Veggie Mexican with Real Bread Tortillas

This is one of the meals that has developed over the years. I got the idea when we were at uni and the boys in Mr VST's flat made us a Mexican meal one evening. 

I've always done the usual veggie mix but I used to use old el paso spice mix. Now I just use my own cumin, paprika and chilli powder.

I also used to buy the same brand of soft flour tortillas but since I started making my own bread I thought I'd have a go at these as well.

This time I used 50/50 white and wholemeal plain flours, I managed to make eight decent sized ones, not too crunchy this time, not too thick and easy to fold.

Veggie Mexican with Homemade Tortillas

This whole making your own bread thing is a real work in progress, every time I make it I learn something new and these tortillas are no exception. 

The first time I made them they were made with strong bread flour instead of plain and I made them too small.

The second time I experimented with different sizes and thicknesses and this time I made them with 40 per cent wholemeal plain flour. They were pretty good this time. Some a little crispy where I had rolled them too thinly but mostly they were good.

The veggie mix is still the same old recipe though, whatever vegetables are in the fridge mixed with some quorn chicken style pieces a tin of chopped tomatoes, some chilli powder, cumin and paprika. I have been slowly increasing the amount of chilli as Mr VST's tolerance increases!

Mexican with Home Made Tortillas

Mr VST was off work on Friday. He spent some of his time at the walk in centre getting his eye seen to as a wasp had stung it on Tuesday evening and once he'd done that he returned home and started on some chores! One of them was making the dough for our tortillas that evening, which he did very well. When I made them last time I used strong bread flour but he followed the recipe properly and used plain flour instead.

When I came home I made the usual veggie mix and rolled out and cooked the tortillas. They were great, definitely better than last time. I rolled them thinner and cooked them for less time, making sure I removed the flour from the pan after each one and I also used a little oil to cook them this time.

Veggie Mexican with Home Made Tortillas

Going along with the make your own bread theme I decided last Thursday to make my own tortillas for the usual veggie Mexican. There is a recipe in River Cottage Handbook No. 3: Bread but having done some research online I discovered that authentic recipes contained lard. Now of course I was never going to put lard in mine but other recipes added veggie friendly oil in them. I decided to go for this recipe but amended it slightly by using a quarter wholemeal flour. 

Using a quarter wholemeal flour made my dough a bit more 'thirsty' so I needed to add a bit more water than the recipe suggested. 

I rolled out 17 little balls, they were slightly too small and only made tiddly tortillas but they were very tasty.

They were much more substantial than the ones you buy and they didn't do that horrible claggy thing in your mouth either.

They went down very well indeed with the usual veggie mix with cumin, chilli and paprika.

...and I even remembered that I'd frozen some batches of refried beans but not until I had nearly finished cooking. Microwaves are good sometimes!