Lily Ramirez-Foran

Lily Ramirez-Foran

The first time I made corn tortillas in Ireland by hand, I made a mess of it. I used up my next monthly phone call home to talk to my mam about it. My family are third-generation traditional tortilla bakers, so not getting my tortillas right was a stain on the family’s name that I couldn’t bear! My mam’s advice was to forget everything I knew and remember what Grandpa Pedro said: ‘Masa is alive.’ To this day, I share that same advice with our students in the cookery school. Practice makes perfect, so give it a few goes and don’t be discouraged by mistakes. The recipe is very simple, but it looks long because I’m sharing as many tips as I can to give you confidence and to explain the method in detail, helping you avoid the mistakes I made myself. See this link for the illustrations that accompany the steps. And for a way to eat your tortillas, see this link for Potato and Chorizo Tacos.

Lily Ramirez-Foran · Tacos

This taco filling is a classic that features in almost every Mexican cook’s repertoire. I normally use raw chorizo sausage as opposed to the dry-cured Spanish chorizo we usually get in Ireland, but if all you have is Spanish chorizo, use it. This taco is the perfect introduction to Mexican food for a nervous or picky Irish eater because there are potatoes in it and chorizo is pretty common these days. I use Rooster potatoes as they’re nice and sturdy, but Maris Pipers are a good waxy potato and baby potatoes work well too. See this link for making your own tortillas.