Corn Tortillas From Scratch (by G)

A couple of weeks ago I bought some dried Peruvian corn kernels with the plan to make my own corn tortillas from scratch (well, as close to 'from scratch' as I can without growing the corn). The corn needs to soak for some hours to become tender before grinding and that has been a bit of an obstacle because I keep forgetting to do that step.

The corn kernels are jumbo sized and skinless so I soaked them in straight water - to do the job properly you are supposed to cook them in a water lime mix (lime the chemical, not the fruit). After the corn had soaked for about 24 hours I drained it and stuck it in the food processor until it was pretty fine. Upon inspection it was not fine enough and the processor didn't seem capable of getting it any finer so I finished the job with the mortar and pestle.  After adding some water the corn made a kind of course gruel so I added some store bought mesa harina to get it to a more doughy consistency.

Despite looking okay as a dough it was crumbly and hard to press. After a little experimentation I managed to press out a few rounds and cook them on the stove top. To my surprise they were quite excellent but hard like flat taco shells or giant corn chips - interesting. I think maybe the lime is important to get a soft texture. No matter, there is room for experimentation.'

I should mention that I had my crispy tortillas with some guacamole and a tomato salsa - simple flavours to better appreciate the tortillas.