A foray south of the border

I always wanted to make fresh corn tortillas, but I could never find the right flour in my neighborhood. You can't use ordinary corn meal--you need special lime-treated corn. (I once looked at a Mexican cookbook by Diana Kennedy, and she had you making your own flour by treating the corn with lime from the garden center. Maybe Martha Stewart would try that, but I passed.)

Then just this week I was surprised to find MaSeCa for sale at my corner bodega.




















Maybe there is a tamales god--or a burgeoning Mexican population on the Upper West Side. Now, on with our test.

The recipe is suprisingly easy: just mix the flour, water and some salt. Roll into small balls and press with a tortilla press. Well, I didn't have a tortilla press. I bought one at a yard sale years ago just in case I found that flour--but darned if I could find it now. So I just rolled out the dough on the countertop. The tortillas are not very even, but so what. Then you just grill them for a couple of minutes on a griddle or cast-iron pan.



















These may not look beautiful, but they tasted great, and best of all they had the soft texture I remembered from tortillas I had in Mexico. You can fold them around the food without their breaking apart like those hard, rubbery store-bought kind. You can make sopes with the same masa--just roll them smaller and thicker.