Costa Rica Food & Drink – from Detailedorientedtraveler.com – One of my favorite things we did when we were in Costa Rica was learning how to make homemade tortillas.

I love to cook and bake from scratch so I jumped at the opportunity to learn how to make tortillas (for free!)

Costa Rica has some of the freshest food I’ve ever had while traveling. There are a few Costa Rican staples, but it’s not largely known for its food like Mexico or Cuba. A few of the staples we were able to sample were Gallo Pinto for breakfast(rice, black beans usually served with eggs) and Casados for lunch (rice, beans, a meat, salad and plantains.)

The foods I fell in love with, however, were the incredible assortment of fresh tropical fruit and veggies. While there, we ate mangos, papaya, pineapple, yucca, coco, guava, guanabana to name a few. At home, I try to recreate the tropical fruit spreads as often as possible.

Back to the tortillas. Oh the fresh, handmade, homemade tortillas.  Five simple ingredients, a little mixing, a quick turn on a hot griddle and you can have this yummy goodness. I learned that in southern Costa Rica, this was usually made as an afternoon snack.

Homemade Tortillas

Ingredients:

• 2 heaping spoonfuls of corn flour – Masa Harina will work here in the states. Do not substitute corn meal, as it’s too grainy
• 1 spoonful of sour cream
• 1 spoonful of cheese – any good quality cheese will do. I like to use queso fresco or queso Mexico and shred it up for both mixing in and putting on the tortilla
• A pinch of salt
• Water

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl with your fingers until it starts to get clumpy. Yes, there are no exact measurements and that’s okay. I use my dinner spoons and it works out fine. Add water a spoonful at a time until you get a nice dough ball that you can roll around the bowl and it does not stick to the sides.

Place the dough ball on wax paper and start to press into a flat tortilla shape. Once you get it all pressed out, put on a hot skillet and press out any air bubbles with the wax paper. When it’s lightly browned one side, flip over and continue to lightly press with the wax paper to cook all the way through.

Enjoy warm with a dollop of sour cream and more shredded queso.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m hungry. I think I’ll go make some fresh tortillas with a side of papaya. A perfect, local Costa Rican snack.

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