Making Homemade Corn Tortillas

We wanted to make some homemade corn tortillas for a cheese enchilada dish that was on the menu for supper.  We first started off with some non-GMO field corn (as opposed to sweet corn) that Tricia purchased from Azure Standard, a co-op we belong to.

Non GMO Field Corn

We added 10 cups of water and 1/4 cup of slaked lime to a pot and boiled it.  To this we add a quart of corn and boiled for 2 minutes.  We then turned off the heat and soaked the corn overnight.  The next day we wash the corn and rub it between your fingers to remove the hull.  Once this is done, drain the water off.

Hulls removed from corn

Now we move the corn into the food processor in batches with the chopping blade on.  Add a few drops of water and process it at the highest setting.  This transforms the corn into corn masa.

Corn Masa

Tricia scoops out handfuls of masa and forms them into balls about the size of a golf ball.

Corn Masa balls ready for pressing

We have a tortilla press that we use that applies pressure evenly to produce round tortillas.  Once pressed we move to a cast iron skillet for cooking.  Leave it on one side until done and then flip it.

Corn Tortillas cooking

While the tortillas were cooking, we cut up some Colby Jack cheese for our cheese enchiladas.

Cheese

We placed the cheese in the center of the corn tortillas and rolled them up.

Cheese in the freshly made tortillas

Here Tricia is rolling the tortillas.  

As we rolled the tortillas, we arranged them in a baking dish and when it was full, we poured a chili gravy over the cheese filled enchiladas.

Pouring gravy on top of the cheese enchiladas

Then we grated some more cheese over the top and pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees.

Ready to go into the oven

When 20 minutes had passed, it was time to eat!  We enjoyed the enchiladas made from scratch.

Let's eat!

One thing we'll do to fine tune the process is we'll make the masa in a different way next time.  We learned that the food processor doesn't get the masa to a fine enough consistency.  This caused the corn tortillas to be hard to work with.  They were difficult to get out of the press and then tended to crack when we rolled them. There is another way to process the corn using a metate.  This will pulverize the corn to a finer consistency with some elbow grease.