My LFG no-corn tortillas taste a lot like the real deal only they're made with lectin free millet. With a few tips, it's easy to make your own tortillas. See how it's done.
Corn tortillas are staple of Mexican cuisine. Street tacos, enchiladas, and tostadas are just some of the dishes that are best served with a great corn tortilla. But when you're on a reduced lectin diet, a great compliant corn tortilla seems out of the question.
I've come up with my own perfect, and I mean perfectly perfect, LFG corn tortilla.
My LFG no-corn tortillas are soft, chewy and have a corn-like flavor because they're made with cooked millet.
Now, for a note about fat. I prefer pastured pork lard to get the best flavor and texture. But you shouldn't eat a lot of animal fat. If you eat tortillas moderately, I recommend you use pork fat. Just don't eat a lot of animal fat on a daily basis. If you use tortillas daily, use a compliant fat like red palm fruit shortening or olive oil.
Now, for ANOTHER note about fat. A few followers have come to me with concerns about palm oil. Let's straighten this out. Red palm oil, the oil in Nutiva Superfood shortening, is not the same palm oil found in Nutella and other foods, and getting all the bad press for being harmful to our health. That bad, refined palm oil is palm "kernel" oil. It's seed oil! Red palm oil is derived from the actual fruit. It is virgin, unrefined and red in color. Red because it contains special polyphenol antioxidants like beta carotene and several others. That's why it's a superfood! Nutiva Superfood Red Palm Shortening is made from coconut and red palm fruit oils, and it's an amazing fat to cook with. I still prefer pork fat for flavor in my tortillas, but the Nutiva shortening is a great compromise that yields great results.
Okay, now that we've got our fats straight, let's get on with making these. Once you make these tortillas, you can keep them in the fridge for up to two weeks in a plastic bag. Reheat them for a few seconds in the microwave and they're as fresh and pliable as the moment you made them.
As far as special equipment goes, I do recommend a cast iron tortilla press. It will make your life so much easier. I have one I love from Amazon. It‘s good looking and I display it when it’s not in use. Friends come over and see it and it becomes a conversation piece. When I tell them it’s a tortilla press, they say, “You must be some badass chef to make your own tortillas.” I'll take that!
Get the same cast iron tortilla press I use! Amazon pays me a small kick back if you buy it, but rest assured. I actually have this press and I love it! Nobody paid me to say that.
The alternative to a tortilla soup press is rolling the dough out or pressing the dough balls with a heavy pot, which will take a bit longer. And it's much harder to get uniformly shaped tortillas that look pretty in a stack. The press makes perfectly round tortillas with smooth edges every time.
Let's make no-corn tortillas!
The Recipe
LFG No-Corn Tortillas
1/3 Cup Cassava Flour
1/3 Cup Organic Millet Flour
1/4 t Salt
1/3 Cup Organic Cooked Whole Millet
1/4 C Nutiva Superfood Red Palm Shortening (or pastured pork lard)
2 - 3 Tbsp. Ice Water
Instructions:
Step 1: Make the Dough
Heat an electric griddle or stove top griddle on highest setting. In food processor with dough blade, add cassava and millet flours, and salt. Pulse to incorporate the salt. Add cooked millet and fat. Pulse a few times until you have large crumbs. Now add the ice water slowly until the dough comes together. I measure 1/4 cup of ice water and pour in 1 tablespoon at a time, as much of it as needed, for the dough to form a ball. It's usually between 2 and 3 tablespoons. Dough will feel wet like new play dough fresh out it the container. Lift the dough out and form a ball about the size of a baseball.
Step 2: Press the Tortillas
Place the dough ball onto a cutting surface. Cut the ball like a pie. First, cut it in half, then each half into three pieces, so you have 6 equal triangle pieces total. Take a dough piece and roll into a ball. Place a dough ball in the center of the press that you've covered with a piece of parchment paper. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the ball. Press the dough, but let the press do the work. No need to put your weight into it.
Step 3: Cook the Tortillas
Slowly remove the top sheet of plastic and lift the parchment with the tortilla on it off the press. Quickly turn it onto your hot griddle. Count to ten and peel the piece of parchment off the tortilla. Cook tortilla about 30 seconds on each side. Repeat the process until all your tortillas are made. Stack them on a plate covered with another plate or in a tortilla warmer as you cook them. Or you could use a tortilla shaper like the one in the picture to make perfectly shaped taco shells.
Cut them in sixths and fry in rice bran oil to make tortilla chips, or nachos. Reheat them in the microwave for fresh hot tortillas on demand.
ENJOY!