LEMONADE SPRINGS

LEMONADE SPRINGS

by Sandye Carroll

A Spicy Cure For A A Case Of The Blues

One man’s security food is another man’s gas pain. During fits of depression, many of my friends turn to chocolate milkshakes, cheeseburgers, or peanut butter sandwiches to raise their spirits. Yech! Next to a friend, my favorite antidote for depression and loneliness is a fresh batch of tortillas, adorned with refried beans, pickled onions, guacamole or a fresh tomato salsa (sauce). With a couple of vanilla caramels for dessert, I can stay happy for a few hours. A really mellow high.

If you’ve never made tortillas before, you should try them during a confident period. If a sudden depression overwhelms you before you’ve fortified yourself with tortilla enlightenment, try to put tortillas completely out of your mind, and sit in the closet or under the dining room table with a cup of cocoa with a marshmallow floating on top. When you’re strong again, you can develop your tortillas from scratch, you are obliged to use a short cut which will eliminate hours from your chore, and add years to your life. You will have to use masa harina or instant masa. Masa is the dough which is made from ground limed corn, and instant masa is the meal made from drying the moist ground corn. You add very warm water to the masa harina (one and a quarter cups of water for every two cups of masa harina), and mix the masa until it turns into a dough. Then you knead it with your hands for a few minutes until the dough is very stiff and moist without being sticky. (The masa has the proper consistency when it no longer sticks in the crevices of my ornate old-fashioned ring.) If the dough cracks when it is pressed into tortillas, or if it won’t press thin enough, it is too dry. Add a few drops of warm water. If it is moist and sticky, add a little more masa harina.

Unless you want to spend years practicing tortilla patting, you will need a tortilla press to shape the tortillas. These presses are made out of heavy metal, and cost about three bucks. They are sold wherever masa harina is sod, ‘and that is in some of the oddest places. In New Orleans, for example, masa harina and tortilla presses are sold in an Italian market in the French Quarter. In Oakland California, it is sold in a Middle Eastern market south of downtown. Do things the easy way, though, and look for a Mexican market first. Write to Casa Moneo, 210 West 14th Street, New York, N.Y. 10014 for mail orders.

When you use the tortilla press, you must line it with some sort of paper because the pressed tortilla won’t peel off of the inflexible surface of the metal press. Simply cut two pieces of waxed paper into squares the same size as the diameter of the press.

While you are kneading the masa, heat up two griddles or frying pans. (Griddles are better because they have no sides to interfere with your tortilla flipping.) Put one griddle on a low flame, and one on a high one. Or, use only one griddle and constantly readjust the flame as you are cooking each tortilla. The two griddle method (which I learned from Diana Kennedy’s Cuisines of Mexico) is a lot easier.

Now. Break off a walnut-sized piece of masa, roll it into a ball, and press it between the two sheets of waxed paper in the tortilla press. Open the press, peel off the top sheet of waxed paper, and pick up the bottom sheet of paper with the tortilla sitting on it. Turn it over face down onto the cooler griddle, wait a few seconds, and gently peel off the paper. If the consistency of the masa is perfect, you can peel off the bottom sheet of waxed paper before placing the tortilla on the cooler griddle. Whatever is easier for you. In either case, let the tortilla sit on the griddle over low heat for about ten seconds, or until it is barely dry enough to be lifted, off the griddle with a long spatula. Insert the spatula blade under the tortilla, loosen the tortilla, pick it up and flip it over, upside down, onto the hot griddle. Cook it for a few seconds until it starts to puff up, or until the bottom begins to grow brown speckles, or until the tortilla becomes slightly convex (i.e. rounded). Then, turn it over again, and let it cook for a few seconds more until it puffs up. If it doesn’t puff, perhaps you let the tortilla sit on the cooler griddle until it got too stiff. Or maybe your dough is too dry.

To keep the cooked tortillas warm, wrap them in a dishtowel, and place the whole package under a large inverted bowl.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 78.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 48.

Those two cups of masa harina will make between twelve and eighteen tortillas, which should take about fifteen minutes, when you are adept at tortilla slinging. That’s pretty fast. For example, it’s quicker than baking corn bread to eat with chili con carne, and it is a lot more nutritious than eating sal tine crackers with your chili. If you decide to serve tortillas with chili con carne, serve them hot with lots of butter.

Because security foods are whim foods, I keep a supply of refried beans in the freezer. Otherwise, I’d have to wait all day to satisfy my craving. If you are planning on becoming depressed later in the day, put on a pot of pinto beans first thing in the morning. Simmer pinto beans in lots of unsalted water (three quarts of water for a couple of cups of pinto beans) until the beans are tender. Once the beans are tender, salt them until they taste right. Then heat up a large skillet, and saute a chopped onion in a half inch of lard (more or less) until the onion becomes translucent. Then pour in the beans, with their liquid, a ladlefql at a time, and mash the beans with some flat object. I use a Playskool wooden building block. The Mexicans use bean mashers which look very much like unbent wooden hammers or wooden potato mashers. Keep mashing and ladling until your pan is about three quarters full. Then stop ladling, but continue to mash and stir until the liquid evaporates, and the beans mixture becomes very thick. If the beans stick to the pan, add more lard. If you have leftover beans, or frozen ones, reheat them by wrapping them airtight in aluminum foil and heating them in a 350° oven until they are hot and fragrant. It takes about 45 minutes to reheat refrigerated refried beans.

Delicious as tortillas and refried beans are, they are a little dry without some embellishments. They need shredded cheese on them, and they especially appreciate being sprinkled with jack or mild cheddar cheese. They need orange slices on them, and pickled chilis, and pickled onions. The pickled onions are simply sliced onions which are marinated in an oil and vinegar dressing (2 tablespoons of vinegar for every six tablespoons of oil) with a dash of oregano and salt. The tortillas also enjoy a little sour cream dollop every now and then. And guacamole brings out the color of their eyes. For guacamole, mash a ripe avocado with a fork, then add a few drops of lemon juice, a finely chopped tomato, a finely chopped fresh or canned hot chili (use just a tablespoon of chopped chili if you are sensitive), and about half of an onion, also Finely chopped. And, most important, about a half or three quarters of a teaspoon of salt. Oh yum.

The final Filip is a fresh tomato salsa. Simply chop up two large ripe tomatos, add a teaspoon or two of white or red wine vinegar (or two or three teaspoons of lemon juice), a heaping half teaspoon of salt, a small onion, finely chopped, a couple of tablespoons of finely chopped hot chili (according to your tolerance), and a tablespoon of chopped coriander (if you like the stuff as 1 do). You can make this sauce with canned tomatoes if you can find a brand which packs very ripe tomatoes.

With all of these seasonings spread out before you, you’ve got quite a variety of tacos open to you. My favorite is a tortilla spread with a thick layer of refried beans, dotted with pickled onions, and moistened with salsa. Another goodie is a tortilla sprinkled with a generous amount of cheese, glopped with guacamole, and topped with sour cream. Find your own favorite.

Let us move along, now, from tortillas to Peking duck, dry-fried minced pork balls, and Szechuan noodles, all of which must be security foods for someone. There’s this new book, see, which has sent me into raptures. It is Peking Cooking by Kenneth H.C. Lo (Pantheon, $5.95), and it covers restaurant, court, and home cooking. 1 can tell you that the recipe for smoked prawns is incredible, and I also recommend the quick-fried shredded beef with onions. Someday, maybe I’ll build a circular brick kiln like the oven at Chuan Chu Te’, and make a completely authentic Peking duck, following Kenneth Lo’s instructions.