I've never seen a mold that would shape them – any tips?
How to make a Taco Shell
mexican-cuisinetortilla
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The heightened flavor of refried beans (over regular beans) comes from two components: the extra fat, and the Maillard (browning) reactions caused by the cooked beans shallow-frying in hot fat. Effectively, a crust forms where the mashed beans contact the fat. This crust breaks up later when the dish is stirred together.
If you can get them, try pinto beans rather than black.
Standard Refried Beans (from a can)
- Drain and rinse the canned beans.
- Heat your fat of choice (olive oil, lard, shortening) in a heavy pan.
- Mash 1/3 of the beans coarsely in a bowl, using the back of a fork and a little water, if necessary. You want the consistency of the mash to be somewhere between pancake batter and cookie dough.
- Add this mash to the fat in blobs of 1-2 tablespoons. The idea is to get as much surface area exposed to the fat as possible, because this is where the yumminess comes from, so, not a big blob in the middle of the pan. Preferably, many smaller ones.
- After a time, start stirring the bean mash and fat together, then mix in the reserved whole beans. Thin with water or broth.
Bonus:Roasted Garlic Refried Beans (from a can)
- Peel a couple of whole garlic cloves. Leave them whole.
- Put these in the fat as it heats. If the fat doesn't cover the cloves completely, you can either stir from time to time, or, better, tilt the pan so that the fat and garlic pool on one side.
- When the garlic cloves are the color of milk chocolate, remove them and add the mashed beans as above.
- Mash the cloves with the back of a fork and add them with the whole beans at the end.
Authentic flour tortillas use lard. For an authentic taste, use that, or consider using shortening or butter since they are solid at room temperature like lard. You also might want to consider increasing the fat in your recipe. Fat will coat the proteins of your flour and keep the gluten network from forming so easily.
I was also taught when making tortillas to let the dough rest for an hour after kneading and before rolling/pressing. This helps everything relax.
After cooking each tortilla, put them in a pile with a clean towel over them. The tortillas will sweat liquid, helping them to soften up. You can also put them all in a heat-safe bag (paper or microwave safe plastic) for sweating. When storing your tortillas, make sure to store them in a bag and not in the open air.
If your tortillas are too small, you should be able to roll out a larger piece of dough.
Part of the texture issues might actually be from you rolling them too thin. If you are used to working with dough your ideas of thin might be different from the overstated ones found in recipes. Try rolling to various thicknesses.
Best Answer
This is an art. Anyone who appreciates REAL tacos, can understand that this is not easy. God Bless anybody that can pull this off accurately!
I have it down to a science. I learned from my grandfather. His biggest secret was in the fork you use. We use cooking forks. 3 prong cooking forks (most of the ones I see on google have two prongs). You can use regular forks too, but they arent made for cooking in high temp oil.
First you must get the oil HOT. 350 atleast, preferably 400 degrees. Just before it starts smoking. You need really high oil heat.
Once the oil is PLENTY hot, you hold a tortilla in one hand, and drop it in the oil halfway. It should be at 90 degrees, with your hand still holding the dry half of the tortilla. (Note: keep your cooking fork ready for the next steps)
If your oil is hot enough, it will cook that half of the tortilla almost instantly. Let it cook until it hardens up, which should be less than a minute.
Once the first half the bent tortilla is crisp, use the cooking fork to grab the tortilla half that is crisp and cooked. You will flip it here, putting the dry tortilla half (that was in your hand) into the oil, while the cooked half, sits above the oil with your fork. Now it should cook the other half of the taco shell.
The art is using the fork well enough to create a gap at the base of the shell (for meat or whatever you stuff with). And then flipping it and holding it with the fork while the other side crispens and finishes up.
I would like to make a youtube video that shows this process, and it truly is an artform. Many people make great tacos but horrible tortilla shells. I grew up near Mexico, I was born 4 miles from Matamoros. I have seen my share of taco cooking, in the strangest of places. The best tacos Ive ever had use this method. And the best taco makers Ive ever seen wouldnt do this any other way (by hand).
It's hard to do this without burning your hand(s). Be careful. The dry tortilla absorbs the hot oil, even when your holding it over the grease in the first step. Youd be surprised how a corn tortilla will drink the oil right up to your hand.
Give it practice. You will mess up a few tortillas. Dont worry about that, they make great quesadillas or nachos :)