finish is about an hour. It is sooooo worth it though! While the tortillas are cooking, I have the Pork Chili Rojo simmering away.
Recipe Pork Chili Rojo:
1 lb Pork Short Ribs (I had boneless, but bone it would be tasty and add tons of flavor)
1 tbs Oil
1 Onion, diced
2 Garlic Cloves, diced
1 16oz can El Pato Red Enchilada Sauce
1-2 small can Roasted Green Chili, diced If you like more heat, add the second can.
Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
In a medium saucepan, brown the pork, onion, and garlic on med-hi heat. Once browned, add the tomato sauce and green chili's, turn the heat down to medium-low, Cover and let it simmer for 1-2hrs. It's that easy.
Plate it family style and enjoy!
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