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TortillaThe Spanish language term tortilla can be used to mean two different dishes, depending on the area. In Mexican and South American terms, a tortilla is a kind of unleavened bread, made from maize (corn) or wheat flour. Indians have a similar dish, Roti, which is made essentially from wheat flour. This is the most common usage of the term in English. In Spain, tortilla stands for omelette, and is thus made up of battered eggs, with other ingredients added at will. The terms Spanish tortilla, tortilla española or tortilla de patatas all refer to a common recipe in Spain, an omelette with stir-fried potatoes and chopped onion, often served as a staple food in Spanish bars and cafés. As an easy solution to both the problems of handling food in microgravity and preventing bread crumbs from escaping into delicate instruments, tortillas (of the American flavor) have been used on many NASA Shuttle missions since 1985. The traditional tortilla has been made of corn or maize since Pre-Columbian times. It is made by curing maize in lime water, grinding and pre-cooking it, kneading it into a dough called masa nixtamalera, pressing it flat into thin patties, and cooking it on a very hot comal (a type of light sheet-metal griddle). Soaking the maize in lime water is important because it liberates the vitamin niacin and the amino acid tryptophan. When maize was brought back to Europe from the New World, people left out this crucial step. People whose diet consisted mostly of corn meal often became sick with the disease pellagra, which was common in Spain, Italy and the southern United States. In Mexico, particularly in the towns and cities, most corn tortillas are nowadays made by machine and are very thin and uniform, but in El Salvador or Guatemala they are still often made by hand and are thicker. Corn tortillas are customarily served and eaten warm; when cool, they often acquire a rubbery texture. Traditionally throughout Mesoamerica from Pre-Columbian times into the mid 20th century, the masa was prepared by women using a mano (a cylinder shaped stone like a rolling pin) and metate (a stone base with a slightly concave top for holding the corn). Most people agree that the traditional stone-ground, hand-made tortillas taste better, but because of the labor required to make these and the common availability of cheap, machine-ground corn flour, traditionally-made tortillas are increasingly less common. Most restaurants proud of their traditional fare, however, will have at least one person bent over a hot comal, turning out an endless stream of piping-hot, hand-made tortillas. The wheat flour tortilla was an innovation after wheat was brought to the New World from Spain while this region was the colony of New Spain. It is made with an unleavened, water-based dough, and pressed and cooked just like corn tortillas. These tortillas are very similar to the unleavened bread popular in Arab, eastern Mediterranean and southern Asian countries, though thinner and smaller in diameter. In China, there is the laobing (烙餅), a pizza-shaped thick "pancake" that is similar to the tortilla. Check out the following recipes that are tagged "Tortilla":
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