We start our cinco preparation on Thursday, Quatro de Mayo (Could 4) as a option to educate Kaia concerning the which means of Cinco de Mayo…and likewise make some wonderful home made tortillas for the tacos de carnitas, as a result of kaia is often a superb tortilla chef. Cinco, normally, has grow to be one other good vacation, however we wished to honor Mexican traditions.
we have made flour tortillas earlier than, and so they turned out wonderful! this time we wished to discover corn tortillas. the principle ingredient, masa harina, could be bought on the native grocery store. the bundle particularly says to make use of a tortilla press. the tortilla press flattens the dough into a really skinny layer of scrumptious corn tortilla. Generally when the directions specify a device, we comply with our daddy’s daughter’s kitchen mantra of working with what we now have, and typically you simply should comply with the precise directions.
We lately removed our butcher desk, which was sufficiently big to unfold out our doughs (pasta and different) once we cooked collectively. on this case it might have been an awesome alternative for the tortilla press. as an alternative we used a small butcher reducing board arrange on the counter and one in all our calphalon soup pots. the soup pot is about 6 inches large, and with just a little stress, it turns into an enormous press… or so we thought.
Kaia was standing on her stool so she may apply extra downward stress. Physics within the kitchen, who would have thought? this motion was essential to flatten the combination into a really skinny layer. this is the identical as a tortilla press would do. solely in our case, the tortilla combination caught to each the pot and the reducing board.
I used to be so annoyed, we will need to have tried 15 of them. after failing 15 occasions, we began greasing the underside of the pan and wrapped the reducing board in parchment paper. we thought this may work, however i used to be nonetheless pulling my hair out, and kaia thinks it is humorous!
utilizing the paper and oiled tray solely labored on alternate events. nonetheless annoyed, we used all the opposite tortillas.
At this level, I am reaching my most frustration degree. I am standing within the kitchen questioning if anybody on this planet has ever been via one thing as ridiculously dumb as this… I imply, I am actually about to scream and my beloved daughter simply laughs.
so what do you do on this state of affairs? you go to the bed room and curse an enormous fluffy pillow. Pleasant reminder, when you’re leaping into this match of pleasure, make sure that the bed room door is closed. I do not want my son to see me lose my cool, it might actually have an effect on how superior he thinks I’m. particularly not for one thing as ridiculous as not having the ability to get the tortillas proper!
As a single father or mother, I do not retreat to the bed room as typically as I ought to to cover my frustrations. at that second I additionally realized that immediately’s subjects weren’t simply tortillas. Life presents us with some onerous issues to deal with, and immediately was simply “a kind of days.” I believe cooking with my daughter is one in all my greatest getaways, my very own private dwelling remedy, if you’ll.
I got here again from my grownup tantrum flushed and just a little embarrassed. Kaia stood within the kitchen, with all of the innocence of her, frivolously greasing one in all our pans and mentioned smugly, “dad these are very delicate, watch out!”. I believe in whole we had about 5 tortillas that really held collectively lengthy sufficient to really feel like we had made tortillas, however total they have been just about unusable. I wished to throw within the towel, clear the kitchen and go to mattress early. as an alternative, we brainstormed how we may use our scrumptious folding tortillas and the carnitas we made for 5 o’clock the following day.
on the morning of cinco de mayo, kaia and I efficiently made a few of the greatest chilaquiles we have ever had. when your tortillas do not fold, you make chilaquiles! ; )
A few days later, Kaia talked about that we made lemonade out of lemons. I’ve to imagine this got here from failing the most effective of our omelette.
Daddy-daughter cooking is not at all times profitable in our efforts. the purpose is that we will strive. and by making an attempt, we realized. on this case, we realized what to not do and the way to not do it…regardless of my frustrations, we had enjoyable and realized collectively.
later that day dad made some tacos with road corn and grilled jalapeno. and because of my pillow remedy, I managed to get 2 of the tortillas folded sufficient for mentioned tacos… lemonade product of lemons!
thanks once more for following us, we actually loved sharing our journey with you. Have any of you tried making tortillas from scratch? Did you fail or did you succeed? we might love any suggestions and methods as we’ll positively be making an attempt the tortillas once more.
