Making Picadillo with homemade corn tortillas

The other night when Russ and Laura Lee were coming in from college, Tricia made a family favorite meal for us - Picadillo.  Picadillo is a traditional dish in Mexico that is similar to a dish that many make and call it hash.  Picadillo is made with ground beef, onion, tomatoes, okra, carrots potatoes, and spices like salt, pepper and cumin. Then after browning the meat, you add a little bit of flour to thicken.

It is a quick, simple and delicious meal to prepare.  The star of the show, this time, was the homemade corn tortillas that Tricia made to accompany the picadillo. Making homemade corn tortillas is not a quick and simple thing to make, but the taste is worth it!

You start out with whole kernel, non-GMO corn and add lime to the water and then boil the corn/lime mixture for 5 minutes.  Then you let the corn soak in the lime water overnight.  Drain off the water in the morning and wash the corn to remove any excess lime.  Rub the corn in the colander while rinsing and the skin of the corn will come off.  Continue rinsing to remove all the skins.  Put the corn into a food processor to grind the corn into cornmeal.  If you add a little water, it will make a dough called masa.

Masa

Similar to making meatballs, you take a handful and roll into a ball.  This can be a sticky, messy process, so you kind of need a second person helping.

Rolling the masa into balls

Take the ball of masa and put it in a tortilla press.  We put it between two pieces of plastic so that it doesn't stick to the press.

Ready to press

Press the masa ball down.

Tricia has 'pressing matters' to attend to

Remove the tortilla from the press and pull off one piece of plastic...

And then the other...

Ready for the griddle

We heat up a griddle and put the uncooked corn tortilla on the griddle, allowing it to cook on one side before flipping it over.  The smell of cooking corn tortillas is phenomenal!

Corn tortilla in the middle of the griddle

Finally the homemade corn tortilla is done.  And now we spoon some picadillo on the hot tortilla and top with some cut up avocado.  I like to add some salsa or fresh jalapeno peppers to it as well.

The Finished Product!

You can't just eat one.  I can't even stop at two!