Salsa! Masa! y Mas!

Cinco de Mayo!
Tres salsas!
Millones de tortillas!

~~~~~~~push play and listen while you read!!~~~~~~~

Trust me Darlings when I tell you these things:

• I know that Yuri Buenaventura is not from Mexico
• I am aware that Columbia and Mexico are not the same place
• This fantastic song is not about eating- but is about dancing!

I am okay with all those things, because I have the Mojo that lets me see how all these are totally interconnected. Let me enlighten you:

• Cinco de Mayo is a celebration associated with Mexican Independence from French occupation.
• Columbian Yuri lives in and is loved by France!
• I feel the exact same way about these salsas as Yuri sings in this song about the dance!
  (I don t speak spanish but from what I can glean from various online translators, Salsa makes your sad soul forget because it is simple and different, it is the rhythm that gives life. This is exactly how I feel about these salsa recipes.

It all started on cuatro de Mayo. AKA as Star Wars Day. (Makes me giggle every time.) I decided I wanted to have homemade tortillas. As it usually is when I decide to make something in the kitchen I am obsessed with the idea until I’ve done it.

So homemade tortillas. From scratch. Real tortillas. I knew I could buy a product in the local Kroger called Maseca, mix it with water and make tortillas. But I also knew that there was an even FRESHER way to do it. THAT was the one I wanted. I started researching this and found out I could buy fresh masa masa fresca). Masa is what tortillas are made of. It’s a major process as you can see in the video… tweeted to me by none other than the texmex man himself @robbwalsh. I often go to twitter to get pro tips from the pros themselves. Twitter is CRAZY cool like that. I can not tell you how many amazing SMART chefs have responded to my very beginner questions via twitter.
(Actually I COULD tell you, but I am not a name dropper. *As a side note, I also do not kiss and tell- just incase Sting is reading. ** Another side note-sorry to my darling husband. But he knows Sting is my one exception… I digress)

Robb Walsh was kind enough to respond to my tweet about masa very quickly and I found out it was even easier than mixing with water. I can buy pre-made masa dough ready to be rolled and cooked at many of my local mexican grocers. WHAT? This really felt like cheating to me until I watched the video he sent.

You can see from that  video it’s not likely I will have access to the corn nor the grinder to make my own masa- so I bought some. It was easy to work with. After my first 30 ugly ones and some cursing my “white girl” birth I was finally able to make them look pretty good!

*** Please see the update  at the end of this post as well as a video about shaping and cooing tortillas at at home ***

The tortillas were small, but they tasted like heaven! I bought 3 pounds of masa fresca!!  That’s a bunch of tortillas friends. I needed something to do with them. (besides eat them as fast as possible) Enchiladas sounded good  and easy right???

Homemade enchiladas are easy, but it takes about a million steps to get there…

Step One: Grill peppers and onions for salsas.

Step Two: roast garlic and tomatillos (not shown)

Step three: Make the red enchilada sauce .

Step Four: Make “Cooked tomatillo Salsa” by Mark Bittman

Step Five: Poach Chicken in chicken broth and onion.

Step Six: Make a Million tortillas

Step Seven: Assemble enchiladas according to Martha Stewart.

Step Eight: Make my own salsa recipe for chips and dipping. (to be published later)

Step Nine: Have Beer

Step Ten: Enjoy red enchilada

Step 10 again: enjoy green enchilada

This was a fun and delicious day. I intended to make nachos and puffy tacos but I ran out of steam before I ran out of steps. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed this delicious meal! Try some of these salsas for your summer celebrations! Salsa!

Step Eleven: Have another beer!

UPDATE  *** SPECIAL MENTION***

I could DIE!
I, in my haste to get this “out” failed to mention my inspiration early early early on!!!
Sweet Lilli Uribe!   Lilli came to my rescue on Facebook. She answered my call out for help and encouraged me to try. Also Lilli linked to this BEAUTIFUL video. It was so inspiring! Please watch this if you want to see how tortillas are shaped and made with love by hand. Her tip on flipping the tortilla is essential to it’s proper cooking. Love and SALSA!