Besides being wonderful fresh, tortillas are also very tasty and useful when stale. We have all eaten tortilla chips, which are essentially stale tortillas cut into wedges or strips, fried and seasoned. Stale fried tortilla chips are a great topping for tortilla soup, posole, and other soups. My mother used to give me day-old tortillas to chew on while I was teething!
Stale tortillas are chewy and tough, but they retain their flavor. When fried or baked, they become crispy. In some dishes, crispy tortilla strips are used as noodles, in others as a base for whatever you want to pile on them, sort of like a creative open faced sandwich. Here are a couple of my favorite recipes using stale tortillas.
Chilaquiles used to be called “the poor man’s breakfast” because yesterday’s tortillas don’t go to waste, and the ingredients (chiles, onions, tomatoes, and whatever else you can use) used to be cheap and easily available to the poorest Mexican. Some recipes use chicken, some use eggs (scrambled in a la Pad Thai), some use beef and some use no meat at all – just the stale tortillas and the sauce. Here is a recipe for chicken Chilaquiles:
Chilaquiles Recipe
3 dried ancho chiles
2 ripe medium tomatoes, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped
1 medium yellow or white onion cut into a small dice (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 serrano chiles stems removed and coarsely chopped (seeds and membranes removed if you’re heat-sensitive)
1 medium bunch of cilantro tough stems removed and coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
Coarse salt, about 2 tsp.
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups vegetable or canola oil for frying
20 (6-inch) corn tortillas (preferably stale), each cut into 8 wedges
Juice of one medium lime
For garnish:
3 chicken thighs, cooked and shredded
1/4 cup crumbled Cotija cheese or shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup crème fraîche, crema, or sour cream
3 or 4 medium radishes, thinly sliced
2 medium limes, cut into wedges
Preparation:
Cut chiles into strips and transfer to a large, heatproof bowl. Pour hot water over chiles to completely cover them, and soak until they are soft and pliant, at least 10 minutes. Drain chiles, coarsely chop them, and place in the bowl of a blender or food processor, along with tomatoes, 3/4 of the diced onion, serrano chiles, and about 1 cup of the chopped cilantro. Add salt and chicken broth and blend until smooth.
Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until 350°F, about 10 minutes. Fry tortillas in 5 batches until they are crisp and have stopped furiously bubbling, about 1 minute per batch. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate and sprinkle with salt. Carefully strain oil into a heatproof container. Wipe out the pan and return it to the stove over medium-high heat. Take 1/4 cup of the used oil and add it to the skillet (discard remaining oil). When it is hot and shimmering, carefully pour in blended chile mixture (it will bubble furiously) and fry it, stirring often, until it is fragrant and no longer raw-tasting, about 7 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low and stir in lime juice. Taste the sauce, and if necessary adjust the seasoning with salt. Add fried tortillas, stirring gently until they are softened and well coated with sauce. Transfer chilaquiles to a serving platter and top with shredded chicken, cheese, a drizzle of crème fraîche, radishes, and remaining diced onion and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges on the side.
Another use for stale tortillas as the base for tostadas. Tostadas are essentially stale fried tortillas that are topped with anything you like, usually starting with a base of refried beans. You can top them with guacamole, shredded chicken, beef, or pork along with salsa cruda and crumble cheese over the top.
BEAN AND RICE TOSTADAS
Corn oil
1/2 c. minced onion
2 lg. cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3 c. cooked brown rice
3 c. cooked and drained pinto or kidney beans
1-2 c. salsa cruda or pico de gallo
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
12 day-old corn tortillas.
3 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese
5 c. grated cabbage
2 tbsp. fresh lemon or lime juice
4 sm. ripe, firm tomatoes, chopped (for garnish)
1/2 ripe avocado, sliced (for garnish)
Dairy sour cream (for garnish)
Heat 2 tablespoons corn oil in skillet; saute onion and garlic until softened. Stir in rice and beans and mash beans into a thick paste, moving the mixture about until there are just some small chunks in the paste. Cook over low heat until well heated; keep warm. Meanwhile, fry tortillas in small amount of oil in separate skillet until slightly crisp. To assemble, spread a layer of rice and beans over each tortilla; add a layer of the pico de gallo or salsa cruda and sprinkle with a little cheese.
Toss cabbage lightly with lemon juice; add on top of tostada bean rice layer. Garnish with chopped tomatoes, avocado slices and sour cream.
You can use lettuce instead of cabbage, if raw cabbage doesn’t sit well. Sliced radishes are also delicious on tostadas. You can use grilled fish with salsa verde on tostadas for a lighter, fresher tostada. In fact, the only limit to what you use on tostadas is your own imagination and culinary creativity.
¡Buen Provecho!
Tags: Food
8 Comments
Very nice. I love the fish tostadas. Thanks
I can’t wait til I’m moved in and have my kitchen set up.
I’ve already decided the very first thing I’m going to make is corn tortillas, a la drchelo
In anticipation, I bought tamales from the little store down the road tonight. Real tamales, made by a local Mexican family.
This is going into my must-make after the move file. Thank you, drchelo!
Thanks for the recipies, drchelo, since I wind up with day old tortillas often. I do something very close to your bean and rice recipe, often on a daily basis. It makes a quick, simple meal since I have the bean-rice mixture and salsa cruda already prepared, but you’ve suggested some variations I want to try. Thanks again!
Oh my, that sounds good. AND I do so miss good TX-MX food up here. If you have a posole soup recipe, I would really love to have it. My old next door neighbors were from Central Mexico and when she fixed posole soup, she would send me some. Yum!
This posole recipe is one I adapted from Rachel Ray – it’s a little easier than the all-day classic recipe that calls for raw hominy and making your own chiles in adobo, and it tastes just as good!
2 pounds pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
Mexican Oregano – if you can find it (otherwise, 1 tsp dried regular oregano will do), 1 small bunch, chopped,save a little for the garnish
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 to 2 tablespoons canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
sauce puréed with 4 tablespoons water
Two 30-ounce cans hominy
1 bay leaf
2 medium onions, 1 finely chopped, 1 diced
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 bunch of cilantro, stemmed, plus 2 tablespoons chopped
6 radishes, thinly sliced
1 large or 2 small ripe Hass avocados, diced
2 limes, cut into wedges
Shredded lettuce for garnish, or shredded cabbage
1. In a large, heavy saucepan or enameled cast-iron casserole, combine the pork, salt, pepper, cumin, oregano and chipotle puree (to control the spiciness, start with 1 tablespoon; you can always add more later). Add the liquid from the canned hominy along with the bay leaf and enough water to just cover the meat (about 2 cups). Bring the soup to a boil and skim off any foam that comes to the surface. Reduce the heat, add the finely chopped onion and cook the soup, covered, at a low simmer for 1 hour.
2. Add the hominy to the soup, turn the heat up a little and cook, uncovered, at moderately low heat until the pork is tender and the liquid has thickened slightly but is still soupy, about 50 minutes. (Posole is typically eaten with a spoon. If the soup becomes too thick, you can add water to recover that delicious broth.) Ten minutes before the soup is done, stir in the chopped garlic. Before serving, add the chopped cilantro and the chopped Mexican oregano.
3. Assemble dishes of cilantro leaves, diced onion, some of the Mexican (or dried) oregano, sliced radishes and diced avocado; let guests garnish their own steaming bowls of posole. Serve with the lime wedges (for squeezing over the posole) and the warm tortillas on the side.
Radishes! I’ve never seen radishes in a posole recipe before… but why not?
The cool, crispy crunch of radishes is a delicious contrast to lots of Mexican dishes. In fact, there is even a Radish Holiday in Oaxaca! See?
http://www.acdphoto.com/oaxaca.....kshop.html
Thanks! That sounds mouthwateringly delicious. Easter egg radishes are in season now and they are really spicy and crisp. Radish holiday, huh, there’s going to be a mushroom festival on the 28th and a tour of the mushroom farm. Should be fun.
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