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Sonoran-Style Staples Sonoran-Style Staples

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FLOUR VS. CORN TORTILLAS

I tend to save flour tortillas for a treat and use corn tortillas daily because the nixtamalization process makes corn tortillas nutritionally complete—you could live off corn tortillas and beans if you wanted to. They are only about 60 calories each, and most are wheat and gluten free. Some of the prepackaged “corn” tortillas on the market are mixed with wheat flour, so check the labels.

I’ve included a corn tortilla recipe in this book because they are easy to make. Flour tortillas, however, require a certain amount of skill and I prefer to leave their preparation to a tortilla professional.

We are lucky to have excellent and widely available handmade flour tortillas here in Tucson. Happily, in this modern era, high-quality flour tortillas are available online for delivery to everyone everywhere. At the time of this book’s publication, La Mesa Tortillas in Tucson ships worldwide. Hopefully this trend will continue with other high-quality, hand-stretched tortillas into the future.

I expect that for basic burrito/burro/chimi needs, most people aren’t going to want to go through the extra step of making their own flour tortillas. This is a skill that requires a good degree of practice, so I am going to recommend doing the best with what you have. However, you will also want to be able to spot the signs of a good-quality, store-bought tortilla. Namely:• They shouldn’t look too white or too puffy.• They should be light golden brown in color and have darker brown patches.• The stack of tortillas should be slightly different sizes and shapes.• They should have only a few ingredients: white flour, baking powder, shortening, salt, and water.

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