Eva's Kitchen - Eva Longoria Parker [45]
3. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the mushrooms to a small bowl. Increase the heat to high and boil the wine mixture until reduced to ½ cup, 10 to 15 minutes.
4. In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, Worcestershire, and cornstarch. Stir well until the cornstarch has dissolved. Pour into the wine mixture along with the remaining ½ cup wine and ½ cup beef broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes.
5. Return the mushrooms to the skillet along with the chopped thyme and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until the wine mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and serve.
6. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
tortillas, biscuits & quick breads
Tortillas were to my Mexican-American family what sandwich bread is to most other American families: indispensable. Before school I caught the bus in front of Aunt Edna’s house. Every morning she made fresh flour tortillas and spread butter on them for us to take on the bus to school. You can imagine the ridicule I endured as one of the only Mexicans attending the school, jumping on the bus with a tortilla in her hand. I might as well have been wearing a sombrero! But it didn’t matter to me. Those tortillas were the reason I got out of bed in the morning. To this day my mouth waters just thinking about them.
The truth is that Aunt Edna made the best tortillas in the family, although she never had the satisfaction of hearing us say it out loud because my other aunts and my mom would have been too mad! But we all knew it, and I begged her to show me how to make them. Even today, I love making Aunt Edna’s Homemade Flour Tortillas for my family and friends. Everyone loves them!
The other tortilla recipe in this chapter is for Corn Tortillas, a more enduring tradition than even Aunt Edna’s flour tortillas. Corn tortillas predate the arrival of Europeans to the New World by thousands of years.
This chapter is rounded out by a handful of timeless classics of more recent origin. No Southern cook’s recipe box is complete without dependable recipes for both biscuits and corn bread.
Finally, in a house like mine where nothing ever went to waste, sometimes the intoxicating smell of sweet bread baking in the oven would tell us that a bunch of bananas had turned too brown or the crop of pumpkins had overwhelmed our pantry.
aunt edna’s homemade flour tortillas
corn tortillas
aunt elsa’s buttermilk biscuits
banana bread
pumpkin bread
corn bread
aunt edna’s homemade flour tortillas
There are as many different styles of tortillas as there are regions in the parts of the world where they are eaten. I make tortillas like the ones I grew up eating in my Aunt Edna’s kitchen in Texas: thick, fluffy, and addictive! This dough can be used to make them any way you like: small or large, thick or thin. With practice, you’ll get more efficient and turn into a one-person assembly line: cooking one tortilla while you roll out another.
Nothing is better to sop up the creamy gravy of Aunt Didi’s Carne Guisada. Or eat them warm, straight off the comal (a flat griddle) and spread with butter. I still love them for breakfast, these days usually with beans rolled up inside.
MAKES 12 SMALL OR 8 LARGE TORTILLAS
2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading and rolling
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄3 cup vegetable shortening, cold and cut up into pieces
¾ cup hot water, plus more as needed
1. In a large mixing bowl, place the flour, salt, and baking powder. Whisk together until well blended. Add the shortening and use your fingers or a pastry blender to cut it into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
2. Slowly add the water, mixing it in with your fingers a little at a time. Turn the dough out onto a surface and knead until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Place the dough in a clean, large bowl, cover with a towel, and let rest for 20 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into equal portions and roll each portion into a ball. Place the balls on a baking sheet or