Breads

You can make these with whole wheat or with all-white flour. For some kick, add chile powder, green chiles, or spinach to the dough.

Place first four ingredients in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to blend. Add pats of cold butter and pulse only until the mixture looks crumbly. Here's the tricky part: Add water slowly, and pay attention because you want the dough to come together and be only slightly sticky. If you add too much water, though, it's not a disaster. Just add more flour.

Place the dough in a bowl that you've oiled with a bit of olive oil so it won't stick, cover with plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for a couple of hours, at least.

When you're ready to make the tortillas, tear off a golf-ball-size bit of dough, roll into a ball, and then pat into a disc. The easiest way to do this is to make balls till the dough is used up; then roll them out. Do this with all of the dough, and then roll them out with a stone mano (this is what I use, along with a tiny rolling pin to finish off and flatten my tortillas a bit more). You can stack the rolled-out dough, separating the raw tortillas with floured wax paper, till you're ready to cook them.

Take a cast-iron skillet, comal, or crepe pan and turn the heat to high. Do not oil the pan. When the pan is nice and hot, place the dough in the middle, wait for it to bubble, and flip.

Stack cooked tortillas on a plate. Either eat them fresh off the griddle, or cool and store in an airtight container. (They'll keep for a week in the fridge or in the freezer for a month or two.)

Makes 12 to 15 tortillas

• Read: Tortillas! The bread of Tex-Mex life