Nomify

Breakfast Tacos 30.08.2007

Joseph pointed me in the direction of Robert Rodriguez’s 10 Minute Cooking Show, which can be found among the DVD extras on Sin City. Thanks to the wonders of modern(er) technology, it can also be found on YouTube:

This guy transcribed the recipe, and I’ve augmented his transcription with my own experience.

Ingredients

For the tortillas:

• 2 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 75gms butter
• 1 cup warm water, or thereabouts.

For the fillings:

• 6 eggs, lightly beaten (with a bit of milk or cream if you like) and divided into two lots
• 3 large potatoes, cut into small dice
• 1 jalapeno, finely sliced (seeds or no, depending on your preference)
• 1 Spanish onion, finely chopped, or 6-8 spring onions, finely sliced
• 2-3 ripe tomatoes, diced
• Salt, pepper, vegetable oil and butter

Equipment

• 2 clean teatowels
• Mixer (not required, but makes things easier)
• Two or three frying pans. I guess you could get away with just one, but you’d be constantly washing up and washing up sucks. A non-stick pan for the tortillas is more or less essential.
• Kitchen paper
• Rolling pin (most important: I tried this tonight without a rolling pin, using a wine bottle instead, and it just doesn’t work.)

Method

Start by making the tortilla dough. Using either your hands or some kind of mixing apparatus, combine the flour, baking power, salt and butter until it's fine and crumbly. If you're using your hands, this takes a bit of effort, but it's worth persisting so you don't get lumps. Start to add the water a bit at a time - you may not need all of it, so go carefully here. You basically want the whole lot to come together in a sticky dough, but not too sticky or it'll be hard to roll out later.

Once it's the right consistency, knead it in a Machine, or with your hands, for a couple of minutes until it's smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 8-10 golf-ball-sized lumps and leave them to rest for twenty minutes or so under a damp teatowel.

While the dough rests, you need to prepare the fillings. There are two combos here: potato and egg, and tomato, jalapeno, onion and egg. First, the potatoes: heat up some oil in a pan and chuck the potatoes in, along with some salt and pepper. Fry over medium heat until the potatoes are soft and edible - takes 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the dice. Drain on paper towel when they're done.

While the potatoes are frying (see, two pans gooood), fry the tomatoes, jalapeno and onion together for a few minutes, so that the onion's a bit soft but the mixture isn't a complete mush, and then drain on some paper towel also.

By now, the tortilla dough should have rested long enough. Flatten each ball into a disc before rolling out as thin as you can with the rolling pin and putting aside.

Heat your non-stick pan over a high heat. You want it to be really hot, otherwise the tortillas will steam themselves rather than cook quickly, and they'll be spongy and crap. When it's good and hot, take a tortilla, roll it out one more time and chuck it in the pan. Give it a few seconds on that side - it should brown lightly in a couple of spots if the pan is hot enough - and then flip it over. Do it for a minute or so on each side, then put it aside, wrapped in a teatowel in a warm spot, while you do the rest.

When all your tortillas are finished, it's time to finish off the fillings.

First, the potato filling: put a knob of butter in a hot frying pan, pour in half your beaten egg, and then put your cooked potato in with it. Don't stir it too much at first - you want the bottom to set a bit - and then gently mix the potato and egg together. It should be done in under a minute.

Next, the tomato filling, which is the same deal as above, really. Use the rest of your eggs, combined with the tomato/onion/jalapeno mix.

When you're all done, wrap filling in tortilla and eatify.

Makes 8-10 tortillas - enough for 2-4 people.

File under breakfast vegetarian

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