Two-Cheese Fried Taquitos Recipe

Two-Cheese Fried Taquitos

Every bite of this colourful starter offers crunch as well as a fluffy, cheesy potato filling. It’s seriously satisfying. I usually serve it with Guacamole or Salsa Verde

Ingredients:

• 400 g/14 oz. potatoes, peeled and cut into
• chunks
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of dried oregano
• 100 g/1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 16 corn tortillas
• vegetable oil, for frying

TO SERVE

• 1 small head of Romaine lettuce, shredded
• 200 g/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
• Pico de Gallo
• sour cream
• 48 cocktail sticks/toothpicks

Directions:

1. Boil the potatoes until tender but not too soft. Drain and allow to cool in the saucepan.
2. Add the salt, oregano and cheddar cheese to the potatoes.
3. Using a fork or potato masher, roughly mash the ingredients together until just combined.
4. Warm a tortilla in a dry, non-stick frying pan until softened and flexible. When soft, spoon a little of the potato mixture slightly to one side of the middle of the tortilla.
5. Roll the tortilla into a cylinder and secure it with 3 cocktail sticks/toothpicks gently pushed through the cylinder. Repeat until all the tortillas have been prepared.
6. Pour some vegetable oil into a deep frying pan until it comes 2 cm/3⁄4 inch up the side of the pan. Set over medium heat and leave until the oil is very hot but not smoking.
7. Carefully drop in the taquitos, in batches of 3–4, and fry for about 7–10 minutes, turning them gently and occasionally with tongs to prevent them from burning.
8. Using the tongs or a slotted spoon, remove the taquitos from the pan and allow to drain on kitchen paper/paper towels. Repeat the process until all the taquitos have been fried.
9. Once the taquitos are cool enough to handle, remove the sticks.

TO SERVE
Put a little shredded lettuce on each plate, lay on about 4 taquitos and top with crumbled feta, some Pico de Gallo and sour cream.

Corn Tortillas Recipe

Corn Tortillas

I grew up watching my grandmother and mother make fresh tortillas every day.
They passed on their knowledge and love to me and my family and I hope to do the same with my children. Storebought tortillas are improving all the time, but they can never compete with homemade ones.

Ingredients

• 300 g/2 cups masa harina
• 300 ml/1 1⁄4 cups warm water
• 1⁄4 teaspoon sea salt
• clean plastic bag
• tortilla press (optional; see page 19)

Directions:
Put the masa harina, water and salt in a mixing bowl and mix well for 5 minutes. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces and roll into balls.

Place one ball of dough in the middle of the plastic bag and place in the middle of the open tortilla press, if using.

Fold the bag in half over the dough. Close the tortilla press and push the handle to compress the dough as much as possible.

Open the tortilla press and check that the tortilla is nice and thin. Compress again if necessary. Very carefully peel back the plastic from the top of the dough, making sure the dough does not tear, then loosely replace it. Finally, flip it over and gently peel back the plastic.

If you don’t have a tortilla press, pat a large saucepan down on top of the plastic-covered dough repeatedly, pressing down firmly and evenly. Now put aside the pan and pat firmly a few times with the palm of your hand to flatten the dough even further. Gently peel off the plastic as above.

Repeat this process until you have used up all the tortilla dough. To cook, heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat, then cook each tortilla for 1 minute. Flip over and cook for another minute until cooked through. To keep the tortillas warm, place them on a clean tea towel and fold the cloth over to cover them. A good tortilla is not too thick and not too thin. If it is too thin, it will break; if too thick, it won’t cook evenly. The best tortilla should fluff up when cooked.