Sunday, May 30, 2010

Homemade Tortillas and Pork Tacos

I've been going through all my foodie magazines recently (which have stacked up ridiculously high!) to pick out recipes that I see myself trying within the next two months. If it doesn't look like something that's going to be tried within the next couple of months the recipe gets looked over and eventually tossed in the recycling bin. Pre-Ally, I would save recipes for the "right" occasion; I've since learned a new recipe will pop up between now and then and I will have forgotten all about the once saved recipe. I've also decided that I am going to be a lot more choosy in the recipes I save in my personal recipe collection...it needs to be REALLY good and something that I will look forward to making again. Well, this evening I found one of those recipes....Homemade Tortillas! I'm not sure what took me so long to make tortilla shells, other than it's easy just to pick them up at the store and pop them in the microwave for a few seconds before filling with taco fixings. Now that I've made HOMEMADE tortilla shells, I don't know that I can go back to the store bought version (unless I'm really in a rush to get dinner done quickly!). These homemade shells are thicker than the store-bought variety, but they taste SO much better....they are light and fluffy and not chewy....and they are also great with a little melted butter brushed on top with some cinnamon and sugar sprinkled over the butter...mmmm....do the work once and end up with dinner and dessert! Okay, enough "talk" on to the recipe.....

Homemade Tortillas (ToH June/July 2010)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
3 Tbls olive oil

Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Stir in water and olive oil. (You will end up with an extremely sticky batter.) Turn onto a floured surface; knead 5-6 times. Divide dough into 8 portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a 7-in circle. In a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook tortillas over medium heat for 1 minute on each side or until lightly browned. Keep warm. Makes 8 tortillas - 3WWpts.

We used a version of the following recipe as the meat filling for the tortillas...and it was good as well!

Pork Tacos (Women's Day)
2 tsp oil
1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 1-in cubes
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup salsa verde (green salsa)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (which we omitted....not cilantro fans)
8 tortilla shells
1 cup shredded lettuce
Garnish: diced tomatoes and avocado (optional)

Heat oil in 12-in nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cumin; cook until golden brown on all sides about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir salsa into skillet; cook 1 minute or until heated through. Stir in cilantro. Using two forks, pierce and shred cubes of pork. Fill warm tortillas with pork mixture, then add lettuce. Serves 4 - 4WWpts (w/out tortilla shell).

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