As a result of the current food crisis here, MCC is looking for cheaper food options that can be introduced into the local diet. Since I love anything that has to do with food prep, I was asked to work on some ideas and recipes involving corn and soybeans. Field corn is grown here, as are soybeans, but they are considered by most to be animal food. In my research I have discovered amazing things about corn tortillas. In the states we can pick up a bag of them for a buck or two. If anyone wants to go to the bother of making them, all you have to do is pick up a bag of masa harina and mix in a little water and salt. But, alas, masa harina is not simply ground corn. It is corn that has been boiled and soaked in a mixture of calcium hydroxide and water, rinsed and then ground while wet and dried again. At least that is what the bagged stuff is all about. Masa means dough, and they say the best tasting tortillas are made from the freshly ground wet corn dough. I wondered how I would ever be able to make that here. I was surprised to learn that calcium hydroxide is already in most households here and is chewed with pan or beattle nut. Then I was wondering how we could grind the corn. In further research I found that the most authentic way of grinding the masa is on a flat stone with a stone roller, which is exactly how Bengalis grind spices. I was amazed to find that everything is already here. And it would cost about 1/3 of what flat bread made out of flour is costing here. Now, the question is, will they like the final product? Well, I haven't had time to soak and grind the corn yet, but I was given a bag of ground corn (which all my resources said wouldn't work for making tortillas). I decided to try it anyway. So I made a gooey bunch of yellow dough and rolled it out. My family was impressed with the bean and cheese quesadillas they got out of the deal. They were a bit crumbly but tasted pretty good. I can only imagine the authentic stuff will be even better.
Ah, life is such a crazy journey. You never know what possibilities are right in front of you, things you would never discover if life would always be easy, would always stay the same. I'm talking to myself now more than any of you. I've been feeling my losses quite keenly again. Sometimes I feel like that bag of corn is going to feel - boiled, soaked, ground, rolled and back on the burner again. Yet there is a fragile hope that something even more exciting than corn tortillas may come out of the journey I'm on.
Ole'!
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