Tortillas! That was the next thing Pete wanted to make with the Sorj.
So we took a trip to Fiji Market in the inner-Sydney suburb of Newtown. I hadn’t been there for years, and it was interesting to see how things had changed. In addition to their mostly Asian and Islander ranges, they now also stock a wide variety of Mexican ingredients…
…including an assortment of dried chillies, all very reasonably priced…
We came home with masa harina flour (cornmeal), tomatillos, black beans, jalapeño hot sauce and four packets of chillies…
We also returned with a tortilla/chapatti press from Chefs’ Warehouse. It works brilliantly…
Corn tortillas were a doddle to make using the press and chapatti pan. (Note to SK’s husband: Andy, she needs these!)
Following the recipe on the packet, I kneaded together 2 cups of masa flour, a pinch of salt and 1¼ cups of water. The dough was then divided into 16 balls and flattened between two sheets of plastic inside the tortilla press. These needed less than a minute on each side in the hot pan to cook to perfection.
We filled them with a little cos lettuce from the garden, slow roasted belly pork, a reduction of the tomato passata and red wine that the meat had been cooked in, and a green salsa made from tomatillos, jalapeños and fresh coriander (salsa recipe is here).
It was incredibly tasty, made completely from scratch, and not a skerrick of cheese or sour cream in sight!
. . . . .
Fiji Market
591 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9517 2054
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Now you’ve done it Celia I’m going to have to go and buy a tortilla press! These look great! I love making my own tortillas. Do you think that justifies the purchase? Is it really easy to use?
Claire, the corn tortilla dough was a bit crumbly, so I was sure the press wouldn’t work, but it turned out perfectly round circles every single time. Pete said he saw me smile and shake my head in disbelief every time I opened it up and saw the finished tortilla.. :)
Sounds like you need to add a little more water to your dough.
Yum- this looks great! I wish Frank were more like Pete when it comes to food and pans. I’m REALLY not allowed even one more.
Ah well, in this case Pete loves tortillas, so it wasn’t that hard to convince him! :)
You are so clever with all your gadgets. I don’t have many. My cupboards are over-stuffed as it is and I just can’t squeeze another thing in. What a delicious wrap. I love pork belly – it’s such a treat. And with that salsa and lettuce and homemade bread, it must have been heavenly. Wish I’d been invited over for lunch! xx
I should have invited you! Next time I will! :)
Yum, yum, yum! They look deeliciousioso!
I attempted making toritillas a couple of weeks ago in our woodfired oven by baking them straight on the hot bricks. However! Had a terrible time with the dough, which I made using just masa lista flour, water and salt (not sure what the difference is between masa lista and masa harina?). I ended up having to use a portion of wheat flour to get the dough to a rolling consistency as it just kept falling apart otherwise. Maybe I needed a press such as yours?
Anyhow, they were still very tasty and made into ‘cheesorama logs’ for the younger people of the house..basically a filled burrito, rolled and placed in a dish, covered with more beany/tomatoey sauce and grated cheese and baked. The cornmeal adds so much taste to the tortillas!
As an aside, I saw you mention Chef’s warehouse..although I think this is different to Caterers Warehouse in Sydney? We have a Caterer’s Warehouse (going under the name NIsbet’s) opening here in Melbourne which I’m hugely excited about! We just got the catalogue in the mail, and oh, my! Lock up the purse please!! ;)
Chris, Chefs’ Warehouse is a stand-alone wholesaler who have been operating for decades. I don’t think they’re affiliated with anyone else. I don’t know about Caterers’ Warehouse in Sydney? I’ll have to google them..thanks.. :)
I’m afraid I don’t know the difference between the flours, I just bought the packet which had the right words on it. :) Having said that, when I placed the balls of dough on the plastic, I flattened them a little with the palm of my hand and they cracked – I was sure they’re go all wonky in the press. But each one came out as a perfect circle. I remember thinking that the dough could be tricky to roll out, which may be why most instructions say to use a press!
Great to discover new ingredients – your haul from the market is so interesting. I’m often found staring at the exotic sections in the supermarket!
Sally, I can only imagine what your local supermarkets must stock! :)
Awesome! I think your tasty tortillas would be the perfect match for my va-va-voom chilli con carne, Celia!
You’re right Lizzy! We were playing tag today! :)
Hello Celia…I am going to make Lizzie’s chilli con carne tonight and I think I might have to dust of my tortilla press too…your tortilla with pork looks delicious :)
Jane, we’ve had heaps of fun with ours!
Made these last night Celia with Lizzie’s chilli con carne, delicious…thanks for the inspiration! I was also happy to discover I still had masa flour on hand…as you do :)
Hehehe…as you do. ;-)
I’m glad you enjoyed them with Lizzy’s chilli – I feel like you’ve somehow joined the link between our blogs for us, Jane, a bit like connecting a circuit.. :)
Haha! I just forwarded the link to this post to Andy so he can see the proof that I need a tortilla press! Thanks for the shout out Celia!
We’re on your team, girlfriend. :)
wow..looks amazing celia..beats the toast i had for lunch..x
Jane, I’ve seen the loaves of bread you bake, so I’m pretty sure your toast would have been magnificent! :)
Ooh I saw them make these on Masterchef the other night. I really want to try it :)
Was it on Masterchef? I haven’t watched it since the first series, so I’m a bit out of the loop. Did they use a similar recipe?
Ah, the delights of shopping in Sydney! The results look yummy.
Liz, it really is a joy! I often think about how idyllic it would be to live in the country, but I’d miss the huge diversity we get in Sydney…
Mum has a press too. She uses it when making puris, the deep fried version of rotis. But when she makes rotis, she doesn’t use it, as she says when she hand rolls them out, she uses a sort of rotating action that leaves the centre a touch thicker than the edges, and this helps them puff up on the flame (after they’ve been cooked part way on the tawa).
Kavey, I’ll bet it’s amazing to watch her! Years and years of practice!
What a lovely wrap! Thanks for telling us how you make tortillas Celia. I found an importer of Mexican foods nearby and bought chillis in adobe sauce and mugwort and black beans amongst other goodies, meant to post about it and never got round to it. I hovered over the press they had too, maybe I should go back and get one, running out of room to store all the gadgets :)
Jo, the press just makes such lovely round circles, at least with the corn tortilla dough. I love the pragmatism of squishing it between two sheets of plastic too – no washing up afterwards! :)
What yummies! I buy that Masa flour as well but as I don’t have one of those awesome presses we squish the mix in the sandwich press and cook it in there at the same time. Delicious!
Becca, you are, as always, a genius! That’s a great idea to cook them in the sandwich press!
Ok, fine. She can have the tortilla press! ;)
Just a thought, you said you used pork belly. It has a more subtle flavour though – more white pork than darker pork: hence the flavour might be overwhelmed. You should try the same recipe with a cheaper cut of pork such as pork shoulder. I think you’d find it might have a heartier flavour. Either way, looks delicious!
Aaah, the concerted nagging of many women wins out in the end.. ;-)
I’ll look out for pork shoulder, thank you. We’ve only just discovered the belly and how amazingly tender it is when slow cooked! The other cut we tend to roast is pork neck.
Wow, yours look amazing! I think I also need a press :)
Tandy, they were great fun to make. The press was quite cheap – $28 – and that was an expensive one! I saw them at the Indian spice store for $22!
Celia, you beat me to it! I also have a press and a half-composed blog about it, but who knows when I will be able to wrap it up.
I am not too wild about my method of cooking them. It seemed to take too long for the batch to be ready.
You are absolutely right in that home made tortillas are incredibly tasty!
Sally, we were cooking three at a time in the pan, and they were done in under two minutes. Do yours take longer than that? They really are delicious, we’re hooked! :)
my problem is that I don t have a pan large enough to fit more than one. Perhaps two if I made them slightly smaller. So it was a bit time consuming… I must look for alternative ways – buy a larger pan ? ;-)
Beautiful, i am so glad everyone is finally liking Mexican food. Fiji market stopped stocking the dried chillis for a while. Thanks for showing me they are back! did you see any achiote?
http://www.mykitchenstories.com.au
Tania, I think I saw achiote, but I wasn’t actually looking out for it. We’ve always liked Mexican food, but until the last decade or so, most of the stuff available here in Sydney was just meat/beans/cheese/sour cream reworked into different formats on the same menu. :) We found an amazing Mexican restaurant called Hot Salsa Kitchen which closed a few years ago, and then Gusman Y Gomez came along…
Tania/Celia,
I like two blocks from the fiji market, and they almost always have both achiote paste and the annatto seeds to make it (which I prefer).
I love homemade tortillas. There’s nothing like them. An old bread bag works the best for the plastic. An old cookie sheet, right on the burner works good too. My neighbor can flip them with her fingers but I need a spatula. (I’m a kitchen wimp.) Maz.
Maz, we never buy bread, so we never have an old bread bag lying around! :) But we have thick plastic bags that seem to work well.
Also, in a pinch, if you don’t have a press, you can use skillet. Just press down and don’t for get your wonderbread bag. :-)
A skillet is a good idea – do you get nice round circles?
Pretty round, put a little water on your hands and roll the balls, then flatten a little and put in between the plastic.
Wonderful! I NEED one of those, especially since I’m in the midst of my Mexican series!
Nick, I thought they were actually very reasonably priced! Hope you can track one down! :)
I do too! I’ve never seen them before though, Celia. I won’t hold my breath.
Try Asian grocers, Nick. Both Fiji Market and the Indian spice store I visited had the presses for sale, but I had to ask for them. They’re known as a chapatti press, and they’re basically the same thing as a Mexican tortilla press.
An Asian grocers in Aberystwyth? Haha – that was a joke right?! Hehe.
Ah ok, sorry. I’d mail you one, but it’s made of iron and the postage would be terrifying. :)
I forget how spoilt we are in Sydney sometimes, we can lay our hands on almost anything imaginable.
Haha – it would be rather high, I expect! Indeed, you are lucky. Perhaps i’ll find one when I move to Bristol in a couple of months.
Oh yes, you will. My friend Joanna in Bristol has been eyeing one off at her local store for a while now, so I know they’re definitely available there! :)
I love homemade tortillas, I make flour ones and they’re a hit when they’re made fresh. Meanwhile I must get a hold of one of those presses! :)
Lorraine, we must try flour ones next! :)
I have a tortilla press but haven’t used it yet. I hope my attempts are as successful as yours Celia.
Barbara, they’re great fun to use! I think the secret is tracking down the right flour (or so I’m told!).
Thanks for the post. It reminds me that I should get my press out of the cupboard. Some chilli beans would be a great winter warmer. Yum.
Mouse, winter has kicked in with a vengeance here in Sydney! Must be even colder down south! :)
Wow Celia, your press looks just like mine which had been sitting in the cupboard for so long. I am interested in your tip to put plastic between it and the dough. I will try that next time….
PS: We are off to Sydney next month (I have found a dog sitter) and would appreciate any shopping tips. We will go to Peter’s of Kensington, Chef’s Warehouse and Herbie’s Spices and buy some of that remilled semolina flour (I just can’t find it here). Any other ideas, please?
Oooh, how long are you here for, Glenda? Would love to meet you at Chefs’ or something, if we can time it. If we do that, I can bring you some of the semolina flour. Let’s talk via email! :)
You must have a huge kitchen with tons of well organized cabinets and drawers. You are having winter? Do you get lots of snow?
Norma, no snow at all here, we don’t even get frosts! It’s very mild in Sydney, really. I don’t have a huge kitchen, but I have a very well organised husband who manages my storage for me, albeit under protest. :)
Does that mean you can garden year round?
Yes, absolutely! More garden photos scheduled for tomorrow! :)
Hi Celia, just thought I’d check in and see what amazing food you’ve been creating and I wasn’t disappointed! Just wondering though, where’s that tortilla press going to fit? Love to all x
There’s always the shed, Rob.. ;-) xxx
Love the tortilla press! Can’t wait to see more of your creations with this gadget!
Waw! You have yor on tortilla press! That’s so cool!! Is it very expensive?
Sophie, it really wasn’t! Ours cost $28, but I’ve seen them in the Asian grocers for $22. We love it! :)