Tortillas to the Rescue Cookbook, by Jessica Harlan, is an inspiration and a fresh look at the versatility of the simple staple of tortillas. In my family, they are a must-have at all times. The kids love to stuff them with cheese and microwave them for quick quesadillas, but this cookbook goes far beyond the traditional Mexican. With recipes such as Spiked Gazpacho Dip with Seasoned Tortilla Chips (p 50), Shrimp Po’ Boy Wraps (p 85), and Pineapple Cheesecake with Tortilla Crust (p 174), Jessica Harlan has hit a homerun.
AMAZING LAYOUT AND VARIETY
The layout of this book is easy to use and well thought out from breakfast to dessert. There is a great variety of options, including a chapter dedicated to meatless options. Each recipe has an anecdote or notation about the recipe, how many it feeds, as well as the standard ingredients and directions. The directions are all easy to understand, even for a novice cook. I’m working on teaching my children, ages 10 and 12, to cook, and they have few questions on the instructions. Now, that doesn’t mean the food you make is going to be simple fare! Duck Quesadilla with Avocado Cream was simple for even the children to make and was sophisticated enough for a formal affair.
MAKE YOUR OWN TORTILLAS
The best part, in my humble opinion, of this phenomenal cookbook is the section hidden in the back of the book, labeled Appendix. In here, you will find such gems as recipes to make your own flour, corn, multigrain, and sweet flour tortillas. This is actually where I started the book and cooking from it. We made some amazing and simple flour and corn tortillas, which we served to our friends. They were all impressed with how well they turned out, and the corn tortillas are gluten free, which is a concern for some people.
MUST HAVE FOR ALL TORTILLA LOVERS
Overall, this is a great cookbook filled with innovative ways to use the versatile tortilla. Its ease of use and creative use of ingredients means that my family will be grabbing this book off the cookbook shelf frequently, and what mom or dad doesn’t like when the kids get excited about dinner?
Tortillas to the Rescue is sold on Amazon, and other book retailers:
I just bought some fresh tortillas this weekend and thought to myself, “oh I wish I knew how to make these instead of having to buy them”. SO this is fantastic. I’d love to make my own instead of having to buy them all the time.
We live on tortillas at our house… would love to make our own! Thanks for sharing!