Tortillas / Scallion Pancakes

Home-made tortillas are like a thousand times more delicious than the kind you get in stores - their bready soft texture makes the store-bought ones seem tough and flavorless. Plus they're super fast and easy to make, and almost cost negative money they're so cheap. In my estimation you could make about 100 tortillas for 5 dollars.

You can make tortillas with just flour and water, but I really like these with shortening, which makes them really flaky and soft, and baking power to make them super puffy.

We had leftover tortilla dough after we finished our burritos, and I had some leftover scallions, so I decided to make experimental scallion pancakes. They turned out great! I'm sure they would be more authentic made with sesame oil and whatnot, but these were simple to make and delicious with a quick improvised ginger-sesame dipping sauce.

Tortillas

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
5 tbs vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups warm water

Mix the dry ingredients. Cut in the vegetable shortening (rub it in with your fingers or a fork) until you get a coarse mealy texture. Add in about a cup of the water, stirring or mixing with your hands, and add a little more at a time until it all comes together. I've found that the less water, the better the result - you want a stiff shaggy dough, but with no unmoistened streaks of flour.

Knead the dough for a few minutes until it's smooth, homogeneous, and can be stretched fairly thin without ripping. Divide it into 10 - 15 balls, depending on how large you want your tortillas (if you do 10 they will be very big). Cover the dough balls and let them rest for 10 minutes.

Heat up a skillet on medium high. You can't really judge how hot it should be until you make the first tortilla, and you'll have to adjust the heat throughout working to keep it consistent - but it should be hot, but not as hot as your stove can go. Start to roll out your dough balls as thin as you possibly can - a good way to do this is rotate it as you roll to get an approximate circle, making sure both the counter and the rolling pin are very well floured, then pick up the circle and stretch it with your hands, then roll out more. Toss the rolled tortilla right onto the skillet - if the heat is right, it should puff up right away, but take about 30 seconds - 1 minute to brown. Flip it when it's browned and let it brown on the other side. Roll out another tortilla while that one is cooking. Repeat.

Your tortilla will get hard and crackly if you leave it out while you make the others. To keep your tortillas soft and rollable, cover them with a very slightly damp towel as they come off the skillet.

Scallion Pancakes

Tortilla dough (see above)
Scallions, chopped into thin rings

Roll out your tortilla dough really thin as explained above. Sprinkle the tortilla all over with some amount of scallions, to your liking (I like tons). Roll your tortilla up tightly. Now roll this tube into a spiral shape (imagine it as a snail shell). Now roll your spiral out flat again into an approximate circle (it doesn't have to be nearly as thin as the tortilla, but thinner is better).

Heat up a 1/2" of oil on medium-high. Toss your scallion pancake on in and flip it halfway through cooking to brown it on each side.

Enjoy with some ginger-sesame sauce, or just soy sauce, or on it's own!

Check out that flakiness.