Watching Food Network has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, but now that I'm sort of an adult, I've been trying to minimize the watching aspect of food preparation in favor of actually learning to make things. Today, my amazing (and very patient) host mom taught me how to make tortillas!!
The tortilla-making process is pretty complex. It starts with corn. After you take all the corn kernels off the cob, you have to boil it with agua de cal (calcified water) in order to remove the outer shell of each kernel. After the corn boils for a while, it is washed very well in order to get rid of any traces of calcium. Then, the corn is ground with a mortar and pestel until it becomes masa (basically corn batter).
Vicky has a special prensa (press) for tortilla making that I got to use! In order to flatten the masa into a tortilla shape, a small ball of masa is placed between two thin, circular pieces of wax paper and put on to the tortilla press. Then, all you have to do is lower the top of the prensa and press down hard in order to flatten the masa into a circular shape. This process is repeated until all sides of the tortilla are evenly flattened.