Spinach and Chile Verde Tortillas.
There is something very special about the flavour that charred vegetables give, to me this ritual feels very familiar I grew up seeing this in my Mum’s and grandma’s cooking, by simply charring salsa ingredients directly into a hot pan with no oil everyday ingredients would transform into the most flavoursome salsa.
This is something that I now include in my cooking every time I can, and that I wanted to bring into this tortilla recipe as well as the kick from those chillies and beautiful bright green colour of the spinach, these two things combined make these tortillas very special in itself.
Once again I hope I can persuade you into making your own tortillas at home, like making bread, making tortillas is a work of love too, but compared to bread making is much more straight forward than you may think.
Makes 18-20 small tortillas.
Ingredients:
2 cups of corn flour, (special to make tortillas).
120 grams of spinach.
1 tsp of rapeseed oil, ( or any cooking oil).
5 green chillies , could be 3 jalapeños or 4 serrano chillies (depending on how spicy you like it you can add or reduce the amount).
1 1/3 cup hot boiling water.
Method.
Wash and drain your spinach, heat up the oil in a medium size pan and add the spinach and allow to cook for a minute, season with a pinch of maldon salt and reserve.
At the same time I place my green chillies directly into a small pan, no need to add any oil, just charred them and turn them around from time to time over a medium heat. Place in your blender the cooked spinach and charred chillies, 1/2 cup of hot water and blend really smooth.
In a medium bowl combine your corn flour, salt and spinach chilli mixture, integrate the ingredients well with a wooden spoon and then add more hot water little by little until you get a soft but non sticky masa. Knead briefly over your kitchen counter .
Once your masa is ready follow the next steps:
Form masa balls with the palms of your hands
Place into the tortilla press in-between two pieces of plastic film.
Press your masa down shaping a tortilla.
Place over a really hot non stick pan and flip over after a minute or less until both sides are cooked.
Repeat the same procedure with the rest of your masa.
Spread your tortillas over the counter to allow them to cool down and then store away.
Alternatively if you are using them straight away keep them warm covered with a tea towel, you can reheat over a hot pan if necessary.
Note: depending on the use of these tortillas you can make them thinner or thicker, I recommend to make them thinner if they are going to be fried, but perhaps a bit thicker if they will be used for tacos as you want them to be able to hold the filling, it’s garnish and salsa.
