Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I am doing the next cooking club dinner and need to pick your brains. I have both pork and corn tortillas in my freezer so the theme is Mexican (and I can play the freezer game too!). My friend Kara is doing an appetizer of some sort and the dessert lime sorbet in tequila and some kind of crunchy sweet thing.

I want to start with tortilla soup and then carnitas as a main. Some questions:

What is the best way to warm the tortillas for this? We are only 6 but would like to do enough for the whole dinner in one go.

Sides for carnitas??? The blood oranges are excellent this year so I was thinking of something with orange and avocado and maybe Jane Brody's non-fried refried beans. Thoughts?

I need a cocktail and want something that is not a margarita. I have some good rum. Darcie?

Mary

Mary,

Pork and corn *tortillas*? Do you mean tamales? Papusas?

A good way to warm tortillas for a large group is actually in the microwave. You need a tortilla-warming container of some sort, though. The best is something which looks like a large felt pocket or a tea cozy; you dampen this and microwave the tortillas for 30-60s in it. Runner-up is a large, flat round plastic container which can hold the tortillas flat. You sprinkle them lightly with water and then microwave them briefly.

Neither of those approaches works as well as toasting in a pan, but you can do 8-10 at once.

I am serving carne asada tonight (Kenji's recipe) and I plan on warming the tortillas in the oven....4 in each foil packet.
I am serving a lime/cilanto/rice (I just substitute about a quarter of a cup of water with lime juice and will toss with chopped cilantro when rice is cooked) and I made a salad dressing substituting lime juice for lemon juice for a lime vinagrette (plus I added some honey and garlic powder) which will go over mescal greens with diced tomatoes, avocados and queso fresco. All of this is made up except the carne asada, so I will let you know if it works.

No, pork is in the freezer and corn tortillas too. I don't like microwaved corn tortillas. Do you think I could heat them in a pan and put them into a warm oven?

Mary

Ilene,
That rice sounds really good. The whole meal does, really. Let me know!

Mary - one of my favorites is the Hemingway Dacquiri:

2 oz rum
.75 oz Lime juice
.5 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
.5 oz Grapefruit juice

Shake with ice and strain into chilled coupe. Garnish with lime wheel.

Also tasty, the Airmail:

1 oz rum
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz honey syrup

Shake with ice and strain into chilled coupe. Top with 1 oz champagne and garnish with lime wheel.

Honey syrup:
2 parts honey
1 part water

Simmer until honey dissolves, let cool, bottle, and store in the refrigerator.

Finally, the classic Mojito:

2 oz rum
1 oz simple syrup
.75 oz lime juice
8 mint leaves

Add simple syrup and mint leaves to a mixing glass and muddle. Add remaining ingredients, shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass filled with ice. Top with 1 oz club soda and garnish with mint sprig.

Mary,

Oh, "pork, and corn tortillas". I was wondering WTF a "pork tortilla" was.

I'm not sure. You'd definitely want to wrap them in something to keep them from drying out. Maybe someone else can recommend.

As for the blood oranges, blood oranges, avocado, jicama and queso fresco are terrific together, with a little citrus & olive oil dressing. If you can't get jicama, use cucumbers. Ricotta salata or a similar mild crumbly white cheese would work OK if you can't get Mexican cheeses where you are. Dressing should be a little lime juice, a bunch of olive oil, some salt (omit if using ricotta salata), cumin and either cilantro or ground coriander.

I'd probably wrap them in a slightly damp tea towel (or paper towel), then overwrap in foil then heat in the oven.

I just read the warming instructions on the tortilla package and they suggest wrapping in between two damp paper towels and zapping in micro for 20-20 seconds or heating in a skillet. Since I want mime pliable and not crispy, I will try the micro version.

Mary,

I'm also not a fan of microwave warmed tortillas - they seem to fall apart too easily, plus none of that toasted flavor.

Do you have a gas or electric range? Heating over a flame is ideal, but a CI pan would probably give them a few dark spots, for that toasted flavor. When I used to buy a lot of tortillas and freeze them, they would eventually get dried out a little, so I would mist one side of each, as I stacked them up, then heat the first over the flame as I would place another on top, then flip, and place another on those, and repeat, heating only one side of each for 10 sec or so, until they begin to get a few dark spots. After a pile gets to about 6 or 7, place in the container, and start over, until enough are heated. You could probably do this in a pan, too, though not as much moisture would be lost, as from an open flame. After heating mine, I place them in a container for microwaving them, which keeps them warm for a long time, but you could wrap them in foil or put in a pan with a tight fitting lid, and keep them in a warm oven, as you noted.