Torta Accessory - Pickled Jalapenos

Escabeche is what I call these when I want to sound cool and smart, but basically we're talking about pickled jalapenos. I've waxed philosophic about my torta obsession before, so I'll spare you this time. Just know that a good pickled jalapeno is the key to El Torta Perfecto - like a rug that really ties a room together, something's missing if that spice and oomph isn't there.

Jalapenos en Escabeche

For every 16 oz Ball jar, you'll need:

6 large or 10 medium jalapenos
8 thin slices carrot
1/2 small onion
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf
1 sprig mexican oregano (trust me, the flavors are different enough from Greek oregano to be noticable in the final product - this can be found dried at any latino market)
1 tablespoon salt
1 - 1.5 cups vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

Non-reactive pot time, dears! I have an old enamel coated Dutch Oven that does just fine.

Take a paring knife and score the bottom of each pepper with an X - barely cutting all the way through to the inner cavity.

Slice your carrot about an 1/8 of an inch thick. Put all of your ingredients in your pot and simmer for about 10 minutes. There will be pungent fumes. Window fans (or exhaust hoods, for you peeps with actual kitchens) are your friends here!

If you're just sticking these in the fridge to be used over the next month or so, pour it all in a clean jar, lid it, and put it in the fridge.

If you're actually canning these, make sure you've just pulled the jar out of a hot washing machine. Simmer an extra 5 minutes. Fill your jar carefully, lid, and process in a simmering water bath for about 10 minutes. The combination of simmering the contents and processing the jarred results should keep your peppers for up to 6 months.

Further evidence of a slight obsession.

Have I said I'm obsessed with Tortas? Well, I totally am. So when a fellow torta loving pal of mine threw a party this weekend, I sure as hell knew what party food I was bringing (it was a pool party, too, so the gross factor of torta-covered hands and communal swimming was pretty hilarious).

Torta Sliders

How would the messiest sammich on the planet hold up to sliderization? With a few alterations, not too badly at all. Miniature white onions and roma tomatoes are helfpul, as is making your own mini-bollilos. Creating the thinnest frittata ever helps, too (unless you have access to dwarf-quail eggs, in which case I say, salud!). I found it amusing that the circumference of a standard shot glass proved the best size for the egg and cheese cake.

So, let's go through a little step-by-step, and you too can be the Queen (or King) of Mexican Sammich Party Food!

Mini Bollilos

1 package active dry yeast (approximately a tablespoon and a half)
1  1/3 cups warm water (wrist warm - about 100f)
1 tablespoon honey (if you're going vegan, unrefined sugar is fine)
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening, chilled
11/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

 For glaze:

1/4 cup cold water
1 teaspoon cornstarch

A few months back, my ma thrifted me a small stand mixer, so that's what I'll describe using here. Good ol' fashioned elbow grease works just as well.

Sprinkle your yeast over the warm water in the larger mixing bowl and let sit 5 minutes. Stir your honey, lard, and salt into the mix, and stir. Still using your mixing hooks, add 1 cup of bread flour, then 1 cup of all purpose, slowly pouring the flour into the center of the bowl as you're mixing. Let it incorporate, then add another half cup of each. If the dough holds together at this point, do not add more flour. I had to add the last half cup, however.

Switch to dough hooks and let your dough knead for 10 minutes. It'll look a little shiney and have a bouncy, elastic feel to it when handled. Oil another large bowl, remove the dough from the machine to the bowl, cover, and let sit in a warm area for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

Grease two baking sheets.

Punch the dough down and divide into three large pieces. Using a dough cutter or large knife, cut each piece into thirds, then thirds again. (Complicated? You're hoping to end up with about 30 pieces of dough, each about 1 inch x 1 inch). Put them on your greased oil sheets, cover with a towel, and let rise another 30-40 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375f.

Mix your water and cornstarch in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook until the glaze is clear. Using a basting brush, brush each bun with a little cornstarch (how cool is this vegan pastry glaze!) Then, using a paring or other small knife, score each bun once along the top, making a slash about half an inch long.

Bake them until golden, about 25 minutes. They'll have an interesting hollow sound when tapped ;)

The star of this sammich is the egg and cheese cake, plus TJ's amazing soy chorizo (if you don't have access to a TJ's, any soy-based mock beef will do, but make sure to spice it up with some chili powder and garlic). Basically, you'll make a thin frittata, about the thickness of a single fried egg:

Then, use your standard shot glass to cut circles out of the cake.

For assembly, follow the directions here, using the following substitutions:

Small white onions, 2 inches in diameter max, sliced as thinly as you can
Small roma tomatoes, sliced crosswise, super thin
Whole jalapenos, sliced thin, diagonally
Lettuce leaves, torn into 1.5inch pieces

Use bamboo kebab sticks, if toothpicks won't make it all the way through (they didn't, in mine). And there you have it! 30 awesome, tiny sammiches.

Torta - a Step by Step

Oooh, baby. One of, if not my favorite, food. It has even inspired me to do sacrilegious things to pizza.

If done well, you bite through a yeasty, crusty bun into the best flavors Mexican cuisine has to offer: avocado, queso para freir (light, salty, somewhat mozzarella-ish in flavor), fried egg, (pickled) jalapeno, mashed black beans, and in this case, soy chorizo. Upon first moving to Charlotte, I considered it important (nay, ESSENTIAL) to find a good torta, and have ordered one everywhere I've seen it (huevos y queso, muchos jalapenos, por favor). None compare to the sandwich I'd get weekly, sometimes twice weekly, from El Paso Taqueria in Spanish Harlem. I must have eaten that sammich 100 times before leaving NYC.

La Unica has one that's bland, but ok - Mr. Taco, in South Charlotte, has a decent one (comes with fries, 7 bucks). Taqueria Mexico's is meh. I've tried ordering one at La Casa de Las Enchiladas, and ended up with Huevos Mexicanas (twice). The ones I've had here are more like a torta in Chicago - the bread's flavor (they use teleras instead of bolillos) is strong, almost overtaking all the fillings, messy as hell, flat, soft. (I have fond, fond memories of that sammich. It was like torta fondue, there was so much mayo). Mine is El Paso style - a ridiculous stack of flavor, composed, tightly packed, geologic. Firm.

So, in the hopes that I can revolutionize the Charlotte Torta scene, I give you: How To Make a Proper Torta. By me.

Step 1 - toasty bread.

You want a bun that will absorb all the delicious juice from the umpteen million things you're shoving in there. So, it needs to be toasted. Broiled, preferably, till golden, on BOTH sides (less, a little, on the exterior).

Step 2 - firmly fried eggs, with cheese and chorizo part of the "cake".

This is the sandwich's answer to the burrito - portability being key - so no runny eggs, and no oozy cheese. You'll fry the cheese first, then, in a hot pan with a coating of oil, crack your eggs in. Break the yolks with the spatula and immediately pile your chorizo on top of each egg. Press 2-3 slices of fried cheese into each pile, cover, lower the heat, and let the whole mess set. Flip it once, at the end, to ensure that your yolk's cooked through. Using oil, rather than butter, keeps the cheese from sticking.

Step 3 - thin slices.

Hopefully your fried queso will turn out better than mine.

Your tomato, onion, and avocado will work best if thinly sliced. Jalapenos you can just cut in half - no need to slice them more than that. Lettuce can be whole leaf, or you can go even easier as we did here and use baby spinach. Up to you.

Step 4 - mind your order.

What goes where in a torta is muy importante. If your tomatoes and avocado are on top of each other, either one or the other is going to get squeezed out the back of the sammich the first bite you take. Use the bread's roughness to hold first the jalapeno, then tomato in place on one side, the avocado, then onions in place on the other. First, however, you'll need to slather the (tomato) half with about 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise - Duke's is used here. The other bun will get about 2 tablespoons of well mashed black beans. Then it's just a matter of getting everything in place and wrapping it up to steam/set for about 5 minutes before slicing.

So, the final order is (from top to bottom)(and, yep, the money shot has the order reversed a bit - thus the mayo and tomato in my lap about 10 minutes after it was shot):

Bun, top (use a bolillo if you can find one - check your local panaderia, Las Delicias has 'em, or make your own)
Refried Black Beans (2 tablespoons)
Avocado (1/2 of one small - ripe and squishy)
Jalapeno (2 - 4, depending on spice level - make your own, as I do, from this recipe, if you're feeling adventurous!)
Onion (2 - 3 slices)
Greens (spinach, lettuce, whatevs, a small handful)
Egg + Cheese + Chorizo cake (2 eggs + 3 slices of cheese + 1/2 cup chorizo, divided)
Tomato (2 - 3 slices - almost, but not quite, ripe)
Mayo (2 tablespoons)
Bun, bottom

Step 5 - let it sit.

If you want a torta that's happy - ie, not plopping jalapenos and onions into your lap every minute, you need to let that thang alone after wrapping it. In a taqueria, it gets pressed in a sammich press - so emulate that by wrapping it in foil, and sitting your cast iron skillet on top, to flatten it somewhat, and leave it for 5 minutes. After that, cut the sucker in half, in fourths, unwrap it, whatever - you'll find that it stays together until the last bite. Or close.

Fill Me Up

Here we are! Welcome to NoFacePlate. Yes, I'm jumping on the food blog boat a bit downstream. But as wise man say, better late than never.

What you'll find here is Charlotte, NC-centric veg/local/organic news along with recipes, pictures, and even some step-by-steps. Occasional rambling is guaranteed. So let's cut to the chase! On with the Grub!

Torta Pizza














This bad boy is a killer weekend brekkie and can comfortably serve up to 6. Based on my neverending obsession with Tortas (aka, the Perfect Sandwich), we've eaten far too many of these over the past few weeks. Perfect hangover medication.

You'll need:

1 package pizza dough (a la Trader Joe's refriged dough)
1 can black beans, drained, mashed, mixed with a dash of garlic powder and small pour of hickory flavoring
3 plum tomatoes, sliced, salted
1/2 package TJ's Soy Chorizo, or other soy crumbles (about a cup)
4-6 eggs (based on how many servings you'll need - 1 egg per is plenty)
Shredded cheese or chreeze, about a cup
3-6 pickled jalapenos, sliced (I use homemade, but La Morena 'penos will do in a pinch)

To finish:
1 avocado, sliced
Sprinkling of kosher salt
Shredded lettuce
Thinly sliced onion
Hot sauce, to serve

Do eeet:

Preheat your oven to 425. Roll or stretch your dough to fit your pizza pan, don't forget to dust the pan with some flour.

Spread your beans over the dough, leaving the obligatory crust space at edge. Thin layering is good. Now, crumble your soy chorizo, evenly covering your beans. Spread your cheese over the chorizo, again, thinly. Arrange tomatoes and sliced jalapenos in a pleasing pattern to finish.

Stick the pie in the oven for 4-5 minutes, until the cheese starts to melt. Take it out and use the back of a large spoon to form dimples in the pizza where you want your eggs to go. Crack the eggs directly onto the pie, spacing them evenly, minding how you plan to slice the pie when it's finished (you're aiming for one egg per slice, without cutting into the yolk). Put the pie back in the oven and bake until the eggs are semi-set, about 10 minutes. If you prefer a firm yolk, leave it in for 12-13.

Take the pie out of the oven and let it cool for 8-10 minutes. Slice it up, carefully avoiding yolk-breakage.

As you plate each slice, top with sliced avocado (sprinkled with sea salt), shredded lettuce, and thin slices of onion. Messy, but delicious.














You're probably going to have some wimps wanting to eat this with fork and knife, so have some available! And don't forget the hot sauce au jus. Enjoy!