Woke up this morning to the remnants of a High Planes Blizzard. Snow everywhere, in little drifts and piles – sparkling, bright and cold. The temperature on the Christian Church sign across the street blinks 15 degrees at 8:00 straight up, as the Methodist Church, a block east chimes the hour for a full 30 seconds from a rotating seasonal chime selection, a veritable concert, three times a day; 8, 12 and 6. No need for a watch here at the Cottage on the High Planes.
I had a dentist appointment scheduled for this afternoon up in Burlington but I called just now and moved it a couple days, why challenge Mother Nature. I thought about grabbing the camera and make the trip, 40 miles or so each way, 20 mile per hour wind and a few inches of white, powdery snow. Might track down a worthy snow picture but then I remembered it was like 15 degrees, nah. Much better to stay inside, listening to the wind whistle by the eve and the gas furnace click on, firing up like a jet airplane, then off, once it has done it’s job, leaving only the ticking of the clock and my misguided keystrokes.
So for awhile now, I have been pondering a healthier version of – The Tortilla. I just love wrapping things in a tortilla. The thing is, most tortillas are just empty calories, not really much nutrition. I just happen to have some other opportunities just now, so I’m going with:
- 1 cup lentils, milled to flour
- 1 cup regular sifted flour
- 1/2 cup quinoa flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- 2 tsp flax seeds
- 1 tsp chia seeds
- 3 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup warm Macadamia Nut milk with a little water as needed
- Tablespoon or two MCT
I mixed that all together, to form a nice ball, oiled the bowl, put the ball in, covered it with a towel and let rest in the oven, heated to around 110 degrees, for awhile.
Something else worth talking about while the dough is warming up to the idea of becoming tortillas – coffee. I have just recently started making coffee differently. It has been around for awhile but I just recently discovered it and I can’t get enough. An AeroPress. A BPA free, space age plastic device that makes an incredible single cup of coffee and cleans up with ease. It’s portable, not like some 21 lbs Keurig boat anchors. This thing is small enough to take backpacking and makes an incredible, deep, bright, sparkling cup of coffee. The filters work well, so I grind the beans up near the expresso end and they make a nice clean cup of coffee. You just need to throw the directions that come in the box in the trash and get onto the interwebs to see all of the novel ways to make beautiful coffee with this simple little device. Here is mine in action.
The tortillas were a fail. Too dry, not elastic enough, so I made them into chips for bean dip. I cut them into chips, added some oil and seasonings and baked them until the tips started getting crispy. Should have added some wheat gluten, I will give it another try soon. It looks like regular flour tortillas:
2 c flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add to that 1 1/2 tsp oil and 3/4 cup warm nut milk. Rest for a half-hour and cut into 6 pieces, flatten into discs and let rest another quarter hour.
Roll out the six discs into 6 tortillas and cook them with a cast iron skillet, a couple minutes per side. I set my gas stove to two or three, just below where the skillet would smoke, if I turned it higher. I cook them and store them in a clay vessel, designed for the task, which goes in the oven on low until everything else is ready.
I dropped the three pieces of Mahi Mahi into the skillet with a little oil and got them off to a good start. I used a brush to slather them with the pan oil, cover them with salt, pepper, smoked paprika and chili powder and put them in the oven for a few minutes on 450 or so.
The four primaries for Fish Tacos. Tortillas, fresh made if possible, warmed to a soft enveloping blanket. Fish, preferably fresh caught, cooked a myriad of different ways but whatever is handy works. Cabbage, Napa or otherwise, liberally spread over the fish. The sauce. I usually use some kind of hot pepper marinaded in the juice of a lime for awhile before adding plain yogurt and what ever seasonings I feel work with the other ingredients, mostly I keep it simple. I love how the warm tortilla and the hot fish merge with the cool crunchiness of the cabbage and tart peppery lime sauce. They were really good and reminded me of the beach but I look out the window and it is still seriously winter here on the Higher Planes, wind, snow and 20 degrees. Vickie liked them too but judged that the tortillas were too heavy. I defended the warm, man sized tortillas, suggesting that real fish tacos needed a real cover, one you knew would hold up to hot fish, curly cabbage and creamy goodness. She just smiled and said she liked her tortillas, thinner, elegant, more feminine. Hmm, I said.