DINING

Growing tortillas

New company Vida Tortilla creating a local supply chain

Rachel Forrest
Vida Tortilla is a new company which wants to make corn tortillas from New Hampshire-grown corn for use by local restaurants and residents. The company is looking for public support for its Kickstarter campaign, which runs through Jan. 22. [Thinkstock photo]

That hard, multi-colored corn cob we sometimes tack onto the door around Halloween (and might have called “Indian corn” way back when) is being grown and harvested on Tuckaway Farm in Lee for a very specific purpose.

Tuckaway's indigenous heirloom flint corn is cultivated on three acres by Dorn and Chuck Cox is dried and milled by chef David Vargas at his Vida Cantina restaurant in Portsmouth. He then creates a masa dough and hand-presses 8,000 tortillas a month to use in and with his delicious dishes. That might seem like quite a lot, but he wants to make more, as in a lot more.

He and business partner Joel Harris, who owns four Dos Amigos Burritos restaurants, have teamed up with Tuckaway Farm to increase production of the artisan tortillas made from this New Hampshire-grown organic heirloom flint corn. He’ll be using an ancient Mayan process called “nixtamalization,” which I’ll talk more about in a minute, but first, a bit more background on the project and how you can help.

This new company, Vida Tortilla, is now in its Kickstarter fundraising phase and at this writing (Sunday, Jan. 7) has raised more than $9,000 toward its $11,500 goal. If they’re at goal by the time you read this, keep on funding – the campaign doesn’t end until Jan. 22. The funds raised will be the base funding to secure a small business loan to buy a custom-made tortilla machine and to sign a lease for kitchen space in Dover. That will allow them to make up to 26,000 tortillas, enough to supply Vida Cantina, the Dos Amigos locations (which now go through 18,000 tortillas a month), and local farmers' markets and shops so we can enjoy them at home.

Read a bit more about it in my colleague Elizabeth Dinan’s Dec. 8 article “Help Kickstart local tortillas” (www.seacoastonline.com/news/20171208/help-kickstart-local-tortillas).

Do go to their Kickstarter page to find out more and help the project. (www.kickstarter.com/projects/1434281022/vida-tortilla-new-hampshire-made-new-hamshire-grow). On Jan. 18, Vida Cantina is holding a fundraising dinner where for a mere $25 you can enjoy a menu that includes seasonal salsa winter vegetables with heirloom chips, Flint corn encrusted haddock taco, an OG chicken pie with Autumn explosion crust and a mango stone fruit galette with corn mill vanilla ice cream. www.vidacantinanh.com

OK, about that nixtamalization and why it’s important and wonderful. We’re all about things Mayan in our house. My husband is an independent scholar of Mayan culture and archaeology and we’re even attending the MesoAmerica meetings in Austin this week (he’s going for five days and I’m going for just one, but, of course, I’ll be at all the evening gatherings to hobnob with the brainiacs). He lived in Mexico for eight years and tortillas are part of his regular diet. He’s very happy to eat just freshly made tortillas and a pot of black beans every single day (Thanks, Instant Pot!) and we always have corn tortillas on hand.

Freshly made corn tortillas are vastly unlike and so much more full of flavor than the packages you pick up at the local supermarket in our area. From Elizabeth Dinan’s piece:

‘“The flavor is incredible,” Vargas said, explaining why he goes through the time-consuming trouble to hand-make every one of the thousands of tortillas from scratch. “We say you can not just taste the flavor, but you also taste the energy. It’s unlike anything else and no one else in the area is doing it.”’

Vida Tortilla says the company will use this “ancient Mayan way of cooking called nixtamalization. We will boil the corn with calcium to help break down the kernels, but keep their nutritional value. We then rinse the corn and hand mill it into masa.”

The word “nixtamilization” comes from ancient Mesoamerican languages like Nahuatl, in which the word “nextli” or ashes is combined with “tamalli” or corn dough (tamale!). The first evidence of the process of nixtamilization is in Guatemala back in 1200 to 1500 BC. Back then and at its most basic, corn is soaked and cooked in ash, slaked lime, or lye (an alkaline solution) to remove the outer layer of the corn (pericarp), but there’s also other magical chemistry that goes on to make it even better. The starch inside the kernal (endosperm) is changed chemically. It becomes easier to work into a masa, a corn flour, but can also be kept in its kernel form as hominy, which can also be made into grits.

Not only does it change the physical composition, but its nutritional aspects as well, which was very important 3,000 years ago. The process relases niacin and amino acids, which process the proteins found in foods like beans. It also changes the flavor, making it richer and more intense. Just go try one of Vida Cantina’s tortillas and try a store bought, unnixamilized one next to it. You’ll taste the difference. If you’re in the supermarket, check the package for wording like “treated with lime” to get the nixtamilized version. All that will be a moot point when Vida Tortilla gets in full swing. We’re going to be enjoying their tortillas in everything – breakfast tacos, as chips for our guacamole and in migas, which we make quite a bit in our house, using leftover corn tortillas.

Migas for Two

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons salsa (chunky)

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 6-inch corn tortillas, torn into small pieces

¼ cup finely chopped white onion

2 tablespoons chopped green chilies

1 medium tomato, seeds and pulp removed, chopped

½ cup chopped avocado, sprinkled with a little lemon juice

2 teaspoons minced fresh cilantro

2/3 cup grated mild cheddar or Monterrey jack cheese, or combination of both

Crema or sour cream

In a small bowl, lightly beat together the eggs, water and salsa, and set aside. Warm the butter and olive oil in a heavy skillet. Add the tortilla pieces and sauté until softened. Add the chopped onion and sauté until it is transparent. Stir in the chopped green chilies.

Pour the egg mixture into the skillet, and “scramble” until eggs are done. Remove the skillet from heat, and sprinkle the chopped tomato, avocado, cilantro and cheese into the eggs, again stirring well. Serve at once with warm tortillas. Garnish with additional salsa and crema or sour cream.

Alternatively, add crisp tortilla strips toward the end of cooking to ensure they stay crunchy if just a little bit.

The Dish: Get your tickets for the annual Share Your Love Dinner on Feb. 11. This year the dinner is at the brand spanking new Blue Mermaid in Kittery. You’ll enjoy a signature cocktail, wine and beer pairings, and five courses, each from a different Seacoast chef. This year the chefs are Aidan Cunningham from Blue Mermaid, Kaitlyn Atwell from Anju, Rob Martin from 1652, Skye Bonney from Chapel + Main and Jenny Nelson from Nibblesworth. One hundred percent of the proceeds from your $100 ticket goes to Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters program which connects local families with nutritious food. Go to https://ce.nokidhungry.org/events/share-your-love-portsmouth for your tickets.

Rachel Forrest is a former restaurant owner who lives in Exeter (and Austin, TX). Her column appears Thursdays. Her restaurant review column, Dining Out, appears Thursdays in EDGE magazine. She can be reached by e-mail at rforrest@gatehousemedia.com.