The tortiliera

Today's stuff that works.

Last week at Food Lion I found this tortilla maker in the specialty food section -- $7.95.    I didn't get it to make tortilla, but for perogi.  Mother Superior and Lulu Mae love them, but what a pain in the ass to make.  I have a pasta machine - pain in the ass.  I've used a rolling pin - pain in the ass.  I've used won tom wrappers ... don't taste the same.  This looked like it might work.  It did.  Last night I made a flour-egg-water dough in 3 minutes,  plopped  a glob on the tortiliera, added a plunk of the filling  (cottage cheese.chives), folded, sealed, and put in lightly boiling water.  When they float to the top,  put it in the fry pan.  Total time from  decision to table, about 20 minutes.  Were they good?  Holy crap, yes.  USA! USA! Today I decided to make actual tortillas since I was out of them, but had a  chirozo/bean filling that I've had a two month hankering for. In a concession to healthy eating  I made a whole wheat dough. Not a good idea, as it turned out.  The whole wheat dough may have worked out had I kneaded it longer than 10 seconds, or let it rest, but I didn't.  Still, you can see the process.  Plop and squeeze. This ''tortilla'' was much thicker than I would have liked, but what the hell.  I fried it quickly in a little olive oil. After filling it with my chirozo mixture, and topping it with some cheese and chilpolte sauce I ate it.  Way yummy, but in the future I'll use white flour ... no I won't.  In the future I'll use store bought flour tortillas, because I like them.  But here's what I discovered.  This fried whole wheat bread, which is what it was, makes an excellent bread/roll substitute for dinners.  If you were served a basket of them in a restaurant, you'd probably rave.  Very quick to make (flour, baking powder, salt, olive oil, water.    Such a deal.