Taco Night

So back when we lived in the states and I got home from work late....easy quick to put together, yummy, relatively healthy dinner = Taco Night.

Now that we are living in the land of lack of hispanic food....Taco Night is not so easy...... I stocked up on taco meat seasoning so I have that covered. Beans, rice, lettuce, tomato, and cheese those are easy to find (buying local I'll use canned kidney beans or I'll use the canned black beans I sent with our consumables). SO what's the tricky part? Tortillas/Taco Shells. Those have a very short shelf life....so I didn't ship any so I must make them myself. My friend Laura has a friend that makes homemade tortillas....she sent me the recipe....I am now an expert at making rectangular taco size tortillas!

Laura's friend got the recipe from 'How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman. I have tweaked it a tad. These are so yummy, I might have to check out the rest of that cookbook!

Wheat Flour Tortillas

Makes 16 taco-sized tortillas

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
57 grams of butter (or 4 tbsp)
~1 cup warm water (plus more as needed)


Combine flour and salt. Mix in butter with pastry cutter until butter is pea-sized or smaller.

Add water slowly until dough holds together.

Before Kneading

Knead on lightly floured surface, adding flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking, until dough is smooth and elastic (~4 min by hand).

After Kneading

Place in container with lid and let sit at room temperature for several hours.

Divide dough into 16 balls. I have found cutting the dough with a knife makes it easier to get the dough balls close to the same size.

On lightly floured surface, roll out as thin as possible into a disk.

Heat large skillet over medium heat. Cook one at a time, for ~4 min, flipping once (wait for brown spots to appear before flipping).

I pile them up on a plate as they cook. Once they are all ready I finish up getting the taco fillings lined up. Then each of us can make our own tacos (Clarissa does just cheese (rolled up to spill out less), Mason will do cheese, rice and lettuce (with a side of beans....much to his dismay), I make bean tacos, and Richard mades meat tacos).

I think I am onto something with rectangular tacos.....you don't have that wasted bite at the top and stuff seems to stay in better.

Any that are not eaten at dinner can be stored in a plastic bag (I will make the kids a taco to send in their lunch....I tend to make it more a burrito shaped to keep everything in being bounced around in lunch boxes). A lot of times between what we eat at dinner and packing lunches for the kids and Richard I don't even get leftover tortillas :(

Now on to hard taco shells......wonder if that will be worth the hassle.

**Note: The batch I took photos with I was making 1.5 batches.....so it is a little more dough.