Yo Puedo Hacerlo!

Written April 9, 2011

Yo Puedo Hacerlo!!!

Since arriving in Honduras, I have wanted to learn how to cook typical Honduran comida (food). Granted, the food here is not very complicated and pretty much consists of tortillas, frijoles (refried beans), rice and fried plantains, but still, I wanted to learn the Honduran techniques. Today, I finally had that opportunity. My first week here, I mentioned to my host mom that I wanted to learn how to make tortillas. I was actually talking about the corn tortillas in that particular conversation, but she thought I was talking about flour tortillas, which I also did want to learn how to make. However, I had heard from almost everyone on the Peace Corps staff, some volunteers and community members that making flour tortillas is an art and is very hard to do!

Despite the rumors, I asked my host mom if she would be able to teach me, and she said of course. With my improving Spanish skills, I was able to ask her if I could invite some of my friends who I knew also wanted to learn how to make them! She happily agreed. So, after a wonderful morning and afternoon in Comayagua, Damarise, Jenna, Melissa and I all met at my house to try our luck at making flour tortillas. The famous saying here in the Villa is “Que Color!!,” which means - HOW HOT! So, when we arrived at my house it was 4:30 p.m., and according to my host mom it was entirely too hot to turn the stove on and start making tortillas. We waited for a half hour, watching a Spanish movie starting Penelope Cruize. As my Spanish is still very limited, I could only catch bits and pieces of the movie, but from what I did understand, it was very weird!

At about 5 p.m. we started the adventure that was to be making tortillas!

Tortillas de Harina

2 libras (lbs) Harina (flour)
1 huevo (egg)
1 large pinch of sal
1 very large cuchara (spoon) of soda
About 1 cup of manteca (butter wannabe, more like Crisco)
Somewhere between 1 and 3 cups of water

Watching my host mom put all these ingredients in the bowl was an experience. She didn’t measure anything. She has made flour tortillas so many times that she didn’t need to measure anything, so we were just sort of eyeballing what it looked like she had added, and I asked her how much flour she thought she had put in the bowl. Once all the dry ingredients and the egg were in the bowl it was time to get down and dirty and start mixing it by making fists with one hand in the dough. Once the egg is mixed in a bit, you add a little bit of water (about a ¼ or ½ cup) and continue mixing by making fists and squeezing the dough through your fingers. Once that water is mixed you just keep adding more little by little until it is the right consistency. I would equate it to when I made cinnamon rolls once - the dough seemed a lot like that. I guess the one time I made cinnamon rolls it was out of pre-made white bread dough, so I guess this dough for flour tortillas is done when it is the consistency of bread dough (the dough should not really stick to your fingers anymore).

Once you have the dough mixed and at the correct consistency, you plop it on the counter and roll it into a log and then use your palms to pull the log apart from each side to make it flat. You keep repeating this for about 5-10 minutes to get it good and mixed up. My host mom said you do this for so long so that when you are actually cooking the tortillas they won’t shrink up (like when you cook a hamburger. You put the patty in the pan but it always shrinks up a bit!) So, after this form of kneading the dough, you roll it into a log and cut it into four pieces. Each of those four pieces you then cut into two pieces and form them into balls of equal sizes. Each one of those balls is then formed into a small log and cut into three pieces of equal size. One at a time, you take each of these balls in one had and make a little cage around it with your hand and roll it around in a circle on counter. Jenna told me she always did this when she made rolls, but I had never done it before. After you have a very smooth looking almost dome like formation under your hand, you pat it to make it flat and put it back into the original mixing bowl. After all the dough balls are in the bowl (not stacked on top of each other, you want them to sort of sit all around the wall of the bowl), you let them sit there with a cloth over them for 15 minutes to raise a little bit. While the dough is raising, start heating up your tortilla pan because you want that puppy to be piping hot!

Once you wait the 15 minutes, you are ready to shape and cook them. To shape them, you put some manteca (butter stuff) on the counter and plop the dough in that spot. You flatten it out fairly thin and in a circle formation. Then you peal it off the counter and toss it onto the hot pan, which has also been greased. Because the pan is already extremely hot, it only takes a minute or so to cook each side. You can see the color changing while it is cooking, so you can learn pretty quick when one side is done. Now is the tricky part. Hondurans don’t seem to know what an amazing invention the spatula (pancake flipper) is. So, when it comes time to flip tortillas, they just use there fingers, and remember how hot I said that pan is - piping hot! Luckily my fingers have been burned and worn in pretty well throughout my life, so I didn’t have too much trouble, but some of the other girls struggled a bit - and rightly so; it was damn hot. My host mom got a good chuckle out of our reactions to the heat and our mini cries of pain when we had to flip the tortilla and then grab it and add it to the stack when it was done. But, we succeeded in making all 25 of them with no sever burns to commemorate the experience, which for me is shocking. I tend to always burn myself - I guess that is usually when baking, and this is not technically baking.


When we finished, we got to make baleadas, which has quickly become my favorite Honduran food. It is the most simple meal you can have in Honduras, but they are killer. It is simply a flour tortilla with refried beans and a tiny bit of cheese inside. When you buy them, they often have mantequilla in them too, which is like mayonnaise and disgusting in my book, so I always order them without, and when making them at home, I certainly do not include mantequilla. You can make all sorts of variations of this original masterpiece. You can add scrambled egg, avocado, chicken, beef, chismol (salsa) - you can basically add anything that sounds good to you. I usually go with beans, a tiny bit of cheese, chisol and avacado - it will rock your world. I know it sounds basic, but when you try one, you will understand!



To make this whole day and evening even better, after we all finished our bleadas, I did dishes, the girls went home, and I remembered I bought peanut butter and jelly in Comayagua today. I pulled them out and put some on a hot - fresh- homemade flour tortilla, and seriously was in heaven! It is the simple things in life that you just have to love!

Tonight, in about a half hour, we are all meeting back up with a few other people to watch a movie. I must say that this Saturday is quickly becoming my favorite so far in Honduras. Shopping, cooking, peanut butter, and a chick flick - how could it be any better?