Tortillas

Our tortillas are different than the corn tortillas available in most stores. They are made fresh daily by Yesenia Neri Diaz and her team, resulting in something soft, sweet, and toasty. Our 13cm tortillas are perfect for your most inventive taco creations. Our 20cm tortillas are sized for quesadillas.

The recipe is no secret. It starts with masa - corn, cal, water, salt. We then mix the masa to lighten it up, then press and cook them in the tortilla machine we imported from San Luis Potosi.

To heat our tortillas for making tacos at home, we recommend heating a cast iron pan (or any high heat pan you have) as high as you can (we keep our comal at 600 - 700 degrees F, but high heat on your stove will work just fine). Place a tortilla in your pan for 20-30 seconds, flip and cook for another 20-30 seconds. After the second flip, press the tortilla and it should puff up if the heat and water content is high enough.

Your tortilla should be soft, toasty, and pliable at this point. It should have a little color on it. Place your tortilla in a tortilla warmer as you continue to cook more. The goal of the tortilla warmer is to lightly steam the tortillas, keeping them warm and moist until you are ready to eat them. If you don’t have a warmer, a lightly damp warm towel will do.

If you use your tortillas a few days after they were purchased and they are a little dry, do not fret. Spritz them with a mist of water and cook them as above. Alternatively, dried-out tortillas make excellent tostadas. Just fry them at 375 degrees F until they are nice and crispy. Salt them as soon as you take them out of the fryer and top with something delicious.

Tlayuda

A tlayuda is a large tortilla as well as the name of the dish served on it. Our tlayuda at Taqueria Las Gemelas are hand pressed and come out to be about 30cm. They are cooked similarly to tortillas, but cooked a touch longer to toast them and make them a touch crispy. We sell ours in our market a touch under cooked so you can finish them to your liking at home.

A classic tlayuda at home isn’t a difficult dish to prepare.

1. Toast your tlayuda a bit further if you are planning to serve it open face. The goal is to dry it out and make it a bit crispy. Bonus points if you do this above an open flame or coals. You can finish the tlayuda with the ingredients on it of you are planning on serving them folded.

2. Layer on asiento (rendered pork fat - it should be brown and bacon-y if you are rendering it yourself), refried beans (family recipes are the best recipes), shredded cabbage or a crisp lettuce, queso oaxaca, and whatever else catches your fancy. Traditional toppings would be things like chorizo, tasajo, or avocado.

3. Serve it open faced if you want to show off your plating skills. Fold it if you want to make it easier to eat. Either way, serve it with a nice salsa that pairs well with your toppings. A smoky salsa of pasilla oaxaca and tomatillo rarely fails here and is easy to make fresh.

Mole

Mole is simply a sauce, but a very special one. Often it seems like the meats and vegetables on a plate are just the supporting cast and the Mole is the star of the plate. Traditionally, Mole is a combination of chiles, nuts, fruits, spices, and any number of other things. Frequently you will see recipes for Mole including 40+ ingredients which is why it makes sense to use ours unless you are feeling ambitious. If you are brave and have the time, we’re happy to share our recipes with you. At the end though, the resulting sauce is far more than the sum of its parts.

At Las Gemelas, we sell three moles in our market case.

1. Negro

   Mole Negro is the pinnacle of Moles in Oaxaca and one of our favorites to make. It is a complicated blend of charred onion & chiles, toasted nuts, bitter chocolate, and dried fruits. It is finished by frying it in pork fat, giving it its classic black shine. We take great care to make sure it isn’t over-processed, leaving the Mole with a touch of texture.

   We like our Mole Negro served simply with tortillas and eggs or with strongly flavored red meats, like dry-aged steaks or lamb ribs. We’ve also been known to mix it with extra chocolate sauce and drizzle it over our ice cream… Because who doesn’t like finding new uses for mole?

2. Manchamanteles

   Mole Manchamanteles is a brighter, fruitier mole. It is deep red in color and has a bit more acidity to it. In addition to toasted chiles and nuts, it features tomato, pineapples, bananas, apples, and oranges.

   We almost always pair Manchamanteles with chicken or pork. We serve it on our carnitas tacos, but it goes wonderfully with fried chicken as well.

3. Coloradito

   Our Mole Coloradito is similar in ingredients to our Mole Negro, but dramatically different in technique, resulting in a very different mole. It has a slightly more brickish color than the Manchamanteles, with a smoother texture and a greater emphasis on the flavor of the chiles since they are not charred in this preparation.

   Mole Coloradito is the most versatile of our Moles. We think of it as the staple mole in our pantry. It works equally as well with poultry as it does with red meats. If you are shopping without a particular purpose for your Mole, or just like to have Mole on hand, this is the one to select. At Las Gemelas, we serve it on our chicken tacos and with braised pork cheeks, and it also tastes great with roasted root veggies.

To reheat our moles, simmer them over medium heat, adding a touch of water if necessary to reach your desired thickness.

Chamoy

Chamoy is one of Mexico’s favorite condiments. We sell it as a sauce, but you can also frequently find it as a candy. Ours is made from apricot, hibiscus, chiles, sugar, lime, and salt.

At Las Gemelas, we use Chamoy in a cocktail, but at home, we use it to spice up bowls of fruit. It can take a bowl of mango, melon, and pineapple from a simple snack to a mini vacation to Mexico. Chamoy is one of those ingredients that chefs have popping up in a wild variety of dishes. It is just as delightful as a glaze for meats or sauce for your ice cream as it is on your fruit. Don’t be afraid to rim a mango cocktail with it as well.