my tortilla-making adventures<\/a> using masa harina (flour you mix with water). I defrosted the Primavera masa about a week ago.<\/p>\nVarious articles I’ve seen talk about how it freezes well (both the dough in general and Primavera’s in particular), but mine didn’t fare as well. When I tried to form it, it was both soggy and dry. Tortillas made with it came out tasting good, with decent texture, but they are very thick (not a bad thing!) and fall apart.<\/p>\n
I had better luck adding a bit of water and kneading the dough for a minute or two, as if it were being made from flour. Then letting it sit for a couple minutes. It still sticks to the tortilla press (despite using plastic covers) and falls apart, but not as badly.<\/p>\n
So, tonight, I came up with a different plan. I added water to the rest of the masa, kneaded it, and set it aside. Then I divided it in two for top and bottom. The idea? a giant pupusa.<\/p>\n
First, I sauteed some sliced onions (on a mandolin) in olive oil. My original idea for the filling was to saute onions and also fry up some tofu bits with curry. But I forgot and was too tired, so it was just onions.<\/p>\n
![\"Sauteed](\"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/tortilla_pie_onions_2269.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
Next, I put oil, then some cornmeal, in a hot cast iron pan, and plopped in half the dough, flattening it the best I could with the spatula.<\/p>\n
![\"Masa](\"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/tortilla_pie_dough_2271.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
Topped it all with a healthy dollop of onions.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/tortilla_pie_half_2272.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
Then added the rest of the dough on top, spreading it out first with the spatula, then with my fingers.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/tortilla_pie_topped_2273.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
As I took pictures, I kept thinking that I should post it all anyway, as an example of failed meals. I get ideas in my head and, trust me, sometimes they come out pretty awful. I was sure this was another of those times.<\/p>\n
Then I realized I needed to turn the pie over. I cut it in quarters (chop hard to get through the onions) and flipped them one at a time, adding more olive oil underneath. I stood back and looked and knew I had made something good.<\/p>\n
![\"Stuffed](\"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/tortilla_pie_done_2274.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
Yep, these taste as good as they look. You can use any filling you want. The plain onions were a bit bland, though savory. Cheese would be amazing, if you eat it. You could make this a main dish by adding meat or tofu or another protein.<\/p>\n
Serve it for breakfast…for the first time in 2 years, I felt like I could have omelets again. This is the closest I have come without actually eating eggs. It would be fabulous brunch food too. But I enjoyed it for dinner, with a big salad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple of months ago, I found myself at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market, by the Primavera Tortilla stand. Primavera is a Sonoma County-based company that makes their own masa (tortilla\/tamale dough) from organic stoneground corn. The handmade tortillas looked good but were pricey (and the fancy flavored ones had dairy) so I bought a bag […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[84,26,52,16,3],"tags":[7,6,8,81,77,5,12],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breads","category-food","category-food-products","category-main-dishes","category-recipes","tag-dairy-free","tag-egg-free","tag-gluten-free","tag-latin-food","tag-photos-food","tag-vegan","tag-vegetarian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}