The key to a perfect tortilla: steaming

In COVID quarantine, I have devoted my time to learning how to bake, and decided to try (one more time) to successfully make tortillas by hand.
I learned two important things: One is that there is really no point in trying to make flour tortillas. The factory-made ones that you buy at the grocery store are actually pretty good; and making flour tortillas at home is pretty difficult. It’s like bolognese sauce; what they sell at the store is as good as or better than anything I’m going to make.
Corn tortillas are another matter. Because corn flour has no gluten, it’s a much simpler process — and of course if you have gluten sensitivity, this is a perfect gluten-free food transport system.
An incentive to make these by hand is that they are easy and truly superior to the fairly rubbery and tasteless corn tortillas sold at even very good stores.
However, I’ve tried corn tortillas in the past and the end result was too dense and too hard. Which leads to the other important lesson I learned this year, from an internet recipe at https://thecafesucrefarine.com/best-ever-homemade-flour-tortillas.
It was recommended to me by Ken Dempsey, one of the talented PT specialists at Geer in North Canaan. This flour tortilla recipe has become a dinnertime staple for his family.
Even though I still think it’s easier to buy than make flour tortillas, this recipe taught me the Essential Trick for Making Corn Tortillas: You must steam them immediately after you cook them.
Where to find
masa harina
The only thing that is hard about making corn tortillas is that you have to buy special corn flour, which is called masa. You can’t substitute corn meal or polenta; this flour is specially treated so it’s smoother and less grainy.
Masa harina is very easy to find. You can get it at Tienda Mi Esquina, the new shop in Amenia, N.Y., at 3294 Route 343 (next door to the post office, at the intersection where there is also a bank and the Four Brothers restaurant). You can also usually find it at large grocery stores such as Freshtown, which is also in Amenia.
If you don’t have a bag of masa harina in the house, then, yes, you will have to leave the house to go buy it. But even with, say, a 40-minute round trip to the store it’s still faster to make corn tortillas (about 45 minutes total) than it is to make flour tortillas, which take two or three hours (because they are made with flour, which has gluten, and the gluten has to rest before you can roll it).
The recipe
The brand I buy is Maseca, and the bag specifies that you can use it to make tortillas. There are a couple other options, including one from Bob’s Red Mill.
But an added benefit of the Maseca brand, for me, was that it has a tortilla recipe on the package. It’s beautifully simple: Combine 2 cups of masa harina with 1 1/2 cups of warm water. If it seems dry, add a little more water, a teaspoon at a time.
Knead it for about 2 minutes in your mixing bowl. It’s a soft dough, and easy to knead. If you don’t know how to knead, you’re just basically pressing it together with the heel of your hand again and again until it comes together into a nice smooth dough, like Play Dough.
It’s very simple; don’t overthink it. Again, masa harina is much more forgiving than white flour.
After you mix the dough, cover it with a damp cloth or some plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.
Heat a cast iron skillet over a medium high flame; as with pancakes, you’ll want to adjust the flame as you go along.
Rolling
and steaming
This recipe makes about 20 tortillas. Before you start to roll them out, cut out 22 squares of parchment paper (waxed paper is fine if that’s all you have) that are about 6 or 8 inches square. This might seem wasteful or fussy but trust me on this one: It will make rolling out the tortillas very easy.
Here’s another thing that might sound fussy but will make a big difference. This is the trick I learned from Cafe Sucre Farine. Before you start to cook your tortillas, get a small Dutch oven or other covered ceramic vessel. You can even use a large bowl, with a plate on top.
As you take your tortillas off the skillet, drop them in your pot/bowl and cover it immediately. This will steam the cooked tortillas and make them pliant and delicious. Do not skip this step.
Back to the recipe: After you’ve made your dough, separate it into 20 balls that are about the size of a golf ball. What I found easiest was to roll the dough out into a long log, wrapped in plastic, and then I divided the dough in half and in half and in half and …
Keep the dough balls covered; if they get dry and start to break when you handle them, just put a little water on your hands as you work.
Roll each ball out to about a 1/8 inch thick circle, between two squares of parchment. Leave the circles between the parchment, so they stack nicely and don’t dry out.
Cook them one at a time on your hot skillet. I find it helps if you put a tiny bit of canola oil in the skillet, but you don’t have to.
Cook each side for about 45 seconds; if your flame is hot enough, you should get brown spots.
Your tortillas will taste best right after you cook them. If you don’t eat them the same day you make them, wrap two or three in some plastic wrap and then put each of your packets of wrapped tortillas in a zippered freezer bag.
To reheat them, wrap them in foil and put them in a 275 degree oven for about 10 minutes.
In light of rising local interest in the centuries-old game of Backgammon, Wednesday afternoon backgammon instruction and play sessions are being offered at The Hotchkiss Library of Sharon. The first such session was held on Wednesday, Aug. 13, attracting two enthusiastic participants, both of whom resolved to return for the weekly sessions.
Expert player and instructor Roger Lourie of Sharon, along with his equally expert wife, Claude, led the session, jumping right into the action of playing the game. Claude chose to pair with Janet Kaufman of Salisbury, a moderately experienced player looking to improve her skills, while Lourie teamed himself with Pam Jarvis of Sharon, who was new to the game.
In 2023, Lourie formed Backgammon of Northwestern Connecticut with two objectives: to promote the game in the northwest corner of the state and to teach it to children and adults interested in learning. In addition to the Wednesday sessions at The Hotchkiss Library, an informal, casual group meets at Le Gamin in Sharon every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon.
Acting as co-chairman is Ed Corey who leads the Le Gamin sessions, offering advice and instruction. Both Corey and Lourie play competitively and have distinguished themselves by winning tournaments. There are no fees for participation at either Hotchkiss or Le Gamin. Children, ages 8 and up, are welcome to come and learn the game, along with adults of any experience level.
Lourie says that he can teach a person to play competitively in three lessons.
Sessions at The Hotchkiss Library will continue until the end of the year and perhaps beyond, depending on interest. Lourie will be the instructor until mid-November, when expert player Ed Corey will assume responsibility for the sessions at the Hotchkiss Library.
“We’re hoping for more people and also to see youngsters participating and learning the game,” Lourie said.
“The beginner can be the expert with the right dice,” said Lourie, explaining that it is a game combining chance and strategy. An understanding of mathematics and probability can be helpful.
Lourie summarized the randomness of dice and the strategy of poker. “I want to know the proper etiquette,” Kaufman offered, intent on knowing more about the proper moves, although her play indicated a credible level of skill.
Stopping in to observe the Hotchkiss session, executive director of the library, Gretchen Hachmeister said, “We know that people come to library game sessions. People love games, getting together to learn something new.”
Lourie learned the game under extremely unusual circumstances — as a detainee in a Soviet prison during the1960s missile crisis, while working in Naval Engineering to decipher code for the U.S. Office of Technological Security.
Imprisonment was not terrible, he said. There was predictable questioning by day when he repeated daily the details of his cover story. But at night, the guards — many the same age as the detainees — had finished their shifts and of interrogation.They unplugged the cameras to brew tea and the backgammon games would begin. That was how Lourie learned the game and became an expert.
Board games date back 5,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia. Modern backgammon goes back to 17th-century England, having evolved from a 16th-century game called “Irish.”It grew in popularity in the 1960s, leading to formation of a World Backgammon Club in Manhattan. And then in 2023, Backgammon of Northwestern Connecticut came to be.
To learn more about the Backgammon sessions at The Hotchkiss Library, visit: www.hotchkisslibraryofsharon.org or contact Lourie directly at Rlourie@gmail.com.
Pantry essentials at Dugazon
You are invited to celebrate the opening of Dugazon, a home and lifestyle shop located in a clapboard cottage at 19 West Main Street, the former site of The Edward in Sharon. The opening is Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 11 a.m.
After careers in the world of fashion, Salisbury residents Bobby Graham and his husband, Matt Marden, have curated a collection of beautiful items that reflect their sense of design, love of hospitality, and Graham’s deep Southern roots. Dugazon is his maternal family name.
“My Louisiana roots come from my mother’s family in Baton Rouge via New Orleans where many of my memories of cooking, food, antiquing, flea markets, hospitality, entertaining, originate,” Graham said.“Being raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, enhanced the importance of community, family, friends and regional cultures, forming the essence of Dugazon.”
Graham and Marden sat on the front porch telling the story of their shop’s evolution. With its wicker loveseats and geraniums in bloom, the old porch invites visitors to linger.
Matt Marden and Bobby Graham open Dugazonat 19 West Main St.in Sharon on Aug 27. Jennifer Almquist
“Bobby has been talking about Dugazon ever since our first date 21 years ago,” Marden said smiling. “I could not be more thrilled that his dream has finally become our reality.”
Graham laughed, then shared their hope that Dugazon embodies the spirit of lagniappe, a French concept of “adding a little extra to bring unexpected kindness, generosity and delight into everyday life.”
Marden worked at Staley-Wise Gallery in New York City. “Town & Country” recruited him to cover men’s fashion. He became fashion director of “Details” magazine and later style director for “Esquire” magazine.
Graham spent 24 years at Condé Nast as a Fashion and luxury advertising sales executive for “Vogue,” “GQ,” “Vanity Fair,” “AD,” and “The New Yorker.”
Within their light-filled shop, unique antiques and vintage cookbooks mix with kitchen necessities such as wooden spoons and cutting boards. Dugazon is bursting with elegant and functional items ranging from designer John Derian treasures to Louisiana hot sauce, luxurious table linens from Milan-based La Double J, and pantry essentials including Café Du Monde beignet mix, Mam Papaul’s jambalaya fixings, and various jams.
Scandinavian 19-inch tapered candles from creators ester & erik are available in 30 colors. Other offerings include vivid naïve paintings by New Orleans-born artist Alvin Batiste, who now works out of Donaldsonville, Louisiana, and paper goods designed by Marden’s first cousin, Carey Marden Shaulus.
Alvin Batiste paintings and ester& erik candles on display at Dugazon.Jeff Holt
“Dugazon becoming a reality has been a lifelong dream that comes from deep in my creative soul,” Graham said.“My experiences and memories from my roots, family and friends is what Dugazon is all about. Being able to share this with the world means everything to us.”
Dugazon opens Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 11 a.m.and will be open Wednesdays through Sundays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Phone: 860-397-5196
Instagram:@dugazonshop
Website:www.dugazonshop.com
A giant fish that sold at Trade Secrets, the high-end home and garden show held at Lime Rock Park, is just one of the creatures that Matt Wabrek of Birch Lane Rustics in North Canaan, creates by welding old tools and pieces of metal together.
The fish was so well liked by browsers at Trade Secrets that he received commissions for others.
Besides the satisfaction he gets in making his pieces, Wabrek said, “I really like to see people happy and enjoying themselves. It brings people happiness to see something they like and might want to buy.”
Wabrek did structural ironwork for 25 years, working up and down the East Coast from Arlington, Virginia, to South Station in Boston.He recalls putting up a truss over the train track in Boston.
But in the back of his mind, he always had the thought of using his welding skills for other purposes.
A few years ago, when a cherry tree fell in his yard, he didn’t want the wood to go to waste. Using both his woodworking and welding skills, he milled the wood and then made metal legs for a table.From what was left, he made several charcuterie boards.
From that beginning, he went on to make sculptures, welding together creations to inhabit both garden and home. He uses old shovels, hoes, picks, hammers, wrenches, horseshoes, rakes and pieces of metal he finds at tag sales, junk shops, estate sales and the local landfill to craft his whimsical creatures.
Matt Wabrek’s metal fishProvided
He gets ideas from looking at each old piece of metal.
“Teeth from a sickle bar? I see a bird’s beak,” he said, pointing to the piece.Lifting a hinge from a neat pile in his studio, he said, “These will be dragonflies.”
He still makes tables with welded metal legs that are sculptural in themselves.His studio holds saws, shovels, and propane tanks with silhouettes of trees and other shapes cut into them — plasma cut from his own designs.
In addition, Wabrek makes chairs from old skis, recalling his days as a ski instructor.
“I like to make things, whether it’s a garden fence or whatever.I must have a creative bone somewhere,” he mused.
He recently began a new interest: making spheres. A completed one, made of old wrenches, has a temporary place in his yard, along with fish of varying shapes and sizes, jelly fish, crabs, dogs, snails, and many kinds of birds — including a woodpecker that perches on the side of a building, and long-legged cranes.
Wabrek is happy to make any of his creations on commission. He is currently working on a support for an old tree that he will craft from metal.
Birch Lane Rustics will be at arts and crafts shows and pop-up sales in the area in the coming months. To find out where or ask about sales or commissions email mcwlu15@gmail.com or call/text 860-248-9004.