Mexican Tortillas

Tortillas are a Mexican food so popular in the world, can not remember when was the first time that we tasted. They are available everywhere and now bleeding from snacks, "Doritos? to sell gasoline at the pumps, the original flavor is flavored with cheddar cheese, onion, ranch, pizza and some more. We believe it was in one of our trips to California, when we were still in Venezuela, we came to visit a friend in Irvine. His daughter called Life ate all the time. The tortilla is a food like a flattened "pancake? produced from corn or wheat, which has been one of the foods that are consumed in Mexico for centuries. The story goes back when Cortes landed in 1519. The flour tortilla that is native to northern Mexico, where he was born in the colonial era in the year 1591, in Villa de Santiago del Saltillo, a city of Nueva Vizcaya, Coahuila today. The story relates that there was a conjunction of two factors: the presence of colonial Mesoamerican groups Tlaxcala and the abundance of wheat. Just the word originates tiazcala name "tortilla? which means a pair of hands together, and in the form of prayer, with a tortilla in both hands, representing the act of "cake? the mass during the making of tortillas.

By 1849 it appears in the northern states of Mexico and Texas, a dish made from flour tortilla filled with meat, later to be named the donkeys. In 1983 the flour tortilla comes to Europe, England is the landing point. China starts making Mexican flour tortilla in the year 1993. The history of corn tortillas dates back before the year 500 BC For example, in the region of Oaxaca is no evidence that the tables began to be used at the end of Stage Villas (1500 to 500 BC), this is known as the clay plates used for cooking appeared at that time. [] Pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica, using corn as their staple food, like modern society in the same region. The first chronicles of the Indies, describe the tortilla corn bread, even the first translation into Spanish in the chronicle of Francisco Lopez de Gomara the name of the city of "Tlaxcala", was referred to as: .. "Tlaxcala, means home baked bread or bread, because it takes more centli there around that place names currently "...[] Tlaxcala, is referred to the (Nahuatl: tlaxcalli tlan, "place of tortilla ').

The tortillas prepared from corn lime treated, a process in which corn kernels are cooked in boiling water with a lime base. This process makes the corn to make a soft consistency, which will turn the grains into a uniform mass of yellowish-white, with which to prepare the tortillas. Today is achieved by industrialized corn flour and process for industrial production of tortillas, has been modernized to such an extent that there are machines that produce up to 10,000 tortillas per hour. They cook in sheets - called by the Mexicans "griddle? heated by gas, electricity or wood, where they turn 2 or 3 to take his golden characteristic. When they leave the pan, placed in a basket called "tazcal? and covered with a cloth called 'napkin? to retain its heat. The tortillas are distinguished by how they are prepared and filling, resulting in different dishes of Mexican cuisine. The so-called tacos (soft, stuffed and rolled), flutes (when fried), burritos (when the filling is meat or vegetables), quesadillas (tortillas stuffed fried), toast (totillas fried crisp filled with strips of beef, chicken , fish, sprinkled with cheese), enchiladas (tortillas dipped in tomato sauce, stuffed rolls) chips - called internationally "doritos? (Fried tortilla chips and salsa to coat crisp, beans or guacamole), also used to prepare the chalaquiles.

An anecdotal data is that the tortillas, especially flour, has been part of the diet of astronauts for space missions, preferably on toast, in the amount of crumbs that the latter leaves floating inside the ship. The recipe of the week is Mexican Salad Chile Con Carne in which the primary tortilla ingredient. See you soon friends. Write to juliopena@dalilasgourmet.com or contact us at our website: www.dalilasgourmet.com

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