cornmeal tortillas

i am a lame-o for once again eating my food before taking pictures. sorry dudez.

i made the hillbilly housewife's cornmeal tortillas today. i've been making bean and cheese quesadillas for about a week and i was running out of (storebought) flour tortillas. obviously i am no stranger to homemade tortillas -- my first "real" entry was my first attempt at making them.

i am not really a fan of corn tortillas. but i gave them a fair shot anyway. this is far from an authentic recipe, but then again isn't anything i make just a bastardized version of something else more gourmet?

cornmeal tortillas
courtesy of the hillbilly housewife

3/4 cup cornmeal
1-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening or oil
1 cup boiling water
Waxed paper

In a bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour and salt. Stir it up while the water is coming to a boil. Use a metal measuring cup to measure the water, if possible. Plastic melts, and glass sometimes shatters, so a metal measuring cup is the safest type when you measure boiling water. To continue, place the shortening in the bowl with the cornmeal and flour. Pour the boiling water over everything and stir it up with a fork. Stir and stir because it will lump up quite a bit before it turns into dough. Allow the mixture to cool. Divide the dough into 10 lumps about the size of golf balls. Roll each ball out very thinly between sheets of waxed paper. Loosen and remove the top sheet of paper, and lay the tortilla down on a hot dry skillet, with the bottom sheet of waxed paper still attached, and now on top. After the tortilla cooks for a few seconds, the remaining sheet of waxed paper will easily loosen for removal. When the underside of the tortilla is dry with a few brown spots, turn it and cook the other side.

my notes: i don't know what i did at first, but the dough was too wet for it to work properly. i left it sitting out for at least half an hour after mixing it, but maybe it needs a bit more time or less water. i switched off my humidifier (which lives on my kitchen counter because i don't have space anywhere else) and after that things were better. i still had to be careful when peeling the rolled dough off the paper because it tore very easily. i think the key is to leave them thicker than flour tortillas. pretty tasty though.