April 27, 2012
Tortillas, Better Than Bread
We’ve all heard of Montezuma’s revenge—the unwanted party favor some of us bring back from Mexico. But did you know that Montezuma, bless his heart, also left us with a gift that some of us enjoy everyday, sometimes several times a day? That’s right, our little Aztec friend is responsible for giving us the tortilla. As a peace offering, Montezuma offered food to the Spanish conquistadors. The peace didn’t take, but the food did.
Nearly five hundred years later, the flour tortilla is, for many, becoming the new bread. The discovery of this delicious treat was, for me, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. See, we didn’t eat Mexican food when I was a kid. I’m finding out this is true for a lot of people. Being Irish and German, I don’t think my mother even knew what a tortilla was. And my father was Austrian, so we at thick brown meats, with thick brown gravy, boiled potatoes and heavy loaves of white bread, like medicine balls, or doorstops.
A friend introduced me to “soft-shell” tacos when I was in high school, and the rest, as they say, is history. Now, I not only use tortillas to make tacos and burritos, enchiladas and such, but I’ll wrap them around turkey, spinach, bacon, cheese, eggs, avocados, beans…basically—the kitchen sink. Sometimes I warm them up in the oven, or brown them on my cast iron griddle, and sometimes I eat them cold. It doesn’t matter; they’re delicious either way. As for corn tortillas, bring ‘em on, they make the best utensils. Let’s face it; you can’t eat a spoon.
Because I’ve gravitated towards the tortilla (Spanish for “little cakes”), and away from bread, I decided to do a little checking about nutritional values. It turns out; whole wheat bread and flour tortillas have very similar nutritional profiles. Tortillas have a higher calorie content, so they’re not for dieting, but they are a great source of fiber and protein, they are low in sugar, and they are also a good source of potassium. As is often the case, much of the nutrition lies in the preparation. Fill them with avocados and cheese, and a tortilla becomes a high fat, high cholesterol, albeit delicious, meal. But fill them with baked chicken, chopped vegetables an a light salad dressing, and you’ve got yourself a healthy snack that will keep you going all day long.
You can make your own tortillas, too. They say it’s easy, but I’m suspicious. It is said that early tortillas took hours to make. It wasn’t until the 1960’s, when the tortilla press came along, that the operation became turnkey. Having no tortilla press, I prefer to buy both the flour and the corn. I have tried many different brands, and my favorites—and I’m not just saying’ this—are made right here in Milwaukee at El Rey. It’s the texture and the spice, I think, that sets them apart. They have substance, but they’re not too heavy, and their flavor adds a little extra something to every recipe.
Am I ready to say good-bye to bread forever? Never. But more and more, I find myself reaching for the “little cakes,” from our Spanish friends.
