Cooking with Alfred

American-Mexican Cooking Again

For those who liked the idea of tacos in last weeks column, here is a recipe for taco shells that will work out much cheaper than buying them. A taco shell is basically a tortilla rolled up. Tortilla are very thin pancakes, usually made with cornflour. Unfortunately the coarse cornflour that is best for tortillas is not available in town at the moment and short of grinding your own, I suggest that you keep pestering the health food shops until they come up with the goods. Tortillas can, however, be made successfully using wholemeal or rye flour instead of cornflour (or cornmeal). The flecky puffed appearance of tortillas can only be produced by heating the tortilla pastry very rapidly. The old fashioned cast iron plates (griddle) that can sometimes be picked up from second hand shops for about one dollar are ideal.