Month of February: “Truly Mexican” Recipes: Corn Tortillas and Pico De Gallo

“Deserve your dream.” Octavio Paz

All I can say is I feel 100 times lighter today than I have in 57 years. I reached out into a black hole of childhood pain and offered my hard earned clear voice with compassionate understanding. In return, unexpectedly, I received a great offering of reparation, mutual forgiveness and release. I have deserved my dream.

Pico De Gallo

Ingredients: 2 medium seeded and finely diced tomatoes, 1/3 cup chopped cilantro, 1/4 cup of finely diced white onion, 1.5 tablespoons serrano or jalapeno chile, 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice, salt to taste.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Season to taste with additional salt, lime or chile.

Corn Tortillas

Ingredients: 2 cups of masa harina, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1.75 cups of water about 105F-115F.

If you want to make corn tortillas you need three essentials: a tortilla press, a cast iron skillet and the right flour. This author recommends Maseca or Minsa Brands of masa. I found Maseca instant in my grocery store and it was very easy to use.

Mix the above ingredients together with your hand until the dough feels like Play dough. Let it rest for about 5 minutes. Pinch off a piece of dough about the size of a golf ball and press in your tortilla press as directed. Heat up the cast iron skillet until smoking. Cook the dough for 30 seconds, flip and cook for another 45 seconds and flip again for a final 45 seconds. If you do it right it should puff up a little and create some air between the layers. Feel free to watch lots of videos, that’s what I did. It took a little time to get it right.