Cookaholics Bulletin Board

So, it's not even noon on TY Day and I've set the fire alarm off once.

What was I doing? Well, the mole recipe asks me to toast a couple tortillas over an open flame. This instruction is tossed off by Mr. Santabanez as if how to do it was self-evident.

Tortilla #1: set it on top of the stove grate, turning it with tongs every minute or so. Kris asks me a riddle she found on the internet. I think about riddle. Tortilla catches file.

Tortilla #2 and #3: watching more carefully now. Turning every 45 seconds or so, the tortillas gradually develop lots of burned, black spots between stretches of blonde, uncooked tortilla. They show no signs of turning "golden brown with a few burned spots"; instead, they look to turn "burned, with a few golden brown spots". Eventually, tortilla #3 catches fire.

Tortilla #4: maybe I need a more even, all-over heat. I put a tortilla in the toaster oven, turn it to "dark", and toast. After 4 minutes, flame and smoke billow out of the toaster oven, filling the kitchen with a dark, black haze and setting off the fire alarm.

There was a brief hiatus while we opened doors and windows, turned on fans, and called the fire company. At least it got my father-in-law out of bed.

Tortillas #5 and #6 were toasted by putting it in a hot, dry cast-iron skillet and putting a pot lid on it to hold it flat. This worked beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that #6 was eaten by my inlaws and had to be replaced.

Tortilla #7 was toasting up fine in the pan, except when I went to flip it, it stuck to the lid, fell off, and rolled across the stove into a lit burner, where it caught fire. Fortunately, I already had the water spritzer out from the toaster oven, so I was able to put it out before the fire alarm went off again.

Tortilla #8 toasted fine.

So: Roberto Santabanez, -1 on tortilla toasting instructions. I did go through the rest of the book to see if there were more detailed instructions, or diagrams, elsewhere. No.

So anyone successfully flame-toast a tortilla without calling the fire department? How did you do it?

I toast tortillas all the time. I put them over one of my burners (it helps with a Bluestar because there's flame everywhere, not just in one circle) and I turn frequently. If you only have one circle of flame, then slightly reposition each time so the direct flame is seeing new areas of the tortilla on every flip. Part of the key is not to have your flame too high...otherwise they'll easily burn.

I basically cook until the tortilla puffs. I'll have a minimal number of black spots.

I wouldn't ding him for the instructions. When toasting tortillas so much depends on your individual stove, how high your flame is, and whether you've got big open burners (as I do) or single circle burners. Give the guy a break.

Amy

Either way I damned amused

Fuzzy,

Too bad I didn't see this earlier. I could have suggested another mole - Chichilo con Chochoyotes, from Martinez's Oaxacan book. This calls for charring the tortillas over an open flame or under the broiler (never tried this, but maybe it's something to think about?), until "thoroughly blackened and slightly shrunken". She also suggests doing it in a yard, on a terrace, "or at least disable the smoke alarm for the duration!"

Seriously, though, I reheat my tortillas over a gas flame all the time, turned way up and coming around the edges of the tortillas. However, they don't get golden, but get those black spots, as well as blackened edges, and maybe even a little flame (this is one of those things you don't answer the phone while you're doing. Maybe holding it a few inches away on a raised cooling rack (I have one I use just for roasting peppers), where it's not in contact with the flame, as with a broiler mentioned previously, would work better. Directly on a high flame heats them up better, without drying them out, but a lower, longer heat should brown them and dry them out more.

And in many of the moles I've seen, the tortillas are fried, to give that evenly browned color.

I don't have a gas flame and have used a cast iron pan without incident. Could I use my blow torch though? I love my blow torch.

Mary

Fuzzy, so funny........I too use a cast iron pan and have totally burnt them as well.

Karen

I have a very cheap, very flimsy "tortilla pan" I got a my local ethnic grocer for $8. It doesn't do much else, but it is good for browning tortillas, esp since I have an electric stove. (Gas lines don't come out this way and I haven't had the energy to get the kitchen remodeled yet.)

The pan looks like this: http://www.dvo.com/OldFiles/comal-tortilla-pan.html

I never thought of using a blow torch, but I bet it would work!

And another thing I thought of after I signed off last night was to place them on the rack in my convection oven to toast them. I toast stale tortillas to make chips, and they come out evenly browned this way. I do this at 325º, to dry them out as well as brown them, but maybe a higher temp would be better for this.

Me too.

Too funny, Fuzzy.
fitzie