Saturday 9 May 2015

Frugal recipe: tortillas/tortilla chips

There are recipes all over the place for these so I won't post a link, just tell you what I did

I'll probably cut them a bit smaller next time!

To make the flour tortillas
Ingredients:
200g SR flour
1/4 tsp salt
150mls warm water
some veg oil for 'frying' (you don't need a lot, I used under 1 tbsp)

Method.
Put all the ingredients except the oil in a bowl, mic it together and then knead for about 3 mins.
Or do what I do and bung it in a mixer which will do all the hard work for you.  Thermione took 2 and a half minutes to come up with a lovely soft dough.
If it's just too sticky, add a bit of flour.

On a floured worktop, separate the dough into four equal(ish) balls.  Roll each ball out to a sort of circle (exact shape doesn't really matter) about the size of a dinner plate, as one recipe said.  More realistically, about the size that will fit into your biggest frying pan.  You can make more smaller ones, of course, and I think I will do that next time because they would be easier to handle before the frying.

Brush your pan with oil and heat to a medium heat.  Cook each tortilla for one minute each side until the raised bits are just starting to brown.
I cooked a little bit separately and they are lovely eaten straight away, still soft, maybe with a chilli or curry, as a flatbread.

However, this is what I then did.

I cut one tortilla into 8 wedges (as one would cut a cake or a pie), brushed each wedge over with a little more oil, popped them onto a baking sheet (I use a non stick liner on the baking sheet) and bake at around 160-ish for around ten minutes until the edges are browning.  They go lovely and crunchy and would be brilliant with a salsa, a dip, hummus or just as a crunchy snack or as a very thin cracker spread with soft cheese and chutney (just before eating or they would go soggy, I think).
You could brush them with a flavoured oil to create more flavour.  I just sprinkled on a bit of salt.

I think they would be nice if fried in oil but the calories would go through the roof and actually I prefer the 'cleaner' taste of baked anyway.

I think they would keep in a tin - I'm afraid I have just motored my way through the eight I made so have no evidence to offer!

The other three tortillas?  Well, once I knew the baking bit worked, I cut the others into wedges and froze them in eights.  When I want them I will take some out, thaw them, brush them with oil and bake as above.

Cost?  Not allowing for oven heat (and I will try my halogen oven next time or pop them under a medium grill and watch them like a hawk!) they are incredibly frugal.

The flour was 6p, the salt was negligible, the water was zero and the oil was about 3p, allowing 30 mls, of which I didn't use all.  So that's 9p for four large flour tortillas or 32 baked tortilla chips.  Can't be bad, can it?



2 comments:

  1. WOW! Thanks for this Joy. I've never made tortillas or t.chips before, but this seems so simple! I'll have a go at a gluten free version later on; hmm I've got some garlic oil in the cupboard I could use...am now thinking of veg chilli for dinner. Yum!

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  2. Good luck, I hope you like them. I'm not sure how they'd work with gluten free but it's well worth having a go.
    They don't taste like Doritos or anything commercial but they're lovely (I think)!
    Do let me know what you think. :-)
    J x

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