>>Jon>> Hey, everybody.

Welcome to Tortilla Traditions on Basin PBS.

Brought to you by the Odessa Arts Council.

I'm Chef Jon Hinojosa And today we're making traditional flour and corn tortillas.

I'm thrilled to be cooking here at Odessa College's Wrangler Kitchen with all of my new friends.

Are we ready to get started?

All right, let's go.

[music] The first thing that we're going to do to start off with is we're going to make our flour tortilla masa.

Both our corn and our flour need to rest.

So the whole idea again is that we're going to make them.

And then we're going to move on to our al pastor and then I'm gonna show you how to cut down a brisket in and put it in the oven.

And then we're going to come back and we're going to roll our tortillas, and we're going to press our corn tortillas.

So at this point, what I need is you need a big bowl in front of you.

You're going to need for this recipe.

You're going to need your salt, your baking powder.

Your flour, your shortening.

And then we've got some water ready to go.

The hot water in the sinks.

All we're going to use is really, really hot tap water to make your your flour tortillas.

It's not as hot.

So I boil some water.

And so you got some cups to be able to use them.

Okay.

So everybody got those items in front of them.

All right.

Okay.

So what you want to do is you want to take a two cups, two level cups of white all purpose flour and put them in your big bowl.

We're going to take a half a teaspoon, teaspoon of kosher salt and use your spoon sort of.

Again this is a small teaspoon.

So use the full spoon.

And then you're going to use three tablespoons of the baking powder okay.

When you got that what you want to do is just mix it in your bowl.

Get it all incorporated.

And when you've done that.

So what I have here is the mixture of the salt, the baking powder and the flour.

And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to incorporate that's like two.

Three three tablespoons of shortening.

And here's where you got to show the masa who's boss okay.

You got to this is your masa.

It's not you.

It's not ruling you.

You're ruling it.

So what you want to do is don't be frightened or scared to take it in and just start massaging it.

That's why you guys washed your hands.

And what you want is you want a crumbly dough.

If you've ever made uh, shortbread biscuit scones, this is the process you want to use.

And the idea behind that is you don't want to see those big clumps.

You want it to be sort of, again, a shaggy dough.

So all I'm doing.

Is going in and getting that dough shaggy.

Crumbly.

I'm going to actually use both my hands just for the time issue.

And then, my friend, if you could do me a favor, there's some hot water in those.

In those pots.

If you could bring a cup of that, about half of that cup.

So you're going to use three quarters of a cup of hot water.

So remember three tablespoons of shortening or lard or butter or oil or whatever you want to use.

You want to go in there and don't be afraid to crumble it.

Thank you sir.

So what you want again is this shaggy dough.

And and see all of this that's going to change with the way that I'm going to move that into.

Sorry.

So again we want the hot water.

We're going to create a well.

And I'm going to start again three quarters of a cup of water.

So the piece of it is, is uh that's about half a cup.

And then what I'm going to do is start moving it in.

If you feel the warmth of the dough, that's exactly what you want to get.

And then what you're doing again is you're just moving it with your hands, creating an even more crumbly dough.

Obviously need some more water.

So I'm going to go in, put some more water.

I do this all the time, so I don't necessarily measure, but you have the recipe and you guys can follow this recipe.

And if you follow the recipe, it'll come out the same every single time.

So it's coming together, right?

But you can still see sort of some on the bottom.

So it's a little bit more hot water.

And it's really the hot water that sort of creates the activation, especially when we put it on the camel or the heater.

Now what you'll see is it's coming together, but more importantly, what we want is it we want it to come off the surface of the bowl.

That's sort of one of the clues.

And you want it to come off your hands.

So the idea behind finishing your dough is that it's coming off the surface of the bowl.

I'm going to take it.

I'm not even going to I'm not even going to put any flour.

But what I'm doing now is just, sort of just mixing it to get it to the sort of perfect consistency.

I did this faster than normal, but again, most of it's off my hands.

Most of it is off the bowl.

I take it, and I'm going to cover it.

And then we're going to let it rest for about 20 minutes.

[Music] Okay.

Put it in your bowl and let's cover it.

There's some there's some, uh towels right here because we're going on to the corn.

Dump your water out if you still have water, because we're going to use some new hot water, okay?

We want it to be as hot as possible.

Sinks right behind you.

So the whole point is, again.

Two cups.

Gracias, um Of cornmeal.

I'm going to not measure.

But you guys are.

Why?

Because I'm going to do it.

That's one.

That's two.

We're going to do one teaspoon, not half a teaspoon of salt.

And really besides the water that's it.

But what I noticed what I'm going to do is I'm going to add one teaspoon of baking powder because I want them to puff when we're put them on the camal And the last ones didn't.

And it's probably the heat of the comal But so again all we're doing again this one's easy, right.

It's just two cups of flour, one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of baking powder.

Do the same exact thing.

So what we're going to do is this one's one and a quarter cup.

So it's more water than not.

But again what I want you to do is measure it.

And we're going to do the same thing.

If it gets too wet put some cornmeal.

It if it gets too dry put some water in it.

So all I'm doing is sort of pulling that in and then starting to mix it.

This one should come together way easier than the other one.

Again, crumbly.

You don't have to worry about the shortening because there's no shortening in it.

Put some more water.

And this one, actually you want to be a little wetter than your your flour one because.

And I'll show you how to make it so that it's wetter.

So what again is I'm comfortable and just sort of hitting it.

Remember the whole get it off of your hands versus not.

I can already tell you it's a little too wet.

So I'm going to grab some.

Mix the mall corn.

There you go.

And so I think it's the right consistency.

And this is how you can tell just really quickly your little test of being able to tell.

Let me get this moved.

Still need some still sticking.

Give it a little bit more.

Follow the recipe that I give you.

Don't do what I do.

So again this is the dough that you want to see again a little stickier, a little wetter, and that the way that you can.

And we're going to do the same thing.

We're going to let this one rest.

My hands should be clean, but they're not.

We're going to put it in there.

And then the way that you're going to test to see if it's wet enough or it needs more water does you're going to take a little piece out, going to make a little round dough ball.

You want to just press it down.

And if you see cracks on the edges then you need more water.

Right.

This one is fine.

And by the time it sits there and is ready, it's going to be perfect for the comal.

So go and do your magic.

If you're missing anything, let me know.

I'm going to come over and I'm going to tell you actually story of the distinction and the differences between uh, corn and flour tortillas and why we eat corn tortillas in Mexico and why we eat flour tortillas in the United States.

[Music] So I'm going to tell you a little bit of the history of corn as you're working.

The most important piece about this is corn is the mother grain of Mexico.

The whole idea, again, is it's where was born, it's where it was created.

That's why there's so many amazing corn dishes in Mexico.

The the creation story about it is that Quetzalcoatl, who is one of the most important Aztec or Mayan gods, um, went up to the mountains and took corn and made human beings.

And so the idea behind that, it's sort of the creation story.

And why, corn is so important.

The mother, it's the mother grain.

The mother grain.

Masa is the, is sort of a, you know, the definition, I guess, of, dough in Spanish.

And so what we're making is two different kinds of mesas.

We're making a flour masa and a corn masa.

Do we talk about the most important tool in your kitchen?

You know, so think about this if you like to cook or if your spouse or your significant other likes to cook, what would be?

If I was going to ask you, what is the most important kitchen tool you have in your kitchen, what would you be your answer?

[inaudible] Okay, what's the one you always go to?

What do you guys say.

- Id go to my nose - Your nose is a good one.

That's a really good one.

[laughter] - Knife - Okay, your knife knives are important to you guys?

- Hands - Your hands, that's it.

Hands are the most.

What have we been doing?

We've been using our hands.

Smell is also important.

So first hands, then smell, then everything else.

Alright, let's uh, let's clean up and make uh, some tacos Al.

Pastor.

So the first thing I'm going to do is just show you really quickly how to cut a pineapple.

We're going to use pineapple in this dish.

It's going to be sweet potatoes.

Uh uh um and then we're going to use achiote paste, so I'm going to talk a little bit about that.

And we use a pineapple.

Anybody know how to tell a pineapple is ripe in the store before you buy it?

- Pull the leaf - Yeah that's good you guys.

You're watching cooking shows or anything else.

That's exactly right.

One is you want to look the color and it's going to be more yellow than green if it's all green, but you're exactly right.

You pull from the top and if it comes right off, then that means it's ready to eat.

If you pull and it gives a little bit of a struggle, then that means you need to buy it.

But wait a couple of days, right?

So same thing with avocados, right?

But when you go to the MMMexico markets and you ask for aguacates or avocados, they're going to ask you a question and they're going to say por hoy or para mañana?

Who knows what that means?

For today or for tomorrow.

Right.

So as we go and we touch our avocados, what we want to feel is a nice sort of give or even a bigger give.

And then the other pieces that you still want a clear top as well.

But what they're going to give you in Mexico at the market is they're going to give you do you want to use them today?

Then you're going to get fresh, ripe avocados if you want a little couple of days.

The other hand with these guys is obviously if uh because of the heat and everything else, after the first day, I put them in the fridge and they're going to last a little bit longer.

The other thing that I use is them.

My wife and kids love sort of avocado toast and avocados, but I only use half of one.

So take the one half that still has the seed in it, give it a little bit of a, canola spray and then wrap it in plastic and you won't have that dark spot on it too.

And then the other thing is when you make, guacamole or anything else, it takes a little bit of, lime juice.

Lime juice is perfect on everything.

So it's one of those things that we've got as part of our recipe.

So those are some of the hints for avocado.

I'm going to cut the top of this guy off.

Doesn't look as ripe as it could be, but that's okay.

We're going to cook it down and then don't buy one of those pineapple things.

And if you have one, throw it away, please.

Uh, I'm going to cut it right down the middle.

And then I'm going to cut it again.

And then I'm going to cut it right down the middle.

And then my big thing is I love the core.

I like that firmness.

But a lot of people don't like it.

So what you want to just do is strip the core from that.

And what I'm going to do is you guys are making your potatoes.

I'm going to come over and give you all the chopped off, uh thing.

I'm okay with some of those little pits and stuff like that.

Everybody needs more fiber in their life.

So I'm not too big a deal on that.

I'm going to chop this up in a really sort of nice sort of quarter inch dice, just so that you guys know what to do with your potatoes.

And I'm going to show you how to cut your potatoes, too.

So you've got your pineapple.

You want to sort of do that.

Notice my fingers.

My fingers are in right now.

So you don't cut yourself.

It's one of those things that no matter what you're cutting, you're using, you want to always a sharp knife, fingers in you, never going to cut yourself.

And again, that's the kind of dice we want to have with the with sweet potatoes.

What's interesting about the sweet potatoes is that they're full of starch.

They have a lot of starch.

And your your knife is not going to cut as smoothly as you think.

Do you guys eat sweet?

But I love sweet potatoes.

I like baked sweet potatoes instead of, a a baked potatoes any time.

But so what you want is you're going to peel your potatoes.

They're all ready to go.

We've got some here.

And then in order to slice it easier for you, what you're going to do is you're going to find a flat end and you're going to take one corner off of it.

See, it was a little it didn't give as much.

Then you're going to make it flat.

So as your as you're chopping it and dicing it, you want to keep it flat.

So a little bit of take a little bit of take.

And at that point do it again a little bit.

And then that way it's not moving around giving you a hard time.

And then you can do a stack.

But ultimately what you want is the same size dice that you have with your pineapples.

You guys got it.

You get to work.

[Music] As we're waiting on the chopping, let me tell you a little important story about tacos al pastor.

Who's ever had tacos Al pastor?

You guys have all better raise your hand.

Um, so tacos al pastor, and again, we're making a vegetarian or veg vegetable version of it.

But what's really cool about tacos al pastor is they originated in Mexico City, so they come from Mexico City.

But the cool thing about them, it's really a hybrid of cultures that made them all happen.

So the way that it works is that we're going to use some achiote paste that I'll talk a little bit about it in a little bit.

You should have some and if not, I got some more for you.

So achiote paste come from a tree that grows in the Yucatan.

The Yucatan is really close when, um it has a lot of indigenous folks.

Right.

And so uh, the cool thing is, is that they figured out early, early on to take the, the, the flower stems and pods from the flower that grew on this achiote tree, and grind it up to use in their flavorings and their cooking.

So if you ever had cochinita pibil or anything else, that's what this is.

What's also really cool about it is it's, it's a natural dye.

And so it because of its traditional red color, if you wear lipstick, it's probably in it as well.

So it's a really cool medicinal.

It's taste very earthy and sort of sweet and tangy.

So it's got this great profile place.

So that came from the indigenous in the Yucatan pork.

There was no pork in the New World.

The Spanish colonists brought it and brought uh uh pigs to, to the new world, and so pork became a really important staple food as an animal protein.

There's a whole lot of other ones as well.

But pork came from the Spanish and the Middle Eastern folks, because of religious strife and political strife, moved into the new world as well.

And they brought the spit, the turning, revolving spit.

So really, tacos al pastor are just layers of thin pork marinated in this achiote paste, moving around in a spit.

And if you've ever gone to Mexico City, you're going to love it just because you see them all over.

And the whole really great thing is, is that if you have a great tacos al pastor guy, you see him cutting down the meat, chopping it up, putting on a tortilla.

They use small little, uh corn tortillas, usually two of them you get the drippings from the from the pork meat.

And then on the very top of the, the of the all of the spit is a pineapple.

And then they shoop shoop and then boom, the pineapple lands perfectly on that.

So, so that's what's really cool is it's really a blending of three cultures.

When you look at tacos al pastor, we're doing the vegetarian version.

Can I add mushrooms?

Absolutely.

Can I add uh corn?

Absolutely.

Can I add other vegetables?

Absolutely.

Could I add pork or beef?

Hell yeah.

So it's really again, we just because I'm going to show you guys how to make a Mexican style brisket.

We just thought it'd be a cool vegetarian portion.

Okay.

You ready?

What we're going to do is you're going to go to your, stove tops.

I've really got those two on, and you're going to place your pans of uh, of, water and sweet potatoes on there.

[Music] Okay, so at this point, all you need is a bowl, and we're going to make the achiote paste.

So put your achiote paste in a bowl.

The bowl that you have this.

That's it.

You're going to crumble it with your hands.

Your hands are going to get a little red.

It's a paste remember.

It's got some other delicious ingredients as well.

Then what you're going to do is you're going to take some of your olive oil.

And just I would just say two tablespoons.

One, two okay.

And I got more olive oil and then and then you got your apple wine.

Apple cider vinegar.

You're going to take one one.

Then you're going to take some salt and pepper.

And again just a smidge and a smidge.

Let me see.

Yeah.

About one.

Yeah.

There you go then.

I'm going to use my hands.

But you can use your, your rubber spatula.

You're just going to create a paste with it.

You're going to just create a space paste with it.

So you can use a spoon.

You can use your spatula.

All I'm doing is mixing it and incorporating it.

You see.

Just like that.

It's okay if it's a little oily.

No big deal.

There you go.

Okay.

Yeah, a little bit more.

Get all of it, chunky.

You get all that chunkiness and get it all incorporated.

Get that all incorporated.

Right.

You want to look to have it look like this.

Okay.

So at this point, what we're going to do is we're going to go and we're going to turn off our stove tops.

And we're going to take our pans.

You got you got one great.

You got one right.

And then you're going to take your, your strainer.

And if you're sharing you're going to have to do this together.

We're going to take turn off your stove.

These are not too bad but use a use a cloth.

You're going to take this to the sink and you're going to strain the sweet potatoes.

You're not going to put them back in the pan.

You're going to take your sweet potato, strain them, take your strain peach sweet potatoes.

And then just place it in the empty pan and put it over here on the side.

Got it.

Okay.

Do not do not put them back in the pan.

Alright.

I put a saute pan in each of your stations that work.

At this point, what you're going to do is you're going to bring your sweet potatoes in the bowl, you're going to bring your pineapples, and you're going to bring your all together.

It works.

Just so put the distributor of sweet potatoes, pineapple, your tea.

No worries.

That's good.

We're going to use a strainer here and some olive oil.

The clear one not the vinegar.

So what you want at your end in the stove area is you want your parboiled sweet potatoes.

You want your pineapple, you want your achiote there and you want a little bit of olive oil.

We'll share the olive oil with you.

No worries.

So there you go.

Turn those on.

What you want is you want to start he preheating your pan, right?

So get it up to medium high heat.

Leave it alone.

Just leave it alone.

This is one of those where you don't touch it until it tells you to touch it.

And you're going to know by listening and hearing and smelling.

It's one of those things also is that what we want is we want a nice char on this, and it's similar to just leave it alone until you're ready to do it.

And it's sort of like, again, having a great ribeye or a New York steak.

Right?

I love it, medium rare.

It's the way I think you should eat it.

Some people want it medium, some people want it well done or well.

And the idea behind that is when you put a steak on a grill or anything else, you leave it alone until it tells you that it's loose and it's ready to turn right.

So these are ready.

So we're all we're going to do is we're going to put about I'd say a tablespoon of oil.

Not too much.

Do you hear that sizzle.

That's what we want.

It's ready at this point then.

And I'm going to let you guys do yours.

So put your pineapple in the pan and what do we want to hear?

[Sizzle] We want to hear.

That's okay.

Sorry.

That's okay.

So everybody that's the first step.

And then leave it alone.

Give it a little bit of that.

Sorry sorry I want to sort of take it.

Now put your sweet potato.

And then again give it a little bit of a shake.

And I'm going to leave it alone.

Go ahead.

You guys got that.

And then just leave it.

Don't touch it.

No, not waiting for this.

So remember heat up your your skillet and leave it alone.

Then put a little oil.

Then throw your pineapple and your sweet potatoes in and leave it.

[Music] Yeah.

So what?

We want to do it just now.

Watch it.

It still needs more.

You see, you got color.

You don't.

So again you want that because that's where we're going to at the very end we're going to put the achiote paste.

Okay give it another I say minut and then you can then you can place this game right.

Or you can use your spatula.

[Music] Perfect I love that I love that brownness.

You guys, these guys are ready.

You guys, you're almost there.

But you want that little bit of char right?

And then what you want to be able to do is you want to be able to then add all together this guys.

Right.

And you want that sizzle as well.

[sizzle] And then give it a stir.

Give it about 30s.

Stir it again and then just turn off your heat.

So put your at your achiote paste when you're ready give it a stir.

Wipe and put it all in.

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Thank you.

- You guys ready to roll [Music] and press some tortillas?

Say yes, chef.

Well to back because we're going to show you how to make brisket.

So come this way.

Yeah.

You knew that was going to happen right.

Old school traditional Mexican style brisket.

We picked what again is it's just sort of low and slow.

The way that I do it is that I put it in the oven, put it in the oven.

I take a brisket, I cut it down, clean it up.

I add only salt, pepper and another magic ingredient that I'll tell you.

I put it in a 225 oven, and I cook it for 8 to 10 hours, depending on the size.

And you and then so I put it in at midnight, I get up at eight and I turn it off and I leave it alone and it comes out beautiful and tender.

And we've got, we've got some for you.

But a, yesterday we went out and picked some brisket.

And I just want to show you simple, simple method.

You guys probably how who has ever smoked a brisket before.

Yes.

Great.

So the idea behind that is the game that I have is that I used to have a as I was telling you guys, I used to have a pellet smoker.

I spent a lot of money for it.

He had never worked.

I would leave the cover off and it would rain, and then I would have to clean out the well and the auger.

And after the third time, I just gave it up.

So I bought an old school traditional side smoker that I use all the time.

But the problem also is just that consistency and temperature, right?

You want to keep it at 225, 250, so you got to be watching it and feeding it all the time.

So what I would recommend that is one is if you still want that beautiful sort of smokiness, uh what I would do is I would do it half of the time in the smoker, then take it, wrap it in butcher paper or aluminum foil and put it in the oven and cook it off.

And it's going to be the exact same thing.

And you're not going to have to be worry not checking it.

So again, just a piece of brisket just to show you again super simple method.

All I'm going to do is what was great about the brisket that we got at H-e-b yesterday is that it really didn't have a lot of fat.

I like, I think fat, especially if you're smoking it is important.

I'm a fan of not necessarily the lean side but the fat side.

So the whole idea is that all you do is sort of again, this is sort of that silver skin.

You want to really make sure you remove that, try not to get as much of the beef as possible.

So what's great about having a good knife.

See.

So the idea behind that is it comes cleanly off and it's easy to go.

And then I'm going to turn it around.

It's got a little bit of silver skin but not too much.

And the other thing that's nice about it too is because we're going to be cooking it nice and slow.

It's not going to be an issue.

But again, sort of lightly get the skin off that.

I just score it.

Score it.

I'm a fan and it really doesn't matter.

We have this competition in my neighborhood between the man about who has the best brisket, smoked brisket and and my my neighbor Joe.

I always he always goes, no this the way to do it.

And so he's got this.

He believes in doing the the butcher paper and then leave it alone.

My brother says it's all about the aluminum foil.

Uh, my my neighbor Mike says it's neither.

I use both butcher paper and foil because why not?

Right.

So the whole idea is that there's just this whole competition.

And really, as long as it is delicious and tender, it doesn't really matter.

So again, old school San Antonio, Texas ways, it's just salt and pepper.

That's way great.

Sort of smokehouses use it.

So what you want to do is you want to get a good you don't want to salted beforehand because salt also releases some of the juices on the inside.

You want to do it right before you put it in the oven.

I do pepper, and then what I usually do is I shake it off and then I get the edges right.

And then my secret ingredient that I used a lot in a lot of different things is smoked paprika.

Not hot paprika, not Hungarian paprika.

Just a smoked paprika gives that smokiness, especially if you just putting it in the oven versus anything else.

It's a great sort of.

It's one of my secret ingredient that I put a lot of things in.

It's sort of got that, what is that?

What is that?

And then you're never going to know.

But now you guys know.

So don't tell anybody.

But so yeah, secret is sort of sweet.

Have a regular paprika a little bit of smokiness.

Not too spicy.

I'm going to share with you guys in just a little bit.

Um, some salsas that I made when we eat so that that goes in, I seal it with aluminum foil 225, 8 to 10 hours, depending on the size.

And then you take it out and it's delicious.

[Music] Through the magic of television, through the magic of Basin PBS.

This is what you get.

And so I'm going to while you guys are going to be doing your tortillas, I'm going to show you the way, and then I'm going to chop this up and we're going to have some and we're going to have your al pastor.

I have some tostadas which are tostadas and some salsas.

I have some chopped onion, uh, uh radishes and uh cilantro to, to add to it.

You know, it's one of those things you can because we made flour and corn.

There is no better or, and, the pieces is that they're good either way, but I would definitely use the flour for the brisket and the corn for the pastor, but switch it around the, the thing that I wanted to just mention, as far as tortillas is sort of the history of why, why do you guys think that in Texas, in northern and the southwest, we eat flour tortillas, but when you go to Mexico, you don't get flour tortillas.

You only get corn?

[inaudible] Uh?

- Bigger wheat farmers - Bigger wheat farmers in the United States.

That's in this area?

Yeah.

Any other ideas why?

Why the difference when we're so close?

And what I would just say is also northern Mexico.

Coahuila, Chihuahua.

It's flour tortillas as well.

This is the this is what I think is the real story.

And I think that it makes a whole lot of sense.

One is corn is the mother grain of Mexico.

Corn was their it made sense that they, the Aztecs and the Mayans they used that they understand stood the next amortization process of being able to add, uh lime or hydrogen peroxide to make the vitamins come out and make it easier to digest.

So it makes sense that in the central and southern part of Mexico, uh people like corn, you know, you have to ask for corn at a restaurant here or anywhere else, even in, uh El Paso.

When I was born in El Paso.

The tortillas are this big for some reason.

And then I moved to San Antonio, and then I was like, who shrunk the damn tortillas they gave me?

I'm real small.

But San Antonio is also known for its breakfast tacos, which are, again, flour tortillas.

Uh are the tortillas normal sized?

Here are the big okay.

All right.

Regular size.

So, you know, you're making your own tortillas.

You want to make a big tortilla, make a big tortilla.

But the whole point because you're going to get to eat it.

But the other piece, this is what I really do think is the reason behind that one is there wasn't wheat before in the indigenous populations of Mexico.

So everybody ate corn because it was the mother grain.

Right?

The Spanish, Spanish, colonial folks, when they came, they brought besides pork, they brought wheat, and they brought some other things that, uh they incorporated into people's diets.

And again, I call it Mex Tex because we were here first versus Tex Mex.

But the reason also is that when the Spanish came and the indigenous were eating corn, they were going, that's for the poor, that's for poverty.

We have wheat, we're going to eat wheat.

So the other point that happened is that you're right about the the availability of, of crops growing.

Uh, wheat grows better in this area and in, in the northern part of Mexico.

Then then uh then corn does.

So there's for another reason, because it's local and it's in the region.

The real reason that I think that happened is that similar to the Middle Easterns and other folks that escaped poverty and issues of religious persecution during uh, the Inquisition and other times, Portugal and Spanish.

There was a lot of Jewish people that lived there.

And if they promised to give up their religion and become Catholic, they could then move to the new world and in particular areas that were not populated.

So for the most part, they didn't stay in the central part of Mexico.

They moved to the northern parts of Mexico, Chihuahua, Coahuila.

All of that, and what ended up happening is they played the game of being Catholic, but they created and kept their Jewish religion in their homes.

They're known as crypto Jews, not crypto cash, but crypto Jews, meaning that outside in the in the world, they pretended to be Catholic inside there some Sabbath was Friday, not Sunday, and therefore they still practiced their own religious inside.

If you actually go to uh, Monterrey, you can actually go into an institute that shows all of that.

There's a large, large population of Jewish people in, in, in, uh Monterrey.

And so one of the things for the Sabbath is you do not eat leavened bread.

So the idea behind that is flour tortillas do not have yeast or anything else.

So they took up the idea of using the wheat and everything else to make their Passover bread.

And because of their the popularity and everything else, it sort of spread all throughout northern Mexico and the southern United States.

So that's again, one of the reasons that I think that we end up eating flour tortillas.

They're both delicious, as we're going to see.

But the reality is that that's why I think one of the reasons why we eat flour tortillas on this side and corn tortillas on the South.

Okay.

Now, are you ready to make some tortillas?

Let's go.

We're going to I'm going to show you the traditional way that we're going to make tortillas.

But more importantly, there's a griddle here.

So we're going to use those, um, if you wouldn't mind.

Ooh look at your flour.

We're going to use flour first.

Does it have little white bumps on it.

Salt.

Yeah.

It's both the salt and the shortening.

So that's a good sign if it has that that means that we've done it right.

Everybody got it okay.

So I'm going to show you how to roll.

Uh, let me borrow your roller on And then it's going to be up to you guys.

And what I would just say is let's all roll one each.

If you have time for roll two, what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you how to cook one of them on the comal.

Just so you know.

But more importantly, we're going to walk around and go to the griddle and I'll be there ready to go.

I want you guys to put them on the griddle.

I want you to turn them with your fingers.

And we're going to we're going to make that together.

So all we no need at this point is a little bit of bench flour.

Not a lot.

And don't don't do it yet.

You're going to just watch me now then I'm going to come and critique you all.

I'm going to borrow some of your flour, sir.

And there's going to be enough, masa, to take home, which is exciting.

So you want to grab a good chunk and you want to roll it and sort of pat it, and then I'm going to turn it twice.

And here's the deal.

And here's why.

If you make it for to like Texas, we're still going to eat it.

It's going to be delicious.

The piece of it is, is that we want it circular.

And we also want it a little bit thin.

We're not making non or pizza which are delicious.

We're making tortillas, flour tortillas.

So what you do is you start at the end and you only push forward.

Don't push forward and backward.

This is a way to make pie, pastry and everything else too.

If you've made the dough.

So you get to the end and then you pull forward to make an oblong right.

And then you flip it around and you pull forward.

You pull forward never back quarter a quarter, five, 45 degrees pull forward.

Pull forward.

That's about how we want it.

Pull forward.

Pull forward.

And you can see a little translucency in it.

And that's what you want.

What I do when I make tortillas at home and my sort of again uh tale is that I usually I'm doing a lot of things at one time, but I make tortillas all the time.

So what I do is I, I start stacking them, and then when I go to the griddle, I have to put the first one I rolled on, and then the last one is the last one.

I roll too, right?

You guys are just making 1 or 2.

So we're not going to follow that rule.

The other piece that I always do also is I roll them out and and have them ready, and then I just cover them because I'm off making dinner or something like that.

So everybody got it.

Okay, let's make some circular rounds.

Tortilla.

[Music] I need one of you that made more than one to come over, and everybody gather round because I'm using a traditional comal.

It because I think everybody will agree that the heat on the stoves is fluctuating.

We're going to use the regular griddle to make them.

So I would recommend that at home.

Also get a Teflon griddle.

But again, old school the way that we make them again is that this is a traditional pottery comal that the indigenous Aztecs in Mayan can use.

I put it on the burner.

I got it sort of hot.

Then again, that lime.

What I'm doing is I took a little bit of lime and water carve, and what I'm doing is I'm making it sort of Teflon by taking the the lime and the water.

It's going to turn the comal white.

And we did this, we used this for the first one.

And again because of the inconsistency in the fire it's sort of different.

Didn't work.

So ultimately I just thought that this would be cool visually to see.

And then what the other piece again is that when we're ready, we're going to grab ours and were going to take them over there.

So what I'm going to all I'm going to do is I'm going to take see, I'm going to actually before you put it on, you can stretch it a little bit.

I'll place it on there.

And I'm going to get it hot.

But part of it is again just the inconsistency in the heat.

See, at this point, like in the other comal, we're going to do the other griddle.

It's going to start bubbling at this point.

It should be doing that.

But it's not the little bit you see.

Yeah.

So just again we're going to give it a little bit of patience over there.

They're going to go like that.

[snap, snap, snap] So and then we're going to come in.

We're going to do the corn ones which are super simple because we're going to use the press, going to take them, make them.

Then we're going to eat.

Okay.

Nice.

See, what you want to see is you want to see bubbles on it.

I'm going to give it a little bit more time.

It's a for for me for both flour tortillas and corn tortillas.

It's a three turn.

This is going to take a little bit longer just because.

But you again you see the bubbles.

What we want to see is we want to see those bubbles happen.

And then when you flip them what you want to see is those air bubbles sort of create sort of little brown, crispy areas.

And then you flip it one more time and then they're ready to go.

Okay, enough playing with that okay.

What I need you guys to do is grab your tortillas in your hand to raise them up like the Statue of Liberty.

And we're going to go and going to cook them.

Are you guys ready.

Got to raise them up I want to see them all up.

Follow me.

So all I'm going to do is just sort of lay it down and see it go, let's do oh, amigo.

No, this is good, I like this.

[Laughter] He's doing all the tortillas.

Sorry.

No.

That's okay.

Okay.

I'm going to get you guys to turn them too.

And we've got some extras.

See what's happening.

Okay, let's hold off a second.

So that's what we want to see.

We want to see those bubbles happening.

And that's again the combination of the fat, the shortening and the uh, baking powder plus the salt.

And again, remember when you saw that when you ever you make them, you want to see those little white dashes?

Okay.

Let's see if we can get some brownness.

There we go.

There you go.

Come and turn that one of my friend.

There you go.

Come and turn this one.

There you go.

See again.

What it's doing is it's sort of again puffing up again.

And that's exactly what we want to see.

Let's check this one.

Almost by the time we get you guys this is going to be perfect.

Do yours here, ma'am.

You can.

Right here.

Yeah.

You got it.

That's okay.

It'll be.

And what I will do is that.

See how I fix that?

And the same thing with your sir, we're going to we're going to move it.

And then where those holes are, we're just going to sort of patch it.

Is this all of them?

Okay.

We're good then.

What we're going to do is we're going to go and make the corn and then we're going to eat.

So we're going to do the same thing.

But this time we're not going to we're not going to roll them.

We're going to press them.

This is my old school, uh, uh tortilla maker that I got in Oaxaca 30 years ago.

Take some Ziploc bags and then just cut them down to have two edge, two edges.

And I'm going to I'm going to give this right back to you.

And then I'm going to get some plastic for them okay.

So what we want to do is the same sort of process we're going to, we're going to roll it into a ball.

And this one again is just pressing.

But we're going to we're going to press lightly.

The first time we're going to turn it around.

We're going to press it again.

So again just press down and then turn it around and you press again.

So you guys make so and then all you do is sort of peel it off and peel it off.

Now what I will tell you is that what's really cool about it, and I don't know if we talked about this already, but you can uh put, cilantro in.

You could put it for the other muertos, marigold petals.

You could put sort of and just make them beautiful and decorative.

You can use the blue masa to make them.

You could do a combo of half blue, half yellow.

So it's really one of those things where it's really up to you.

I make normal ones on a weekly basis, but when I have friends or people come over, I I get fancy.

Everybody got it?

Okay, let's make some.

And guess where I'm going to meet you?

Over at the griddle.

[Music] [Inaudible] - Its supposed to pop up.

- Yeah, it's supposed to pop up even more.

And that's what's frustrating me.

There we go.

[Woo Woo] See, I'm I'm I'm.

There you go.

See?

That's exact.

[Laughter] It should even be a little bit more.

But we got it.

And that's how you trick it.

You hit it like bad, bad tortilla.

[Laughter] [Music] So we're going to go over there.

First we're going to take a picture and then we're going to eat.

Ready.

Yay!!

Thank you to the Odessa Arts Council and all of you for spending your time with us today at Odessa College's Wrangler Kitchen.

I hope you learned a little bit about tortilla traditions right here on Basin PBS.

I'm Chef Jon Hinojosa.

Thanks for watching.

[Music]